We were conducting training with a client recently, and one of the participants, Jackie, is in a role in his organization where he goes out to the customer site to investigate issues, address customer complaints, and fix problems.  While he’s at the site, he often gets an earful from the customer, and that earful is sometimes a complaint about a co-worker or his company or something else that occurred before Jackie was ever personally involved in the situation.

After conducting some small group role plays during the training, I asked for volunteers to recognize one of their co-workers who did an especially good job playing the role of the employee dealing with an angry customer.  The person who volunteered to share kudos decided to recognize Jackie.

She said that Jackie was presented with the complaining customer, who was griping about something having nothing to do with Jackie himself, and Jackie’s co-worker complimented him for what he said during the role play:  “Thank you for sharing what happened.  Even though I was not involved with the issue, I am here now, and I will help you find a solution.”

What impressed Jackie’s co-worker during the role play was that he took ownership of the situation.  He noted – but didn’t harp on the fact – that he didn’t cause the problem.  Jackie didn’t get defensive with the customer.  Jackie was not argumentative.

Instead of focusing on the past, Jackie took ownership, took responsibility for moving toward a future resolution.

Sometimes we get fixated on the definition of ownership being taking blame or responsibility for our own mess ups.  But ownership is also incredibly vital in customer service when it involves taking ownership for resolving the errors of others.

Take ownership over resolutions when dealing with others’ errors.

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