Your Security Officer Screwed Up…Now What?

I remember several times sitting at a table with a member from my operations department talking with an angry client about a mistake one of our security officers had made.  In most of those cases, I also remember the operations manager doing a really poor job of handling the situation.  Below you will find the steps I suggest that you take in talking with a client about a security officer’s mistake.

First let’s be clear, screw-ups can occur at any time. However, in your case a security officer making a mistake can prove to be very costly for your clients.  Particularly since many security company client’s pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your officers to protect millions of dollars of assets. Because of that, it is only right that you, as the owner or manager, be the person to apologize for these mistakes.  Here are a few tips to keep in mind when apologizing to your customers if your security officer has made a mistake:

Relax

The first step you need to take is to relax. Often, security officer managers spend far too much time thinking about how to approach the client with their apology. This delay may cause the problem to be blown out of proportion. Of course, you cannot guess how the client will react, but that doesn’t mean you should take ages to apologize. Don’t delay it until it’s too late to apologize.

Be Humble and Personal

It is very important that you are humble when you apologize. Make sure that you acknowledge that there has in fact been a mistake. Otherwise, it becomes difficult for the client to accept your apology as sincere and heartfelt. At the same time, make the apology personal. It is usually best to apologize in person, or over the phone, since it’s more of a personal interaction as compared to an email.

Provide a Valid Reason For the Security Officer’s Mistake

Make it clear to the client how and why the security officer screwed up. It is convenient to make up any number of excuses and try to sweep the problem under the rug. And more often than not, the client will accept that excuse/apology. However, that is the wrong course of action. The proper way is to provide a true and valid reason.  If a mistake was made, there is probably a perfectly valid and understandable reason for it. If you or the officer simply dropped the ball, be honest because honesty will go a long way in building trusting client relationships.

Don’t Just Blame the Security Officer

When apologizing, it might be easy to just say that you are sorry that the client feels angry about what happened, as if their anger was the problem.  When the real problem is that your officer made a mistake and you have to own it. But in owning it, remember it will be bad for your client relationship if you just try to pass the buck on to your security officers. You cannot assure a client that something like this will not occur again unless you take complete responsibility for it.

Provide a Solution

The best way to diffuse the situation is providing a solution. This can be in the form of a special discount, additional services, retraining, or something that you can offer to the client as a token of apology. Keep in mind that it is better to come up with a solution as soon as possible so that the client doesn’t feel resentful for too long. For example, in cases where the officer failed to submit a timely security officer incident report, propose going over to digital reporting.  Once you have accepted fault, half the problem has been taken care of. The rest you can fix by providing a solution.
Many people are afraid to admit that there is a problem because they are afraid that they will lose the client because of it.  Your clients realize that security officers are people, and people are prone to making mistakes.  But as long as you apologize properly by following the steps above, chances are your client will stick around.
Have you had instances where apologizing was not enough?  In those instances, what did you do?  Please leave your comments below.
By Courtney Sparkman

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