Not long ago we screwed up a gutter guard installation. One of our technicians installed the guards incorrectly and bent them in the process, and once that happens there isn’t much to do except take them off and start over. So we did. We installed a completely new set on that home.
That part wasn’t a judgment call, and I don’t think it should be for any company. We made the mistake. The homeowner didn’t bend the guards, and they didn’t choose the technician. We sent him. When you inconvenience a customer, that’s on you, not on them, and making it right isn’t something the customer should have to argue for. I’m not going to leave someone with a crappy product if I can help it.
Promises are cheap until they cost you something
I’ll be honest that it’s easy to say that and harder to live it when the cost is real. Every company that does enough work is going to make mistakes. The question isn’t whether it happens, it’s what the customer has to go through when it does. Do they have to call three times? Do they have to prove it was our fault? Do they get the feeling we’re doing them a favor by fixing our own work? If they do, then whatever we say about standing behind our work isn’t really true. Promises are cheap until they cost you something, and that’s the only time anyone finds out whether you meant it.
What you owe and what you choose
We also ended up waiving the bill for that job. I mention it only because it was a different kind of decision, and I don’t want anyone to confuse the two. Fixing the work was owed. Waiving the bill wasn’t; it was my call for that customer in that situation, and I could almost call it arbitrary. Another owner could have charged for the finished job and been completely in the right. I’m not saying every mistake means you give the job away. You have to make money, and most of the time correcting the work is the whole answer.
What doesn’t depend on the situation is the first part. You fix what you broke, without making the customer fight for it. Everything beyond that is judgment, and you’ll make that call your own way. But if your people know the first part isn’t negotiable, your customers will find that out too, usually right at the moment something has gone wrong.