Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of America

All human relationships, professional and personal, depend on trust. And it is truth that creates trust. Conversely, untruth in all its guises – dishonesty, lying, insincerity, deviousness, lack of integrity – erodes and eventually destroys trust between people.

A promise is a verbal or written engagement to do (or not to do) some specific act. If you don’t do as you promise, then in the eyes of the other person you have placed yourself firmly and squarely in the untruth camp. How does that feel?

There is then a domino effect. Trust levels fall, and that in turn reduces the existing goodwill. As the relationship deteriorates, communication also breaks down. In frustration, the customer eventually takes their custom elsewhere. Dead promises, dead business.

Therefore don’t make promises unless you will keep them. Not intend to keep them, will keep them. If you say ‘Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday’, make sure that it is. Otherwise, don’t say it.

The same principle applies across the board, to deadlines or client appointments, for example. It also applies, of course, to your own internal market at work: never say to a colleague that you will do something and then don’t do it.

If you are ‘seriously let or hindered’ from keeping your promise, then communicate that fact to the customer without delay, together with reasons – not excuses.