Broken windows broken business synopsis

More options. Limited preview. Contents 1. Broken windows in business 2. Can McDonald's be saved? Obsession and compulsion 4. How the mighty haven fallen 5. Expectation vs. Branding and broken windows 7. The employee as broken window 8. Why Krispy Kreme is better than Dunkin' Donuts and vice versa 9. Fly the what skies? Doing it right Do you Google? Broken wires : broken windows on the Net The public, watchdog The ultimate broken window What a difference a pianist makes Social psychologists and criminologists agree that if a window in a building is broken and left unrepaired, soon thereafter the rest of the windows will be broken — and the perception will build that crime in that neighborhood is out of control.

The same principle applies to business. Our new website is optimized for the most current web browsing technology. If you are using an older web browser, part of our website may not function properly as designed.

Please consider upgrading your browser for an error free experience. Are some customers going to be unreasonable? Of course, some will. Does that mean an employee is justified in treating that person in a curt or irritated manner?

Absolutely not. Every business deals with disgruntled customers, even those that work business-to-business. Many of these will be belligerent or unreasonable and will not approach your employee in a friendly, jovial, accepting manner.

These are the very people to whom your employees must be most accommodating. An ambassador knows that the loudest, nastiest, least reasonable representative of another country is the one who can cause him the most trouble. That belligerent diplomat will go back to his capital, report that although he was making a most understandable demand, it was met with total ambivalence or, worse, outright contempt, and he will recommend that diplomatic relations with the other country be discontinued immediately.

By the same token, a loud and unreasonable customer does not see herself that way. She sincerely believes that her complaint is justified and natural, that her needs, indeed, demand action, and fast action at that. She thinks that your employee, in denying her request, is the one being rigid and unhelpful. Furthermore, trying to dissuade a customer from complaining is counterproductive. The customer should be made to believe that the company agrees that her complaint is justified and is doing everything it can to correct the problem.

Thanking the complainer for pointing out the broken window real or imagined, in your estimation is not a bad tactic. Think of the times that you have brought a problem to the attention of a company you have dealt with, as a colleague or a consumer. Which would you have preferred: being told you were wrong in your complaint or being appreciated for your observation and told specifically what would be done to rectify the problem? Every relationship has a seller and a buyer.

Yes, every relationship. And this means that in every situation, someone wants something from the other, and someone is deciding whether or not to grant that request. In business, the lines are usually very well drawn, and we know very clearly who is selling and who is buying.

But when problems arise and one of the parties decides a complaint must be made, everything changes. This person is likely to be irritated and could very well be agitated to the point of behavior that is not characteristic of the relationship as it has been established to this point. Voices might be raised. Unfamiliar words or at least those that have not been used in the relationship up to this point might be uttered.

The key is not to respond in kind. Two angry people are going to get a lot less done than one angry person and one who is keeping a cool head.