What are you afraid of?

By Jim Cathcart

Today is Halloween, so what scares you?
The economy, the climate, the extremists with weapons, the news?

Tonight people will be dressing in crazy and spooky attire and posing the eternal question:
"Trick or Treat?"
Originally that was a Halloween evening request for a bribe to keep "goblins" from doing some mischief. Today I think it's still being asked in far too many ways apart from this holiday. We are being tricked too often.
There are new products and special offers that don't live up to their promise. Vendors are advertising that they truly care about their customers but we find that they treat us like just another revenue carrier, a person bearing money, instead of a client.
As Michael Crichton, the author and screenwriter said not long ago, our biggest challenge is in determining who and what we can trust.

When anyone can put together an impressive video promo, or a fancy press kit with great graphics. When even the crooks know how to look credible and sound trustworthy, who do we trust?
Internet scams, once so transparent as to be laughable, are becoming quite convincing. Most of us know better than to send seed money to Nigeria so that some political refugee can share their millions with us, but it's hard to resist a convincing request for our private data when it comes from a known company with logo, copyright, and wording just like the real thing.

In this environment we all become skeptical. We've long ago learned not to trust what politicians promise us during the campaigns. We've seen decades of infomercials offering the world's greatest hidden discovery for only $19.95...but wait! There's more! Act now and get two of the items plus the special bonus and we will pay the shipping! For the next 100 callers we will....(promise you the Moon).

Trust is and will be the primary commercial currency of this decade. We must not only offer to be trustworthy, we must scrupulously live up to it. We must over-deliver on our promises and guard our reputations as fervently as we guard our money. We've got to learn once again how to be a best friend to our customers and become loyal to them long before we expect them to be loyal to us.
So, let's all pledge to stop scaring people, and start earning their trust.

Happy Halloween,
Jim Cathcart

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