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Dignity matters!

Steven Yastrow on Tompeters.com (which I read regularly) talks about these days (our darkest maybe) as a time when customer loyalty is key.  I agree!  He also talks about how the difference between promotional bribes and true customer loyalty.  What he hasn’t really brought up is that a promotional bribe doesn’t produce true shared dignity.  It leaves the customer feeling like they won.  And that isn’t the impression that we want to leave behind.  The only thing that matters is the impression that we leave behind!!!  Let me repeat that!
The only thing that matters is the impression that we leave behind!!!

There are many other things that seem to matter, but in the end, they don’t.  I posited awhile back that the goal of customer service was shared dignity.  A concept in customer service that I’m extending to all of my relationships.  Whenever I interact with someone, my goal is to leave with my dignity intact, AND the dignity of the other party.

I can be an overpowering personality.  True statement.  It has been put in other, less sugar coated ways before, but that’s what it boils down too.  (Ok, I’ve been called an asshole.  I’ve been called arrogant and I’ve been told that I talk over people.  I’ve even been told that I think I’m the smartest one in the room.  And I’ve been told that I don’t listen.)

can be an asshole, but I am trying to learn and  I’ve got news for you.  I do care.  I do listen and I’m not always the smartest one in the room.  To me, it matters greatly what impression I wanted to leave behind, but if that isn’t what I left behind, I failed.  In the end, failing doesn’t help anyone at all.  So I attempt to do a better job of listening.  I try to improve.  I try to learn.  I still fail regularly, but that is my cross to bear.

In today’s market though, it’s an important thing to consider.  A truly loyal customer feels like family, like an equal.  When they look at the grass, it’s green on both sides of the fence.

That’s dignity!

Posted in Buddhism, Business.


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