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How to Handle Business DisputesBy StartRunGrow Suggestions for Handling Disputes
Any conflicts involving customers, employees or suppliers, or a partner, is very disruptive. Disputes and conflicts cannot be allowed to escalate because of the damage they can cause. There are ways of dealing with disputes, to arrive at an agreement or resolution where all parties concerned are satisfied.
Here are a few suggestions for handling a dispute:
Focus on your long-term interest.
Try to find an outcome where your business retains its best interests as its main objective. Don't get obsessed with winning a particular dispute or conflict if that is not necessarily the best position for the business in the long run.
Find something simple and quick, and resolve that first.
The best resolution is usually that which can be quickly agreed to. The longer a dispute drags out, the more costly it will become and the heavier the disruption to your business, as well as your own personal life. Even if there is some cost involved, it is far better to settle the matter fast.
It's not personal - it's business.
If you are in business, you will have to get used to the fact that you will be a target of complaints from someone, whether it be a customer or supplier. No one is perfect and no business is perfect, so expect that things may not always work out as planned.
However, you have to ensure that you don't take these attacks personally, but try to focus on the issues involved, rather than the personalities involved. Remember it's not personal - it's business.
Avoid court.
If you can avoid it, do not go to the courts with your quarrel. Using lawyers and the court's time
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How to Protect Your Customer Data and Your ReputationWhen it comes to safeguarding customer data, the stakes are higher than ever in today's wired world. A single security breach can create a legal and regulatory nightmare. How vulnerable is your organization to hackers and disgruntled employees? What can you do to protect your company?<br><br>Sponsored by Cisco, this 30-minute BizWise TV broadcast for small and mid-sized businesses outlines the legal, ethical, and business obligations you face. A panel of security experts will show you how to assess your vulnerabilities, implement an effective security plan, handle an employee suspected of committing a security breach, and execute "damage control" through effective PR if a breach does occur.<br><br><br><br>BizWise TV features TV Style Broadcasts on topics relevant to SMBs. Tune in for a new topic on the third Thursday of every month or watch the previous broadcasts on demand at your convenience.Intrusion Prevention Case Study: Mainova AG - EnergyThis case study examines Frankfurt, Germany energy supplier Mainova AG's reliance on McAfee for its network security.Corporate Incident Response: Why You Can't Afford to Ignore ItThis Foundstone Professional Services paper explains the need for an effective corporate incident response plan and highlights common problems associated with inadequate incident response. It also discusses the steps you need to take when creating a corporate incident response plan and serves as a general guide to the phases that should be included in a comprehensive plan.Making Your Business Disaster Ready with Virtual InfrastructureDownload this white paper to learn how a virtual infrastructure built on VMware server software can help make your disaster recovery strategy more effective and affordable. The paper emphasizes the need for business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) planning in today's enterprises and explains how a virtual infrastructure enables you to:<ul><li>Extend disaster coverage to more applications</li><li>Reduce recovery time</li><li>Make DR processes more reliable</li></ul>Master Time Management With a Final 7 Time Management TipsTime management is a hot topic these days. With more pressure on most people to do more with less, people are constantly turning to gurus in this area to try and improve their time management skills. This paper seven more tips to help people in their quest to master their time usage.Action Plan in Time ManagementAction plans are lists of responsibilities that instruct a person "To carry out to achieve an objective." The list centers on the goals immediately needing achievement on demand. The list or action plan enables one to center his attention on the specific obligations required of him. The marketplace has several software programs that help those people that have busy schedules and time management is a struggle.Business Continuity Preparedness HandbookAT&T's Business Continuity Preparedness Handbook provides a broad range of information to support your business continuity planning efforts.<br><br>The 16-page handbook examines business continuity in the context of two potential catastrophic events a pandemic influenza and a hurricane strike and highlights why taking a proactive approach to business continuity planning is essential for all disaster scenarios.<br><br>Topics include:<ul><li>AT&T's own business continuity preparedness efforts</li><li>Planning assumptions for pandemic influenza and the 2006 hurricane forecast</li><li>Best practices recommendations</li><li>AT&T solutions that support business continuity strategies</li><li>AT&T customer support during business continuity "events"</li></ul>The Inexpensive Instant Message: Creating an E-Mail NewsletterHow does one share accurate, timely information with employees, customers and the community - and do it faster, better and less expensively than using the normal media outlets? The person should turn to e-mail. Faced with a barrage of negative media coverage as a result of innovative steps that provided a few surprises during the 2000-01 upheaval in energy markets, Chelan County PUD (Wenatchee, Wash.) came to this realization: The media were not going to tell their side of the story for them; they had to do it ourselves.Using Crises as Publicity OpportunitiesThere are two kinds of Crisis Management: Internal (for when something happens within a company or externally that affects the company directly) and External (for when something happens in the world that indirectly affects the company). The authors' recommend that every company have a written plan on how to handle a range of both internal and external crises. This paper deals with external crisis management, and how one can, with advanced planning, gain positive publicity for the company when an external event occurs.Telling Everyone You're Ok - A Key Element in Crisis CommunicationsHave a person ever noticed that one of the first side effects of most disaster situations is that the phone lines in the area immediately go down? The author believes that the first thing people think about in disasters is how it affects the people they know, or maybe just know of. That's why the phone lines go down - calls to check.Impact of Past Crises on Current Crisis CommunicationPrevious research based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) suggests that an organization's past crises history affects the reputational threat posed by a current crisis when that crisis results from intentional acts by the organization. The study reported on in this paper provides a wider test of crisis history to better assess its role in crisis communication. Results from the present investigation showed that a history of similar crises intensified the reputational threat of a current crisis even when the crisis arose from the victimization of the organization or from an accident, rather than from the organization's intentional acts.Sample Source: Crisis Management Plans - Part IIThis paper includes specific action steps to take in the event of a crisis. Schools should create detailed procedures for each type of crisis that may threaten the school environment. Each process will vary, according to the type and severity of the emergency. The paper also describes the process in which the school recovers and restores its community.Sample Source: Crisis Management Plans - Part IEvery morning, millions of students pour into school buildings all across the country. Families depend on schools to ensure that the environment in which their children learn and play is as healthy and safe as possible. Emergencies can take many forms, including severe weather and natural disasters, medical incidents, terrorism, and other threats of violence. Although many of these incidents are rare, it is vitally important for schools to be adequately prepared in the case of an actual crisis.Media Communication Takes on New Dimensions With RMPIt is puzzling why many companies are doing little to prepare the local press for the information that will soon become public. This may stem from the industry's long-standing mistrust of the media. The good news about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Risk Management Program (RMP) rule is that it could serve as the catalyst for improved relations between the chemical industry and the news media. The bad news is that both are going to have to learn a new set of rules. Before the RMP rule, a chemical company's communications with the local media took place on two levels - routine and crisis.Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery: The New Reality - Response to 21st Century ThreatsThe unfortunate truth is that many companies have failed to recognize that physical events or nagging perceptions can be their undoing. As keepers of corporate reputation, people need to step up to one of their most important responsibilities: developing the capabilities for responding to threatening situations. In the process, if the planning is founded on ethical core values and implemented properly, it can help avert loss of public confidence. Today, up to 25 percent of every chief communicator's time requires attention to readiness planning. That planning had taken on new dimensions that will be discussed in this paper.
is an expensive exercise and can tie up the business and yourself for some period of time. It also creates a lot of stress, which could be avoided by settling for something a little easier or acceptable to both parties.
The trick is to avoid going to the law unless there is no other solution. If at all possible, have open discussions with the other party, as they will also understand the time and cost wasted by going to the court. It is far better for both parties to work out a solution outside of legal action. This should be the priority or aim of a meeting set to resolve a conflict.
Find if there is an alternative to resolve the dispute.
You may like to investigate whether or arbitration is a fair alternative of finding a resolution. simply provides for a neutral third party to sit in on discussions while the two parties try to come to a resolution.
Mediation is not binding on any party; it is a means of opening up communication to find a resolution. Arbitration however is where two parties sit before a person, known as the arbitrator, who will make an award or decision after hearing both sides of the story. The decision of the arbitration is binding.
Conflicts need to be Resolved Delicately.
Conflicts are inevitable. The sooner you as a business owner realise this, the better. The trick is to try and arrive at a positive outcome, so both parties are happy. You need to remember that each party has different priorities and agendas and they are looking at the conflict from two different perspectives.
There are certain characteristics, however, that come across and these include:
- People hate to have others disagree with them.
- People definitely like others to agree with their views.
- People love to be agreed with.
- People don't like others who disagree with them.
People who are good at resolving conflicts look for a point of agreement and use their skills to get the other party to see their point of view.
Resolving the conflicts can be a delicate exercise. The only way to win in a conflict is to arrive at the position where both parties leave the meeting feeling that at least they have won something. That is, try to find a win/win solution. If you don't, and you win your argument, you may take home more cash or win on the issue, but you will lose a customer, client or friend forever.
Try and see if it is possible to go down the middle, where each party leaves with a 50/50 win and there is satisfaction, because 50% is better than nothing. There is also the realisation that the other party got away with only 50% (rather than 100%) of what they wanted as well.
Always try for win/win and try never to allow the conflict to escalate too quickly or too far, certainly not to the point where it is difficult to recover the position.
Copyright 2005 StartRunGrow http://www.startrungrow.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Viliamu
StartRunGrow (http://www.startrungrow.com) is a global online information organization that specializes in creating, developing and marketing business help information specifically with the aim of "making business easier" for entrepreneurs around the world. The StartRunGrow objective is to become a dominant player in the business help arena providing end to end solutions for the millions of small and medium businesses worldwide who continue to struggle daily with the difficulties of starting, running and growing a successful business.
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