Back in February, I wrote a column addressing some ways to recover from a screw up. No one is perfect and we all have made mistakes from time to time. And since we are human, we will continue to make them. A world full of bots would be no fun—besides, they make horrible travel partners!
But, this week, I am following my own advice and owning a recent mistake and doing what I can to correct the situation.
My column last week addressed the topic of how I felt the travel industry had become jaded towards some prospects. The idea came from a Facebook group and a particular comment thread illustrated my point well. The column stirred up quite the controversy; but not for the topic itself, but for my mistake. In order to illustrate my point, I copied the original comment, which was my mistake. While I did not attribute it to the particular page or to a particular person, it was against the rules set by the page administrator.
And for that I do apologize. The quote was not used with malice or any ill intent; but in hindsight, paraphrasing the topic would have been the better choice (the column has been edited to remove the quote). And certainly going forward, this will not happen again.
Whether it involves writing a weekly column for TRO or dealing with a client or prospect; when errors are made, it is critical to do what you can to correct them or at least attempt to make amends.
Me? As soon as I received a rightfully “less than pleased” message from the administrator, I sent him an email apologizing and asking what I could do to correct the oversight. How about you? Have you ever made a big mistake? How did you recover? Did you recover?
2 thoughts on “When a column goes south, you apologize”
I have made many mistakes in my 25 years in this industry. I did recover from them, but I have not ever forgotten the mistake.
For sure. ON the positive side, mistakes are outstanding learning tools!