What does loyalty mean?

Here in Middle TN, it is a Sunny Friday. For many, today is also payday and that is a financial relief as well as a means to pay the bills that every family has.

I do know how great it feels when you meet a work deadline and hear the words "Thank You for hanging in there with me and getting this done".

Loyalty is not what it used to be. People used to shop at the same store all the time because of the relationship with the owners. Like the small towns where everyone knows the name of the pharmacist and his family or the Registrar of Deeds was the same gentleman for 35 years, things like that are getting pretty rare.

For me, I try to stay loyal until I am burned and there is nothing left to stay loyal to.

There is a restaurant here in town where you could find me nearly every Saturday for a year or more and I truly was treated like family by most people at this place. Then something changed, management, atmosphere or even the food quality and it got weird to even be there.  Over the past 6 months, the only time I would visit this place was if my friend was working as a server that night because the owner gave me the creeps.  Once I married my husband the owner started saying things that I took inappropriately and just made me feel yucky to be around him.  Now that my friend has had some life changes, I will no longer be spending any money at that restaurant.

When you are in sales, you do your best to take your clients at their word. You give them your card, provide superb service and they tell you they will call you back. This rarely ever happens and if they show back up at your place of business they end up buying from another salesperson instead of you. That hurts morale, that hurts customer service and is just not the way to treat people.  Having been in sales for over 23 years personally, I realize some of this is marketing on the salespersons behalf, but the client has some responsibility as well. 

So the next time you get a phone call asking you how you liked your new 'car/jewelry/candle/gift' don't be ugly, don't hang up on the caller, speak to them and if you are unhappy, give them the chance to provide a solution instead of being ugly/nasty to them.   They are not your whipping post!