Being good matters

WHEN was the last time you walked out of a restaurant, a bank or any place that provides service and you said, “The food here is good” or “The service of this bank is good”?

Not that I want to be a pessimist but I suspect there are not that many times you can remember complimenting a person or a company for good service or product or a job well done.

These days, especially now with social media, we hear more about people or places that provide low grade products or bad service. And we wring our hands in despair and rage. We wonder why we are at the so-called mercy of these people or company whom we pay our hard-earned money to. Do they not have the decency to, at least, provide us with acceptable goods or services since we are paying them?

Recently, I was speaking to a job applicant about my emphasis on delivering quality work. I told the person that I believe we should do good work or not at all, regardless of the type of work we do.

The person then asked me, “But what if my version of good is not your version of good? Perhaps I think what I did is good but you may think it is not good enough?”

That got me thinking about how people define or perceive good. Perhaps they think there is no real definition of good and it is up to the individual?

I personally believe that good work or good products and services can be easily defined. My litmus test is always to put ourselves in the other person’s point of view and ask ourselves if we will pay money for what we are selling or providing and if yes, how much.

If we ourselves will not pay that amount of money for the work or product we deliver or sell to a customer, why do we expect our customers to pay us for it? It is as simple as that.

The same applies to employees too. Why do we think we deserve to be paid that certain amount of salary if we are delivering shoddy work and constantly thinking of ways to do the least possible in the company? In fact, we are not paid to work. We are paid to do good work. Just think of it this way — if we order food in a restaurant, will we pay for good food or will we pay for the food just because someone was hired to prepare it?

Actually, one of the reasons that indirectly caused me to start my marketing consultancy company more than three years ago stemmed from the service I received from vendors and service providers while I was working as a marketing head.

I was frustrated because I was paying a lot of money and receiving bad service. My peers felt the same way. To cut a long story short, my company was started because I saw that void in the market and I wanted to show that good work in marketing IS possible. In fact, my company now has this standard about the work we do — we do not want to just meet expectation. We want to exceed expectations.

Yes, some people will already feel the stress and pressure just by reading the above statement. And admittedly, constantly having to exceed expectations is not an easy task. It means harder work, more sacrifice, more thinking and a lot more commitment.

It means going the extra mile and not doing the just enough.

It means you take ownership of the work that your hand or mind produces. It is YOUR work and you want it to be good. Not sloppy, not half-baked, not low-standard.

But the result of aiming to do good work is satisfying because in the end, your good work will know how to advertise itself. This is important especially for SMEs who do not have a big advertising budget.

It is like light in the midst of darkness. Someone once said, ‘Let us stop cursing the darkness, but introduce the light’. May your good work shine!

Jeanisha always wonders if people really mean it when they answer “I am good” when they hear the standard greeting of “How are you?” She is often tempted to reply, “I am not good” just to see the response. If you believe in good work too, share with her at [e-mail].