Overheard: Own your mistakes, then make it right

"We're going to make mistakes in this job. It is a job that unfortunately has mistakes happen. We have comebacks, we have mistakes with some technicians sometimes. Own your mistakes; don't try to explain them away. Just be real with [customers] and then try to make it right. Do whatever you need to do to make it right and go out of your way to do something a little different. There was one time we didn't get the car done on time and we didn't relay that to [the customer] correctly. So we delivered the car back to them, we gave them back their gas money for driving all the way out here to come pick up their car. And then we also sent them a box of cookies and said, 'We're so sorry we messed up. Give us another chance.' Because that was a customer that came to us for years and years and years. Just make sure that you're literally treating them like they're your family because over time they do become like family. You'd be shocked; people would laugh maybe when you're first starting into this [business], but these people really do become family to you if you allow them to be." — Mindi Williams, service manager at CMA's Colonial Subaru in Chesterfield, Va., on "CMA's Moving Lives Forward Podcast"