SMB Cornerstones: Part 2: The Truth

Let me start this thought out by being bold and stating the truth. I have been slacking on getting my blog entries written. There are several excuses I could use, but the truth is based more around just being lazy. Can I write this? Can I stomach your opinion for telling the truth? The answer is "YES" of course.

I think many of us mistakenly underestimate the power of the truth. I demand this as a cornerstone for business. Sometimes it really hurts. Last year I can remember 2 situations occurring to both Crystaltech and HostMySite. Crystaltech suffered a strong DDOS on Cyber Monday and it took us 4 hours to contain. On all available forums and phone support, we kept our customers up to date as much as possible and told them the truth. Yep, I had news media calling me, blogs elsewhere talking about it and several customers with concerns. HostMySite suffered a fiber cut to a main feeder. They also publicly let everyone know what was happening and faced the truth. We both professional handled the issue, did what we could to get all systems back up as soon as possible and met the challenge head on. Maybe this type of professionalism gives us more power to be truthful.

Sure there are times when security sensitive information cannot be given out to the masses. I think this is a naturally accepted, as long as it is not used as a shield to lie about what is really happening.

OK, so how do we measure this? How can you tell if your company, employees and customers are being truthful and can you metric this notion? The "truth" is I don't know. I think the tactics I use is to stop any conversations about altering or changing perception during an issue. I always revert back to the truth with all staff. Then we monitor our phone and email support to see if quality is there, also looking for the truth in statements.

I guess lastly, I would not be truthful unless I stated I hope everyone else does not live by this. I would like nothing more than to have this as a well known cornerstone for us and captivate our customers.

Cornerstones: Customer Service and the Truth. Don't want to live by these? Good, I will take every one of the customers who also see this as an important fact.