Public Good and Private Shame

I learned something this week that deeply disturbed me about public life and our personal responsibility within it. The lesson came in the context of a certain car company's attempt to better serve their customers by holding their sales forces accountable to the general public.

The company's policy--which is good because it aims at protecting customers from unethical manipulation by their sales people--centers on follow-up surveys by phone and internet to rate a customer's sense of the service they render. All to the good, given the  less than favorable reptuation that some sales people have left in their wake for others who have been transparent and fair.

What shocked me was how unfairly a good sales person might be treated by a customer--and in turn by the company--in light of a single thoughtless response to the surveys. In one instance, based on a customer's unhappiness with a local agency's hours for service, the sales agent was charged a penalty fee for not putting the customer first, i.e. for a dealership policy over which he/she had no control.

Rightfully disturbed over how we as the public are sometimes treated as customers by pushy sales people, we surely ought be equally as concerned about our own attitudes in the negotiating process--not to mention company policies that punish good employees for customer concerns for which they, not their sales personnel, are responsible.

Here one sees in bold relief the sad things that emerge out of our failures individually and communally to heed a basic biblical principle, i.e. to "do unto others" at every level "as you would have them do unto you."