What might happen if you treated everyone well?

A foundation of my philosophy (in business and in the rest of my life) is that we need to treat everyone well. Another way to look at this is we’re here to serve others. And the best way to serve others (or at least, the best way to start) is by putting others first. This means treating them with courtesy, dignity and kindness. It also means putting their interests ahead of ours.

This is one of those things my friend Jim Leslie, would describe as “says easy, does hard”. It sounds simple enough but it can be challenging. It’s especially hard to do it all the time. But that’s where the power is. If we are selective about it, then it doesn’t work. If we decide certain people don’t deserve our efforts to be nice, then it has no power. If we choose to “take a day off” from treating people with courtesy and kindness, then the magic of serving others will fail.

If we’re inconsistent about how we treat people, then they’ll never know what to expect. And if we consistently treat some people well and others not so well, it will catch up to us.

I remember when I was selling ads for a small publication I owned. One day I walked into a store that sold cabinets and related products for homes. The owner approached me with a friendly smile and greeting. But when he learned I was not there as a customer he changed completely. No more “Mr. Nice Guy”. It was like observing a real-live Jeckel and Hyde moment. I left shaking my head.

A few weeks later, just for fun, I stopped in the same store and acted like a customer. The same guy helped me and he was as nice as a person could be. Then I shared with him the details of my prior visit to his store. I asked him what he thought of people who treat others differently based on who they are, such as a customer vs. a salesman. He had no coherent answer. So I helped him. I let him know very clearly I would NEVER do business with him or anyone who treated people based on dollar signs.

On the other hand, if we treat everyone well, we can reap many benefits.

My dad has always been a good role model for this. The company he built had his name first on the letterhead. So he got most of the sales calls. And he took them all. If he had time to talk he would. And when he did talk with them, he often helped the callers by giving them useful information or referrals. Over the years he probably got quite a few referrals back from people he helped. At the very least he made a lot of friends throughout the Twin Cities business community. Because he treated people well.

Recently, I answered the phone having no idea who the caller was. It was a nice guy wanting me to know about a service his company offered. So we chatted awhile. In fact we had a great conversation. I’ll probably become a customer of his in the future. And, he’s going to be the subject of an interview for one of my upcoming articles. Because he has a lot of useful ideas to share. So, by taking a call and treating someone with courtesy and consideration, I made a new friend and found a wonderful interview source.

I could have tossed him off the phone as soon as I learned he was selling something. But that would have been rude and, as it turns out, stupid. Because you never know the value of creating a new relationship with someone. You never know where a kind word or deed will end up. You never know what will happen when you take the time and effort to put another person first.

So I have an idea.

As I was thinking of how to do a better job serving others, it came to me. Emails. Actually, emails and phone calls. To be precise, responses to emails and phone calls. I have have never witnessed a time where people are less responsive to others. I’m continually surprised at how unwilling some people are to return a phone call or reply to an email in a timely manner.

What amazes me is the great disparity.

Some people (an almost imperceptilbe minority) respond to emails and phone calls quickly and consistently. Most people pick and choose who they respond to. And others (it seems) respond to almost nobody. Either way it’s a cultural catastrophe that we have such little regard for each other as to not respond to people’s attempts to reach us. (And I’m not without blame. I need to improve how I respond too.)

What if you responded to every email and every phone call you received? (I don’t mean the true spam emails and calls trying to sell you ridiculous things you’d never use or need, I mean legitimate emails and phone calls.) What if you defined a “response time” and you stuck to it? It could be 60 minutes. It could be 24 hours. But set a standard, tell people what it is and then do it. What might happen if you did that for 30 days?

Would you meet more people? Yes, I’m sure you would. Would it take more time? Probably but I think it would be time well spent. Would you build up good Karma? Absolutely! Is it possible you’d get more customers coming back? I believe you would. And I believe you would attract new customers too.

Sure it would be more work. But that’s life. Everything of value requires an investment of time, energy or money. Besides, it might not take more time. It might just mean you make room in your schedule for the time it would take to be more responsive. That means making a change.

So think about how this would work for you. Play it out in your head first to get comfortable with it. Then pick a day to start and just do it. Do it for 30 days and see what happens. Be open to whatever the world sends your way because when you start communicating better you open doors of opportunity.

Other articles you might like:

• Be a better customer
• Bad manners are bad for business
• What kind of customer are you?
• It’s Easy to Be Better Than Your Competition
• Be More Responsive Than Anyone Else