Is honesty important in customer relationships?
Let me start by asking you this. Do you trust someone when you catch them out being dishonest? Generally, the answer is no, especially when it’s a business relationship or transaction.
We’ve all seen the recent media coverage of the Qantas debacle and their illegal sacking of staff, selling tickets to consumers when they’d already cancelled the flights, then making it virtually impossible for customers to claim refunds. What taste does that leave in your mouth? Then we have the PwC betrayal where confidential information was misused to increase their bottom line while the very hand that was feeding them, the Government contracts, were the ones they betrayed. And the bigger picture of that is they betrayed every Australian taxpayer and set the worst example for other business leaders, by putting profit ahead of people and having no regard for integrity. What do you think about them now? Would you ever trust them again? Do you think either of these companies will ever regain the public’s trust? It will certainly be a long journey for them to do so.
Don’t follow their examples. Honesty is integral to customer relationships and for the customer to feel a genuine connection with your business. Honesty engenders transparency, vulnerability, and the courage to admit to mistakes when they happen, rather than the blame game being the automatic go to. Being able to admit to a customer that you made a mistake, doesn’t weaken their opinion of you, it strengthens it? How? Because they know you’re willing to humble yourself to admit to a mistake. A relationship with a customer is not that different to your relationship with a partner or spouse. We all want to be able to rely on the relationships we have, we want to be able to trust them, and that includes our relationships in business. We have moral and ethical responsibilities in business, and having integrity, which is doing the right thing when no one is looking, is the most effective and transparent way to build customer loyalty and long-term relationships.
We live in an age where we all work hard to make a dollar. Impacting another human being negatively is nobody’s right, but sadly, lying has become easy for many people and we think nothing to telling a ‘white lie’, because we think it doesn’t count. Human beings are built for connection, we’re wired to have a community. When a customer does business with you, you become a part of their community. And when you are dishonest, when you betray their trust, they can no longer rely on you or trust you. The relationship forever bears a stain.
So, as a business owner and leader, operate your business with moral and ethical values that build customer loyalty, that are transparent, and that are a genuine representation of who you are and the impact you want to make. Don’t be Qantas, don’t be PwC, and don’t think that what you do behind closed doors doesn’t matter or won’t be revealed. Their examples show us that eventually, the truth is always bought to light, and there’s no escaping it. Would your business survive if everything you do behind closed doors was revealed? Let’s hope so, and let’s be leaders who choose to always be better and who never deliberately do the wrong thing.
