Announcement
to Shepherds
And there
were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And, lo, the angel
of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them:
and they were much afraid. And the angel
said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; You shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men
(emphasis mine).
In human affairs, nothing is truer than that goodwill
is not reciprocated unless specific conditions exist. Take the goodwill from customers coveted by a
company. Several conditions are
necessary:
· The customer pool has a capacity for goodwill
arising from its recognition of outstanding service. Extant in the customers must be a generous
spirit that is congruent with the development goodwill.
· The customers through cynicism do not foreclose
the possibility of goodwill.
· Some sort of transaction with or exposure to the
company takes place.
· The company itself keeps as a priority the
creation and maintenance of customer goodwill. In short, the company must itself demonstrate goodwill.
· Development of a corporate culture in which
conditions for goodwill are met by most employees most of the time.
· An appreciation on the part of the company of
the practical value of abstract, hard to precisely quantify assets.
· The ability of the company and customer to take
risks in relationships. Even after
lawyers hammer down a 30 page contract, it remains a plain fact that spirit not
legalize seals deals.
· Efforts to track customer satisfaction after a
transaction.
· The absence of the noise and interference of religious,
racial, class, institutional, etc. prejudices and discrimination. The anger of resentment destroys goodwill.
· A commitment to the hard disciplines of tough
love—it’s performance that counts.
· A tolerance for acceptable imperfection. An understanding that sometimes situational factors
can intervene to make performance less than ideal. In these situations, one must be willing to
empathize if goodwill is to be maintained.
· An absence of spin and a rich supply of
information foster goodwill.
· Adequate resources on both sides are required to
maintain a good business relationship.
· An appreciation of time and space requirements
is necessary.
· An attitude of mutuality during transactions.
The angels at Jesus’ birth declared “good will toward
men.” Since the customer pool in this
case was all humanity, it is clear that complete mutuality in this relationship
was hampered by the nature of the customer pool. For some, reciprocal goodwill was and remains
simply beyond comprehension—a mystery not worth the effort to puzzle out.
