Keeping Your Business Ethical

| Sunday, February 12, 2012
By Lynda-Ross Vega


Ethics basically means doing the right thing. If you are an owner of a shop and you just sold a defective product to your customer what would you do? Legally you are protected as there is a principle of contract law that states: Caveat Emptor. This means 'let the buyer beware'. There is no legal necessity on your part to point out to the customer that there are some defects in the product. All you've got to do is to allow the customer to check the product before purchase. However in doing this the customer might just miss the defect or may not even know there is a defect until after purchase.

It is possible that the customer might never find out about the defect. However if he or she does and comes back to confront you on this - what would you do? The ethical thing to do is perhaps apologize for the oversight and take back the product and give a replacement. Naturally this is not a profitable thing to do. So again another question is why would you want to do this?

The answer is simple. If you don't this customer is going to tell about the lack of your integrity and sincerity to a few of his or her friends. In turn, they are going to tell their friends and soon a large number of people will come to about your lack of ethics in doing your business. Now do the math on what this can be translated into.

Keeping your business ethical means keeping it alive. The law does protect manufacturers, service providers and resellers to a large degree. However the underlying purpose of the law is not just to protect business but to offer it some form of foundation that allows them to market their products or services effectively. To interpret the law in a bias sense favoring business and not the customer is not in the best interest of any kind of business.

Customers are the lifeline of businesses. They are gods and without their blessing a business will not survive effectively. Any unethical behavior of business tends to leave a deep impression on a customer who may feel exploited. When this happens they will go some place else.

It is not difficult to keep your business ethical. What you need is a clear statement of fact made known to your customers that you have their best interest in mind. This vision should then permeate itself into every fabric of your organization from top to bottom. Being ethical is not about knowing but showing as well. You have to take opportunities to show your customers that your business believe in sincerity and integrity. That you and your business are prepared to go out of the way to correct any wrong that has occurred and take the appropriate steps to ensure that they do not happen again.

When a business is ethically align customers feel at ease in dealing with the organization. There will be less aggression and if there is an error in the transaction or any untoward damage or injury the customer may prefer a less drastic method of seeking compensation rather than slapping the business with an expensive lawsuit.

It is a fact that people are generally forgiving if they are treated fairly and in humility. Customers perceive businesses as acting in arrogance when they hide behind the protection of the law and do things right. This naturally does not mean it is right thing to do.

The thing about ethics is that it cannot be easily qualified or quantified which makes it difficult to assess whether an action taken or decision made is the right one. Ultimately, business will need to follow their natural instinct to satisfy customer aesthetic need. And there is only one way they can achieve this - by becoming ethically align.




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