Learning From Mistakes
Few people enjoy making mistakes. Most of us begin the day striving for perfection. But sometimes we’re risk-takers, daring to try new and unproven approaches to doing business. Other times we’ve taken our eye off the ball and we miss something. And some days, stuff just happens: machinery breaks, cable networks go down, or snow closes the road to our important client meeting. Mistakes are just part of life.
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”
-- Dale Carnegie via www.brainyquote.com
However, we are not hapless victims. We have a choice in how we respond to mistakes both in business and in life. We can let mistakes ruin our day, our week, and eventually our business. We can let them fester by replaying the details of each mishap in our heads until we go crazy. Or we can use mistakes as a profound source of learning, helping us identify process improvements, employee coaching, and new ways of customer engagement.
Here are ways in which common business mistakes appear in our accounting software:
Product returns. Returns include either a complete refund of a product purchase or a replacement shipment. They might be seen as a huge source of business frustration and lost revenues. Or they can be seen as a great way to improve your product, your shipping methods, or your database. Think of the data you can capture when someone returns your product. But you need to store and organize that data for future analysis.
When you enter a credit memo, be sure to record notes along with it. Use your software’s credit memo feature to reverse either the entire invoice or a portion of the transaction. By returning inventory items, you should be able to automatically adjust your inventory balance.
Unpaid invoices. Once a credit memo is entered, the customer’s account balance will be correct.
Paid invoices. If the return is made after the customer has paid the invoice, you will need to cut a check to the customer. Be sure to select your customer when creating the return payment.
Pricing Adjustments. Use credit memos to correct either errors in pricing or some level of customer dissatisfaction. Credit memos don’t normally include a product return but instead adjust the customer’s accounts receivable balance. Select the customer information and enter a credit adjustment. Use either the description on the line items to note the reason for the credit or record additional details as a note on the document.
Timely and efficient handling of customer returns, credits, and complaints can provide valuable insights about your business while serving to leave a lasting positive impression with your customer.