Your reputation, strengthened or negated by word-of-mouth, is one of the most difficult things to build and one of the easiest to destroy. You must be committed to developing and protecting your good name at all costs it is one of your most precious assets.

How do you develop and preserve an exemplary reputation? First, you must believe that honesty, credibility and consistency are right both personally and professionally.

Second, you must consistently deliver what you promise no exceptions.

And finally, you must build and maintain positive relationships, and treat everyone with kindness and respect, regardless of the situation.

Heres a personal example. When I help found my own small, competitive long-distance company I developed a policy on treating customers with specific guidelines and scripts for dealing with difficult ones. Sometimes our service consultants were in the unenviable position of having to terminate a customers service for nonpayment. As you might expect, this often resulted in a frustrated, angry or regretful call into our service center.

We could have used the opportunity to chastised and pressure these folks many companies do. However, no matter what the outcome of the call, we made sure that every person was treated with kindness and respect. Our representatives made every attempt to help these customers often taking great leaps of faith. In other words, we continued to serve when others would not have.

This one policy resulted in more positive testimonials than our other, more formalized, programs. Youd be amazed at how many of these folks ended up becoming some of our best, and most loyal, customers.

During those years I felt tense before answering strangers fated question, So, Mary, what do you do for a living? I was braced for anything from a blank stare to a tirade of complaints. Yet, not one of my current, or former, customers ever complained about how they were treated by any employee of the company even though they may have had other concerns (for example billing errors, service outages). I was also grateful to learn that many defectors eagerly recommended our company to others.

As a person far wiser than me said, A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was. (Joseph Hall)