Have you ever had a bad customer? If you’ve been around a while, I’m sure the answer is yes. He can be most unreasonable! Common sense and standard business practices are of no concern to him. The auto dealer must deal with the guy who wants them to cover what the manufacturer won’t because the dealer sold him the car. The insurance agent must hear complaints because the insurer did not handle a claim to a customer’s satisfaction. The Realtor hears how she should have disclosed faults in a home to a buyer she couldn’t possibly have known about. Dealing with unreasonable people is unfortunately part of doing business. Most of these folks just need to share their frustration. They make some calls and write some letters. Perhaps one gets in the local paper. Their threats are innocuous. They’ll tell their friends not to do business with you. A few take it to the next level. They call you or your staff at home or on your cell. They scream at you’re colleagues in public places. Their obsession drives them to start making up other complaints because their old ones are not getting them enough attention. They take you to court. There’s no way they can win, but you have to show up. You have to waste your time and money to protect what you’ve built over a lifetime. Your personal and your business’s reputation is at risk. The line has been crossed. It’s no longer frivolity. It’s harassment. Imagine your worst bad customer.
Put yourself in the shoes of many of our municipal or school employees and/or elected representatives. This is what the people who work for us as civil servants or volunteers have had to endure. They’ve put up with years of frivolous lawsuits and other malicious litigation. It has escalated into false allegations of a sexual nature and harassing lawsuits against our institutions and their directors as bodies and as individuals.
I urge you to carefully choose where you spend your advertising dollars. Investigate the practices of your advertiser. Review their legal background in public records. Don’t support this kind of unethical activity. With so many newspapers and direct mail options, it only makes good business sense to:
Advertise with Integrity!
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