I had an astonishingly bad experience with a major clothing store this week, and I want to tell you about it. Perhaps it will remind all of us that perceptions count and integrity matters.As a favor to Mary I agreed to call a major catalog retailer and order some outfits she had picked out. I figured it would take 10 minutes to call the number, order the items, bill the credit card, and be done with it. And it might have been that simple except for one little thing.At the end of the call, the order taker asked permission to "include information about our travel club" in the shipment. I wasn't interested and vaguely replied that would be fine. She then repeated the offer and said she needed a specific yes or no. That got my attention and I started asking questions.It turns out that once I agreed to her offer, I was actually agreeing to let them bill my credit card for membership in the club unless I specifically declined within thirty days. Later, a supervisor admitted that almost everyone ignores the offer and throws it away with the paperwork they put in every shipment. Then, thirty days later, the company bills their credit cards.I suppose what they are doing is perfectly legal, but I found it outrageous! For a $39 membership fee, they lost us as customers, forever. In one stupid move, they trashed their reputation and we won't be back.My point? Trust is a vital business asset. Honesty, integrity, fairness and openness may be the "right" things, but they are also the SMART things when it comes to business! Never trick your customers! Never appear to take a short-cut, and always make the customer glad they did business with you.
Quotes of the Week
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
"In each of us are places where we have never gone. Only by pressing the limits do you ever find them." -- Dr. Joyce Brothers
"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one's own self" -- Montaigne
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." -- Walt Disney
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