What do you stand for?
Before you can ever reach your potential, both in your business and in your personal life, you need to understand what it is that you stand for. Until you can answer that question you’ll be challenged to deal with many of the issues that arise in your life.
The first step in strategic planning is the development of a statement of values. For most entrepreneurs, this seems easy. Honesty. Customer service. The customer is always right. Employees are most important. But if the statement of values is to be anything other than simple platitudes, it is important that these values have meaning for you and will be adhered to when making decisions that impact both your customers and your employees.
For example, how do you handle a customer who is dissatisfied with the product they bought from you a week ago? Let’s assume the product is not unique, it’s available all over town, and you don’t know this customer or remember the purchase. And the customer doesn’t have a receipt. And the package has been opened. And the product has been used. You’re not going to be able to return it to your vendor or resell the item.
As a customer, we’ve all been in this situation. We’re not trying to take advantage and are being as honest as we can be in returning this product. We’re not expecting the store to take it back. So when they refuse to refund our money or seek our satisfaction in any way, we may not leave angry. We’re also not likely to favor that business over any others, or to tell too many others about the company’s outstanding service.
As a vendor, we’ve been here, too. We don’t know whether the person actually bought the product from us. We are going to take a hit if we refund or exchange the product. If we let our employee make the decision about whether to accept this return, the employees will give away the store, because they never make the right decisions for our business.
I stopped at a large chain convenience store this morning for gas. I had a coupon for a discount which meant I had to go into the store to pay. The sign on the pump said it was a pre-pay only pump. I had to use my card or go into the store before I could purchase gas. So in I went. I had to leave a driver’s license or a credit card with the clerk because I didn’t know how much gas I needed. Now I go out, pump my gas, and go back in to pay. A terrible inconvenience for me. When I commented to the clerk that they must have a real problem with drive offs, he said they’d lost $5,000 in the month prior to instituting the pre-pay policy.
As a customer, I was disappointed. I had to take two trips into the store if I wanted to use the coupon that they provided. I was told that they didn’t trust me to pay for my gas. I had to leave my identification with a clerk I was supposed to trust not to copy or misuse it. While I understand the vendor’s frustration, I’ll avoid that store the next time. In the process of protecting their own interests, they’ve disrespected mine.
So which is it? Honesty, customer service, respect for the employee? Or when push comes to shove do we look out for ourselves? These are difficult decisions for business owners, especially when finances are tight. But how you handle these situations is what brings your statement of values to life and demonstrates to your employees whether the statement has meaning or is just a marketing ploy.
So what do you stand for? And how far are you willing to go to live by the values you’ve declared as important to your business?
