Words are powerful
OCTOBER 17, 2007 (WEDNESDAY) – My mind goes back many years to one of our church’s suppliers in Corpus Christi. The church did a lot of business with that company. After the company changed owners and managers, we continued buying from them because we were accustomed to their products. One day our secretary placed an order as she had done many, many times through the years, but when it arrived by mail service, the package did not contain all the things she had ordered. We were billed, however, for everything she had ordered. So she called the company to report their packing error.
Before going on with this story, I need to tell you that we had enjoyed an exceptionally friendly relationship with the former owners, managers and sales people. We did a lot of business with them. Sometimes they would come by the church office and we would have coffee together. That’s the way it had been in the past.
But on the day the secretary called to report the error in packing, she was answered abruptly and rudely by the new owner. “Who should I believe?” he asked, “you or my employee?” What do you think our secretary told him? Three guesses for you, and the first two don’t count. I can relate to you that she was nice, but insistent that she was only reporting facts to him.
I can tell you who that new owner should have believed. When one of your best customers tells you a mistake has been made, you will make a lot more money in the long run by agreeing than by disagreeing. Not only did the new owner not build his business and make it better; he watched it shrink and finally go bankrupt. No surprise. The old adage was, “The customer is always right.” No one has ever improved upon that slogan.
In fact, business or no business, good relationships between people can be sustained only when mutual respect prevails. Think long and hard before you question a person’s integrity. Doors that would have been opened to vast vistas of opportunity have been slammed shut, never to be reopened, by careless and thoughtless words.
“It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation (Matt 12:34-37 The Message).”