Page 172 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

quickly, as they cost you a lot of money, not only in physical cost, but in time. Here is the 80/20 rule again – 20% take up 80% of your time (see Part 3: Chapter 2).
I had situations where we stuffed up and unconditionally spent tens of thousands of dollars fixing it up. That is why we were still there after twenty-six years in the building industry – not many companies are.
Complaints happen, so you need to have a mechanism in place to sort complaints quickly and also to be able to analyse why they happened and try to minimise them.
Paulism: Sort the complaint out face-to-face. Don’t try to resolve by email; pick up the phone. Sort it quickly. Remember, a satisfied customer can be turned into an advocate – a small investment in fixing a problem returns hugely in the long term!