A provider had contacted the site requesting a particular review be removed, since it alleged facts which were not actually true. The owners of the site, meanwhile, were trying to keep the site unbiased by leaving all reviews on the site. However, if content provided by users was not accurate to the facts, there was a risk that the provider could claim defamation.

The policy I suggested was that the site avoid the issue by allowing all providers to make a rebuttal comment to any review about themselves, thereby giving them a voice that would be directly attached to a review. Additionally, by doing this, the site removes from itself the responsibility of investigating the truth, something which as the site grows, the owners will be hard-pressed to find time to keep up with. Last, most of what is at stake in such a situation is really a gray area, with the two sides disagreeing about an event, and without having been a party to those events, it would be impossible to know what the reality actually was.

The lesson from here, though, can be carried to anytime mediation or moderation is required between two parties. As the owner of a business, there are times when customers and staff will disagree, when two staff members disagree. If the owner is forced to step in to resolve the differences, they should bear in mind that it is nearly impossible to determine the truth.

As such, the moderation should not aim toward assigning guilt to one party, or restitution toward the other, though this may be part of the outcome. Rather, aim toward moving forward, giving voice to the two sides to that they feel they have been listened to, and that their concerns regarding the future have been addressed.

Related posts:

1. Art of Negotiation
2. The Customer is Always Right… Sometimes
3. The View Matters

One of the questions often asked by new business owners is how to resolve such conflicts without creating a rift between the parties involved. The best time to look for the answer to this question is well before the situation arises, since many of the techniques used for resolving conflict are more difficult to apply once the situation has been muddied. As such, I will discuss here some basics for dealing with such scenarios, and would recommend that you look for a seminar for some further suggestions if you anticipate being involved in such scenarios often, or know that you have a hard time dealing with conflict.

The first piece of advice actually comes from the readings I did prior to getting married, and was stated very simply:

Always remember, especially when disagreeing, that you’re on the same side.

We have a tendency, when disagreeing with someone, to move into the mindset of you versus me. In marriage, and in business, it doesn’t work that way. All the people involved have the same goal, which is, to make the marriage or business succeed. The disagreement is about the means to getting that success, not about the success itself.

This brings us to the next point – stay on topic, and don’t get personal.

When a conflict moves off the original topic of discussion, and heads into the jungle of personal attacks, a pleasant ending rarely ensues, and it makes future conflicts more difficult to deal with. If you’re trying to reach a decision, you need to focus on what’s relevant to the issue, and the fact that John barely passed his accounting course isn’t relevant to whether or not the company can afford a particular expenditure today.

After the particular issue is resolved, if warranted, the background and side issues can be discussed. However, they have no place in resolving another conflict, and only serve to sidetrack you from the main issues.

The last point is possibly the most useful, but also, unfortunately, the most vague. To prepare for a potential future conflict, prepare a process to resolve a conflict.

Basically, if you head into a discussion knowing how you’re going to resolve it, then it makes the discussion that much more productive. Remember, we’re discussing resolving conflict with a particular other person, not with people in general.

One idea you might want to try works like this:

Agree beforehand who is considered to be the expert on a given set of subjects. For example, if you have a software business with two partners, one who handles marketing and advertising, the other handling development, you could easily split out technology issues and publicity issues.

Agree on an approach and guidelines for discussing issues. For example, you might agree that both parties get a chance to present their opinion, and then a chance to respond to the other persons opinion, with the length of the discussion agreed to at the beginning of the discussion.

At the end of the allotted time, if the subject is considered to fall under the expertise of one party exclusively, then they get to make that decision. If it is not an issue with which one party in particular is considered expert, then you take turns deciding.

Hopefully, with this information in mind, you can head into your next conflict knowing that you have the ability to resolve it amicably and smoothly, and move on to making your venture a success.

Related posts:

1. Quick Fixes
2. A Matter of Perspective
3. International Business is Special

The first example is where you sell a product, and on occasion, will be asked for a refund. While you need to have a clear refund policy, you also need to know when to give in and issue the refund anyhow. A customer who won’t be happy, and is out of pocket because of your business (whether reasonable or not) is capable of generating a lot of negative attention for your business. Issuing the refund to get the customer to leave you alone will often not only rid you of an annoying customer, but also generate positive feedback for good customer service.

OK, so the first example wasn’t really about firing customers, but about having good customer service. Here’s another example.

If you do work for a customer, and they don’t pay – get rid of them if you can. A good customer who can’t pay will be upfront with you about their situation, and try to arrange alternate payment schedules. A bad customer will keep taking work, thereby driving up their balance, and not mention that they cannot pay the bill. The problem with such customers is that many of them try to justify their position and explain that they don’t actually owe you the money. In other cases, they will ask for special treatment to get their bill reduced.

It is not in your best interests to do either. When you are out of pocket on a customer, and realize that you will have difficulty collecting, you need to stop. You need to stop working for the client, you need to stop arguing with them (and yes, such situations usually end up with grudge matches, often held through long sequences of e-mails) and you need to just issue a notice that payment is due.

Be polite. Tell the client that you will not be doing any more work for them until full payment is received. Give the client any outstanding material of theirs that they may not have (for example, if you’ve collected data as part of the project, send them the data – even if that’s not part of the contract). Tell them when you expect payment by.Tell them what’s going to happen if they don’t pay (for example, I’ll sue you for the shirt off your back!).

Here’s another example where it’s wise to get rid of a customer.

Sometimes the issue is not that the client can’t or won’t pay, but that the work being done does not match the work requested originally. In that case, if discussing with the client to resolve the differences doesn’t improve the situation, you may want to stop the project. If you do, then you can try referring them to someone else who can better serve their needs. As an example, if you run a business doing SEO and SEM work, but the project turns out to be website development, then you may want to refer them to a web development business.

Sure, you may lose the project as a result, even the parts that were your forte, but at the end of the day, you’ll have less aggravation as a result.

Related posts:

1. Tips to Getting Paid Promptly
2. My Customers Are Always Right
3. Collecting Accounts Receivable