The common thread in Why a school trip failed and a contractor lost his contract

People grossly underestimate the value of keeping others informed. It is absolutely critical that what we are thinking , be they are assumptions, feelings, thoughts, next steps etc are shared with the right people. We are so engulfed in our own thinking that we mostly assume that our assumption is a universal truth. Well, that's not always the case. The absence of information, creates a communication void. And when there is a void, it will get filled up with all kinds of stuff. Most often with negative thoughts. All this can be easily avoided by keeping each other in the (communication) loop. Even saying that I dont have an update is an update.

Here is an example of how 2 scenarios could have turned out so differently had the customers been kept in the loop. There was no other changes required only keeping the customer in the loop!

Scenario 1: 

Bob was in grade 6 and went on an out of town school trip for a 3 days. Bob's parents were nervous. After all this was his first trip outside home without the parents being there. They gave Bob a phone and asked him to send updates on a regular basis. As luck would have it, the phone's battery died and Bob lost the charger the very first hour of the trip. Bob's parents were scrambling for information. They called other parents. Emailed school and any other contact that they could think of but no luck. They knew that Bob was safe but still wanted to get the assurance. The school charged $750 for the trip. There were a no. of staff who went with the class to ensure safety and comfort. Yet none of the teachers and organizers thought that they should keep providing a simple email update to the parents! They planned every single aspect of the trip, except communication.

The trend continued for the rest of the trip. 

The kids had a great time but parents were furious. In the minds of the parents the trip didnt go well. Now if only the teachers would have thought the importance of updates

Scenario 2:

I scheduled a handyman to do some repairs around the house. He was supposed to have come at 7pm but didn't show up. After waiting impatiently till 8pm, I called him, "We are running late. We should be there in the next hour or so", was the response. I told him to not worry about it. Now if he only would have told me earlier that he would be late, I probably would have been able to juggle my plans around his availability. 

We tend to underestimate the value of updates but they are absolutely the key when it comes to customer service.