you don’t want to hang your head

For the past few weeks it seems that I’ve been writing about integrity, credibility, and character.
Last Monday I was visiting with Barry Montgomery of Chapman Enterprises about servicing my Bobcat. It happen to be stuck on our property. We took a ride to see if he could get a trailer to it.
During the ride, we started talking about performing the type of work one can be proud of when he gave me a quote that was simple, to the point and rang so true that I had to mention it in my editorial.
Many times during my children’s formative years I would tell them whenever they do work, their signature is always on it.
By that I meant if the result of their work was to be judged by anyone, they would be proud.
On that same order, Barry and I were talking about the quality of work performed by some of the service businesses. He said, ‘I don’t want to hang my head down when I went to Wal-Mart.’
By that he meant if he ran into a customer at Wal-Mart he wanted to be able to look that customer in the eye knowing that they were happy with the work performed by Barry’s shop.
Getting a customer is one thing. Keeping them as a repeat customer is entirely another.
Of course there are instances with some people that no matter what you did, you couldn’t satisfy them.
That also rings true with friends, relatives and even acquaintances.
The key in my opinion is to do the best job you can do.
Sometimes people expect too much or are completely unreasonable. Like for example in my case.
We are a small community newspaper with a limited staff based on a budget dependent on advertisers and subscribers.
Yet, some expect The Wall Street Journal performance from our little weekly and they get upset when we don’t produce a perfect newspaper.
Believe me it’s not from not trying. It’s just that we’re human and make mistakes. But week after week, we’re always there putting our best foot forward to help the community in every way we can.
After all, we live and work here and our children attend the local schools so we don’t ever intentionally make a mistake and I too also want to walk into any business or store and be able to look satisfied customers in the eye.
One thing for sure is that we’ve got a great community with decent people and businesses and can brag about the beauty of our surroundings.
But in case I have offended anyone, please know that it was never intentional.