Integrity – Have You Got It?
Oct 28th 2009adminAdvertising & Business & Marketing & Signage
Here at ICSigns, We Value It
I read somewhere that integrity is defined as doing the right thing when no one is watching. I think that sums it up nicely. We make choices from the time we wake until the time we close our eyes and drift off for the night. Some of the toughest choices we make are those that involve our moral fibre. If I do this, will anyone notice? If I do that, will it come back to haunt me?
We recently had to make a choice about a project that was in mid-production when we noticed a small error in the print. The customer had signed off on the print so we were covered in terms of being liable for the error. However, the error was there and even though no one would probably have noticed it (the customer didn’t), we noticed and we made what I consider to be an ethical or moral decision rather than a financial one.
Now, it wasn’t just one sign, it was twenty. They had all been printed and were ready for the next step in production so we had quite a bit of time and material already invested in this project. I stood looking at the signs with our Production Manager and Production Supervisor (who noticed the problem) and they looked to me for guidance. The decision was mine but I wanted to hear what they had to say. Both thought the job should be reprinted at our expense and I agreed.
I feel very good that both key supervisors in our organization had the same feelings about this as I did. We didn’t like the idea of losing the material and the time we had invested in the project to that point. But we did feel more comfortable in replacing the signs rather than foisting them off on a customer and hoping he wouldn’t notice.
Integrity goes deeper than that in our business. Our customers rely on us to provide materials that will last an appropriate length of time. They are not experts in the signage field, we are. They need to know that we are quoting on and providing materials that will promote their brand for many years without fading or failure. The invoice will be long paid before any deterioration appears in the sign so we could, if we were so inclined, get away with lesser materials and it wouldn’t be noticed for several years. I know there are companies operating on this premise but I can’t for the life of me understand why. It will catch up to them eventually. And the sooner, the better as far as I’m concerned!
ICSigns has been in business for 18 years and some of our best clients have been regular customers for 15 or more of those years. They know we won’t “cheap out” on them because they recognize we have integrity.
How do you demonstrate integrity in your business or personal life? Leave me a comment below. And here at IC Signs, we offer comment luv. If you leave a comment, you will be given the opportunity to provide a link back to your own blog. What could be better than that?
Happy Signing,
Drew
