Ethical Business Practice

We had to renovate the house. We called up a contractor to outsource the work. The initial dialogues went on well. We awarded the contract to the person. During the transactions we could find that the person was not following very good business practices. Even though he finished the work with quality, in the process he lost our trust.
Family members were debating on what went wrong etc. My spouse shared about a real estate developer who happens to be practicing a very healthy, transparent business practices for more than 2 decades. He charges premium for his services, however because of his frankness and openness, he has been able to get very good business all along.
So, sustainability of business is possible provided good business practices are followed. It does not matter, whether your business is real estate, retail outlet, financial service or IT.

People watch the business practices, integrity, honesty etc. with close eyes. They don’t like to be cheated. They liked to be made feel good at the same time tell them what is good for them very honestly. At times the truth you speak might not be accepted, but if they realize that it was in their own interest, then they will come back. They will refer you to their closed ones. Your business will flourish.

Having an affair with a customer

Last week I happened to visit a mall & happened to overhear the conversation over the counter – “Find out who is the customer contact and see whether you can have an affair with her”. A senior colleague was suggesting a junior – who was trying to break an ice with a customer.

It sounded very funny to me. However, when went through deeply, it made sense. What teenagers/people do when they are in love? They try to find out every minute detail of the person they are in love with. He/she want to know what the other person’s likes/dislikes, hobbies, interests and what not? They approach the other person very carefully and treat them very important.

You know what? If we apply these principles or even 10% of these principles with our customers, our day is done. We get ideas to serve them better. When we serve them better, they obviously feel good and naturally come back to us. That is all what is relationship is about.

In the business language, having an affair with the customer is building good customer relationship. You might ask a question, what is IT has to do with customer relationship? My answer is most of it. You can capture all your customer information through the IT systems. They can help you get the single view of the customer, interests and what not? You can leverage IT to gather information and monitor the relationship. Here you go..