A while back my brother and I were talking and laughing about an episode of Sanford and Son when one of Grady’s cousins came to visit him.  The first night on her way to bed she told Grady, “In the morning, I’m gonna make a biggggg breakfast.”  The next morning rolled around she was “too sick” to make the breakfast.  Not only did she not make a bigggg breakfast, but she “guilted” Grady into waiting on her hand and foot all day.  At the end of that day she made the same promise.  The next morning there was a new excuse.  This went on for three or four days, with an excuse each day for why she couldn’t deliver on her promise.

This got me to thinking…how many times do we make big promises to our customers and fail to deliver?  I’ve heard it said many times, it’s better to under promise and over deliver than to make promises we can’t (or don’t) keep.  If we want to maintain our integrity we must keep every promise we make without excuses.