Where Have The Honest Businesses Gone?

An honest business is almost like a rare gem. The rise of small-businesses where honesty and quality customer service is the top facet of the business becomes a driving force against the corporate scheme to nickle-and-dime every penny out of their most loyal customers.

A couple days ago I saw this on the Home Page of the Huffington Post. The article in summary explains the way that the credit card industry is, even with changes from the CARD act, are finding ways to apply new charges, cracked-out interest rates, and every little bit of money they can squeeze out of a suffering economy.

Be Better

Don’t get me wrong though, there are honest businesses; Those kinds of large corporations who make mistakes, accept their mistakes and live up to their reputation. A while back the news story of 6pm.com, who accidentally posted many prices as $49.95, hit the mainstream. This mistake lead to a net loss of $1.6 Million. 6pm.com is owned by Zappos (owned by Amazon). To rephrase, they honored the $49.95 price-tag even if the item costs $100 more.

Even though, they were obviously in the red, this didn’t stop the companies from being honest about their mistake and honoring their prices. It cost them in money, but did it help build their brand confidence and loyalty? You bet your ass it did.

Be Straightforward

If you’re honest from the beginning of a relationship, whether with a client or a partner, the expectations change. The expectation of a solid follow through, consistent honesty and transparency will always be an integral part of your business. The reason the credit card industry manages to screw you over, and over, and over again, is because even with the CARD Act’s new regulations, it still doesn’t stop them from finding new fees.

The policy of a no Bullshit company seems to be like a fading facet. Is your company like that?