Question:
I have been working for my new company for six weeks, as an account manager. I supervise four customer service people, but I am in charge of the customer relationship. My biggest customer (I am the new guy, so it’s not the biggest for the company, but it is for me), has a trade show starting next Thursday. We’re in the printing business and have been designing their new brochure for three weeks. My manager just told me the press is going to bump the production run for a bigger order from another customer. My customer is not going to get their brochures in time.
Here is my dilemma. My manager wants me to lie and say the brochures will make it on time so my customer won’t pull the order. (My customer can re-order a short run of their old brochure from their old printing company.) My manager says the new brochures will make it for the second day of the show and I can just get on my knees and apologize, but at least we will still have the order.
You can see where this is leading. My customer is going to be really pissed. What should I do? I don’t want to lose my job, but I don’t want to lie. -The New Guy
To the Readers of Management Blog:
In life we have to make tough decisions. The New Guy could use some advice and support, and not just from me. I am inviting you to jump in. What would you do? What advice would you have for the New Guy? Post your response below. The best response (I will pick) will receive a copy of the book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.
In order to keep everyone happy have production work overtime to finish both orders, then have a conversation with his boss regarding the situation and how he feels about what he was being asked to do, then ask if they have any company policy on providing customer service.
Two key points of integrity are challenged with this scenario. First, a personal one; Is my honesty for sale to my employer? Do I lie on demand?
Two, business; do I serve my customers needs even if it means sending his business elsewhere?
To the personal issue, you must be comfortable with the decisions and actions you make on the job. If you have a personal moral objection to this type of lie then you must stand true to your principles. If you fail to do so, you will erode your ability to remain committed to your employer. Over time, especially with repeated occurrences, this will poison your attitude.
To the question of serving your customer, it has been proven time and again that being an advocate for the best solution for the customer will win you future business, either with that customer or the referrals that the grateful account will make on your behalf.
In the wake of recent corporate scandals, many large companies have brought high level ethics officers on board. If so a conversation with that person is in order. If there is no such person, find the Director of Human Resources or equivalent and ask for a confidential meeting.
Whoever you find to meet, rather than complain about your manager, couch things in terms of asking that person’s advice on how to proceed. It’s unlikely that your company’s leadership genuinely wants its employees to engage in unethical behavior, so by bringing the matter to their attention in this non-confrontational way, it’s entirely likely that the leadership will resolve the matter for you.
As a final note, document everything that happens in this situation, especially your manager’s asking you to engage in this unethical behavior and of your calm response to it. In the unlikely event that you get sidelined in your job, or worse, that your company has a leadership failure and you end up having to bring a wrongful termination suit, that sort of documentation will be invaluable.
Good luck, and good for you on maintaining personal ethical standards!
I would try to find another printer to do the work and if this is not sucessful,I would call my customer and tell him what happened and what actions I have taken to get his order processed. I feel you have to be honest with the customer. If one of my employees does not have integrity, I would not want him working for me.
This is a problem for the new guy. Asking the question makes you wonder about the new guy. He should stand firm, tell his boss if we are not able to meet the dead line lets send the job out to someone we deal with and have them do it for us so we can still be on time with the delivery, that way they can keep the account and please the customer. Everyone wins. To not be on time or mislead is not ethical and once you start doing this it continues. This is not acceptable in business.
I would sell the idea to my boss to split the quantities for both the bigger customer and my customer. That way both customers would have their goods and neither would be left empty handed. It might not be the cheapest solution but customer retention is worth the extra effort and cost.
My advice is to be honest first and
foremost with the boss and with the customer. I would tell the boss that I
cannot go along with this plan because it is dishonest. But instead of being
obstinate about it, I would explain what will happen with the customer and look
for other ways around the dilemma. (ie What about farming the work out to
another company yourself?) If no solution is possible, then bite the
bullet and go with being a day late on the brochures.
Next, explain the situation to the customer as soon as possible. Don’t go into
the details of the issue you are having with your boss and don’t the boss for
the problem. Take full responsibility and try to work out a solution with the
customer. Perhaps volunteering to hand deliver the brochures as soon as they are
ready.
As a customer I have developed a pet-peeve towards those who lack a sense of
customer service. I appreciate the guys who are upfront with me about the
problems they are facing but still try to work out a solution despite the
obstacles. I always appreciate the person who goes the extra mile.
Tell the customer right up front that production is behind and he will not get his brochure on time. Let him also know it may happen for day 2 if everything goes just right, but don’t count on it. Ask the customer if he has any other options and how you can assist him in getting it done on time somewhere else.
It’s all about service not filling orders.
Your client would appreciate honesty much more than ending up sans-brochures for the first day of a conference.
Cost-out a day’s worth of brochures from a partner printer. Talk with your boss and express your concern about loosing the order/customer. Suggest that a smart course of action would be to show good faith by incurring the cost of one day of brochures. Surely the cost of one day of brochures would pay for itself in the orders you will get from a very satisfied client. This course of action would save the bulk of the order, show your client that you have their best interest at heart and save you the anxiety of being dishonest to the client.
Honesty is the best policy and without it no relationship can survive… even in business.
Sub contract the print job out to another printer & adhere to the deadline that was agreed upon with the client.
I’m with the sub out idea. Find another printer to do it and pay whatever delta is necessary. Apologize profusely. I’m sure the customer will appreciate the gesture, and will not hesitate to come back the next time.
Short and simple. Tell the customer to take the short order from the old supplier. Honesty is and always be the best policy. If you handle this corectly you will have a customer for life.
Having been in the print industry before, I can say from experience that your customer will value you more and stay with your business in the future if you let them know up front that they need to run their order through their old company in order to make the trade show. A day late is more than a dollar short when you need your brochure for a trade show.
If you approach it from that perspective, that you care about their needs first and foremost, the business will come back, and they will probably tell others about you for having done it.
Your boss will probably not be happy, but the customer comes first – no matter what your industry.
If you feel that your employer has put you in an unethical situation by asking you to lie you need to confront that head on and let your employer know where you stand on the issue.
As the “new guy†this is your chance to move up the organizational ladder quickly. Show your boss how you can make the company MORE money. After all, that’s why were in business – Propose a way to meet both obligations. It could be as simple as some overtime to meet the demand. Perhaps it’s a quicker way to process the jobs, or even a partnership with a competitive firm.
THINK outside the box. You have NOTHING to loose…
Remember – It dosen’t have to be one or the other. Keep your customer happy AND make money.
Ahhh…Those old adversaries are at it again. I always love the pious attitude of “ethics” when “self preservation” has to feed his wife and kids.
Bottom line is unless your “boss” is asking you to do something illegal or immoral (infidelity, personal sabotage, etc.), what choice do you really really have. He signs your check, not the customer.
To at least give your ethics child the attention it deserves, and I’m not saying it should be ignored, you might could share with Gordon Gecko how his ruse might effect future business dealings with this client. Who knows, if you can get him to see the forrest through the trees, you never know what “out of the box” scenarios the two of you might be able to come up with (subbing, partial orders, etc.).
However, in the end, if you do anything different than what he’s already instructed you to do, you could find that upon your next visit to this customer, your’e asking to fill out one of their job applications.
You said it right; life is about making tough decisions and most of us at all times know what is the right path but the fact that it is so tough makes the choice easier and at many times wrong.
In case he follows his manager’s advice, then he definately loses the customer for the next order which then could be blamed on him sometime in the future.
I think his best bet is to split the order into two parts and deliver one part on the first day and the rest on the second day. This way he can negotiate both with his manager and also his customer would agree as he too knows that all the brochures would not be required on the first day and the deal definately is better than getting the old ones reprinted. If possible and required the ‘new guy’ can throw in an extra few brochures.
Honesty will never get you in as much trouble as dishonesty. First tell your new boss that you have a simple rule, “I won’t lie to you means I won’t lie for you.” When I’ve faced these moments I usually ask my boss, at the end of the day, would you want me to do you this way?
Second be creative, think out of the box and find a solution. Tell the customer a bigger customer is in line in front of him and see if a partial order from the old printer and new brochures on the second day will work. See if there is a possibility to work overtime (usually not in the web press field where presses are fairly tightly scheduled) and meet the deadline – see if you can absorb some of the OT costs to keep the order in house. I ran sheet fed printing plants in four different states and there are a lot of ways to get things done. Partial orders for the big customer and for his customer but everyone getting a need met (means additional press washup and setups that are cheaper to absorb than OT.
There’s is always an answer in there somewhere that doesn’t involve lying if we just look hard enough for it.
You need to find a way to make a short production run to cover the client on the 1st day. Overtime or another vendor could solve the conundrum