Sometimes we’re presented with a situation at Collegewise where the right thing to do isn’t obvious. A potential customer asks if they can have a discount on the program. A student makes a joke that could be taken as though her safety is in question. A family wants to bring a friend to a seminar that’s just for families in our full program. When in doubt, I always ask myself one question.
What if this were going to be on the news?
Nobody watching CNN cares whether we decide to give a family a discount. But when I imagine this as a headline story, one that all of our customers, potential customers, employees, and the general public would see, the right thing to do usually becomes clear.
Giving one family a discount just because they asked for one might feel like a smart move at the time to get another customer. But if it were on the news, every other family who paid full price would feel unfairly cheated. The news scenario almost always works for me.
As a private business, we’re not legally mandated to report concerns about a student’s safety. But if something happened to our student and it was covered on the news, would we be comfortable with that explanation (and would our conscience be OK)? No way.
The seminar situation actually happened last weekend. We ran a special workshop as a bonus for our full-program families and one wanted to bring a friend. We had room, but there were other families who’d bought hourly package programs with us who were not invited to attend.
We told the family to go ahead and bring their friend.
If this were on the news, I’d say that this family had bought the most expensive thing we sell. They’ve referred business to us. They wanted to introduce a potential new family to us. A family like that is more than just a customer. They’re a Collegewise fan, the kind that keeps us in business. I said yes because we take care of our biggest fans. And I'd be fine with that quote appearing on the news.