Ethics & The Golden Rule For The Home Business By Mark Styranka At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

It is difficult to balance customer service and perceived value with the desire of the business to make money. Most businesses are not altruistic and must earn a profit to justify their existence. On the other hand, this cannot be done "at all costs". By this I mean that a business must earn its income ethically and fairly. Some thoughts on this are as follows.

The western world's "Golden Rule" of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is not unique. Although other cultures have different stories or ways of expressing it, the idea of treating others how you want to be treated is universal. In my accounting world, I know of a client (call him Fred) who made millions from his business but much of it was obtained through broken contracts & promises, failure to pay bills, and inappropriate invoicing. Fred's financial life was going along quite famously (at least in his view) for a number of years. But then something happened. Fred got involved in a large money making scheme where his larger partner reneged on fulfilling his portion of the contract and Fred was left bankrupt. Fred now says he "Lived by the sword and died by the sword". Fred learned a life lesson the hard way. Myself, I prefer to learn from other peoples success, failures, and mistakes. It is less painful. Honest mistakes are tolerable so long as we repair the damage done to others and ourselves and carry on with the intention to not repeat the error.

Untrustworthy persons are likely to have surrounded themselves with other untrustworthy persons. Thereby, they may get cheated themselves or turned into the authorities by a reformed cohort who they took into their confidence. These people must live in fear of being exposed and losing it all. By the same token, a trustworthy person is likely to be surrounded by others of this character. They will conduct their business honestly and fairly. These people sleep well at night knowing that if they continue to do what they are doing, things will work out for them. They should have nothing to fear.

To apply the above to an internet marketing business is relatively easy. For example, the best internet marketers suggest that the business owner purchase and try a product before promoting it for sale from their business. From our own experience, if we determine that the product has the value it claims to have, then we will be able to ethically market it. If we are disappointed with the product, then we can be sure that our customers will also be unsatisfied and we should discard the product regardless of how much money we think we might be able to make. I am not talking about whether the product meets the sellers specific needs but rather does the product do what the seller says it will? Is the value of the product, to the user, greater than its cost to them? If the marketer is happy with the product, then they should not have to worry about any repercussions from unhappy customers. There will always be unhappy customers, for a variety of reasons, but at least the seller knows that due diligence was performed and it is out of their control.

The business owner should also be willing to readily refund money to genuinely dissatisfied customers. One marketing technique is to let a prospect try out the product first and pay later. The goal should be to meet the needs of the customer and not to make a quick profit. The best marketers build relationships and then sell to the customer many times. An unhappy customer will not risk another purchase from a business owner that did not "take care of the problem", thereby eliminating the possibility of a lifetime of future sales.

Customer management also means that the business owner must protect the business from being taken advantage of. The present and future value of each customer must be carefully considered to ensure optimal decision making. It could be that if a customer is never satisfied but continues to purchase products from a vendor and then regularly returns them, that the business severs the relationship. It is true that some customers are not worth the effort expended and our energy could be better used elsewhere. But extreme care should be used to end the relationship gracefully and with respect.

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