Trust, Honesty, and Integrity: Underrated Differentiators in Business

I’ve yet to meet a car dealership who hasn’t tried to scam me.

I had an issue with my starter recently.

Thankfully, it was covered under warranty.

Then they said, “We tested your battery and it failed. Would you like us to replace it? It will be $700, but not covered under warranty.”

Me: “What do you mean it failed? Can’t you just charge it overnight and rerun the test?”

Them: “Oh okay, we can try that.”

Next day, after an overnight charge, they rerun the test and the battery passed.

So had I been a little more trusting, a little more naive, or more rich… I would be out $700 right now.

I have a dozen stories just like this over the years.

It’s really disappointing how “reputable” brands still run their businesses like this.

Trust is such an underrated differentiator.

How about we run our business with honesty and integrity, and by virture of this policy, more customers will continue to do business with us and refer their friends.

This is the difference between short term vs long term thinking.