If your business provides consumer-oriented goods or services, your reputation is very important to you. When I use the term “consumer-oriented,” I mean goods or services that are primarily used for personal or household purposes. That is not to say that businesses that do not directly affect consumers are not worried about their reputations. In fact, they are, because reputation means everything.
Suppose one of your customers claims one of your employees stole an item while they were at the customer’s home making repairs. You interviewed all of the employees who were at the customer’s home. None of them saw the item in question. You speak to the homeowner, and discover that your employees were working in a completely different part of the house than where the homeowner keeps the item. You looked in the company vehicles and do not see any evidence of the item. The only thing supporting the customer’s claim is that the customer was not home at the time your employees were there. The customer files a police report. Your team cooperates, and the police do not find sufficient evidence to support any charges. The customer is insistent that your employees took the item, and is threatening to sue. What do you do?
Continue Reading Defining a Win in Litigation: Saving Reputational Costs
