The Gift of the Mistake

Growing up as a type-A must-succeed kind of person, the idea of mistakes and imperfections were, in my mind, the ultimate in "what to avoid."

Now, at the ripe old age of 45, my view of mistakes has changed considerably.  I recognize that every mistake, every customer or staff complaint, has forced us to look at what we are doing, and find a way to do it better.  It has made us view ourselves from the outside.  This is a gift. 

When one is on the receiving end of a complaint, there are a few options: 

1. Get defensive.
2. Shut down.
3. Cringe, but listen.
4. Open up and really hear what is being said, without personalizing it and getting emotionally entangled. 

I think #4 is the winner (though not always easy!) because I believe that everything we hear, whether delivered with sensitivity or a bulldozer, has at least some element of truth to it.  And that element is, in my opinion, an opportunity for us to tighten up our methods and get even better.  And that is what we have done consistently at RightTime KiDS.  Perhaps that's one of the reasons we are consistently voted a family favorite by the readers of Carolina Parent.

Last night, I had the privilege of attending a customer service training seminar, initiated by our brilliant first franchisee, Pam Keels Woodyard.  Pam's thinking is that one of the things that has always set RightTime KiDS apart from any comparable service, is that we are extremely professional and welcoming.  As a customer of the North Raleigh location, Pam felt RightTime KiDS offered drop-in childcare services with a consistently polished, organized, yet warm and friendly staff and program.  She believed in what we do, and how we do it so much that when we offered a franchise opportunity, she wanted in.

Pam was right.  And we ran our center that way from the very beginning, because as an actual parent who uses the facility, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted in my drop-in center for my children.  Anything less wasn't good enough.  But the philosophy and corporate culture hadn't been formally defined and trained in the way that Pam's seminar wrote it up.  This is something we will be introducing into all of our future training.  Because how our customers feel when they leave our centers, whether having just dropped their children off, or just picked them up, is worthy of our very best efforts at all times.

I try to teach my own children that as humans, we are wired to make mistakes.  The trick is to see these errors, and make a conscious effort to do something differently at the next try.  And it's okay to laugh at our own mistakes, especially if they aren't the kind that hurt others.  (Ask my kids about my cooking prowess, and they'll have stories to share about burned meals, smoke alarms, and threats to call the child abuse hotline).  By reminding ourselves to be compassionate and non-judgmental, whether with ourselves or with others, I think we can become better people, better parents, better citizens, and help those around us to do the same.