A mentor of my wrote to me his experience. "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 my wife, I agreed to call a major catalog
retailer and order some summer outfits for her. 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
-- 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 30 days.
Later, a supervisor admitted that almost everyone ignores
the offer and throws it away with the paperwork in every
shipment. Then, 30 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, we no longer trust them, 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.
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