What a Veteran Broadcaster Taught Me About Owning Your Mistakes

Have you ever got something wrong in your business and then spent the next week hoping nobody noticed?

I have. More than once.

I read a list this week from Virginia Trioli, who spent almost 40 years in Australian journalism, 27 of them at the ABC. She wrote down 27 things she had learnt. One of them stopped me cold.

She said: if you make a mistake, apologise. If you think you have made a mistake, apologise. Tell the audience. Tell the reader. It costs nothing and means everything.

Then she went one step further. If you work in her team and you make a mistake, but you will not own it, or you deny it, or you get defensive, go work somewhere else.

For me, that is the whole thing right there.

The mistake I did not want to own

When I owned Aquaduck on the Gold Coast, we had a day (or many) where a booking system error double-sold a tour. A family turned up with kids in tow, excited and we did not have a seat for them.

My first instinct was to explain it away. 

Blame the system. 

Blame the agent. 

Blame the busy season.

I did not do that. I walked out, apologised properly, refunded them and put them on the next available tour with a coffee in hand. No excuses. Just sorry.

They loved the tour, left great reviews and were happy with the result.

A mistake I owned turned into loyalty. A mistake I hid would have turned into a one-star review.

Why owning it is so hard

Trust me, I know why we avoid it. 

Owning a mistake feels like admitting you are not good at your job. It feels like weakness.

It is the opposite.

The staff member who says sorry fast is the one I want on my team. The one who goes quiet, gets defensive, or points the finger is the one who costs me customers and costs me sleep.

Virginia is right. If someone will not own their mistakes, they should not be in your business.

What this looks like in a tourism business

Let's say a tour runs late. A guide has an off day. A customer gets the wrong pickup time. These things happen every single week in tourism. We are not saving babies, but a bad experience still hurts your brand.

The difference between a business that keeps its customers and one that loses them is not whether mistakes happen. Mistakes always happen. The difference is what you do in the ten minutes after.

Apologise. Fix it. Move on. Then look at your process so it happens less often.

Three things to do this week

1. Think of one mistake in your business right now that nobody has owned. Own it.

2. Tell your team that saying sorry fast is not weakness, it is exactly what you want from them.

3. Pick one recurring stuff-up and fix the process behind it, not just the symptom.

A mistake owned, is a customer kept. 

A mistake hidden is a customer lost. 

I know this because I have lived both.

If you are ready to build a business that owns its mistakes and keeps its customers, call me at 0491 729 043 for personalised advice and support.