May 21st, 2008 at 8:51 am

I think transparency in business is of utmost importance to success. Not only does it help customers see through to your character as a person, but it gives your business the reputation of being honest and trustworthy. If I visit a website that I don’t think is transparent, meaning they are involved in shady practices or it seems like a scam, then I leave without giving it a second thought.

May 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am

Transparency may not be the best choice for everyone. There are some other aspects to be considered too.

May 21st, 2008 at 10:29 am

I do agree that transparency is the perhaps the best policy. I mean, be true to yourself, there is no need to lie or anything. Its easier and i’m sure many ppl would be able to relate to that.

May 21st, 2008 at 12:10 pm

[…] The Art Of Transparency In Business Transparency is explained by Wikipedia as follows. Transparency, as used in the humanities, implies openness, communication, and accountability. It is a metaphorical extension of the meaning used in the physical sciences: a “transparent” object is one that can be seen through. For a busi… […]

May 21st, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Nice post Monika,
I like the story about the bloggers

I agree that transparency is extremely important, especially in an online business like internet marketing.

Customers should worry about any online marketer who isn’t transparent about their practices, because they run the risk of getting your site (and business) into serious trouble.

I think transparency plays two roles. Yeah, you should be open and honest and try to be yourself. But also, be aware that the online world is very public. A business’ practices should be transparent, but be careful with sharing too much personal information. Facebook / Myspace profiles can come back to haunt you if you ever work with a tech savvy business.

Also too much transparency can have some negatives. I love Vic’s blog, personality, and style. He’s one of those guys you either love or hate because he’s so upfront about his views. This is great because you know he isn’t bs’ing you like much of the MMO community, but it does have huge negatives. He gained a lot of attention for his personality, but has also closed some doors. It doesn’t effect his business model, but that type of publicity would be very negative for sites like Court’s.

May 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm

I think transparency is the best policy. But who’s to say I am except for myself. When it comes down to it, a person can say their transparent all they want but who is to say they are. Some people online are really good at creating alters. I have run into a few. Then you find out they are actually someone else. So is it better as a reader to believe the transparency or take it with a grain of salt?

May 21st, 2008 at 4:21 pm

I completely agree with you Monica. For me transparency is about trust, someone who makes a mistake and can openly and candidly admit it then that admission lends credance of it being a genuine mistake, on the other hand silence and non-accountability leaves the feeling that a mistake did not occur and the original infraction was done with malice.

May 21st, 2008 at 4:32 pm

I rarely have time to read, let alone comment on blogs these days, but I’ve always respected and admired Court. This topic is of HUGE importance in my life, online and off.

Our online personalities reflect our inner being. Our words, whether spoken or written, like our body language, are merely part of who we are.

Being open and honest is part of our personality. If a business has policies that are contradictory, vague, misleading, etc, you can bet the person who runs the business is the same as well. And might employ others like that person. That’s why due diligence is vital in all aspects of our lives!

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Like attracts like.

Two things attracted me to Court’s site about a year ago: he upgraded existing themes which others designed. He added SEO features and explained what he did. I really liked his ingenuity. Then when he started this blog, his enthusiastic voice and informative substance won me over compared to other similar online personalities.

The people who might be turned off by Court’s personality miss the bigger picture: his theories, discussions, business manner, work habits, and most of all, his very wise giving nature.

I know that all too well! Some very actively conspire or blacklist me on projects that I should be involved in because they don’t like my personality. I’m the most prominent person in my field, yet others hate me for that. They rather leave me out than utilize my photos, stories, contacts, skills, marketing, etc. Bite their noses to spite their faces. I know a few are just jealous and hateful, and others clueless and lazy. So I just have to focus on those who “get” all that I bring to the party!

I am far too creative, intelligent, honest, loud, passionate, enthusiastic, motivated and driven and that really pushes a lot of buttons. All my life I’ve taken a beating for that.

Why do people beat me up for that? Because they don’t trust themselves enough to open up. They don’t trust others. We are all very complex beings, and logic takes a back seat to integrity, transparency and all that. Oh the devious people I’ve dealt with! Being a rock photographer has and continues to expose me to all kinds of careless, thoughtless, selfish, sick toxic people. C’est la vie!

But it’s also teaching me valuable lessons about the business world and becoming a much stronger woman for it. I never thought of myself as strong, but I’m amazed at what I’m doing. So many tell me I’m strong, and I wonder where that came from? Life lessons. I will never ever be deceptive or manipulative. It’s not my nature, so it’s hard for me to discern when others are, but again, what is life but learning experiences every day? Use these experiences to build your inner strength and resolve to maintain your integrity and reduce your vulnerability to professional predators.

Being online now attracts far more who love and appreciate all that I am and that balances the nasty personalities in my life. Whatta world! It’s big enough to find/make community, no matter who you are. Gotta love it!

Lincoln said it best: can’t please all the people all the time.

I’ve spent far too many years trying to please people who resent and hate me for being so giving, so honest. I’ve struggled with businesses and people who don’t see a problem with their personalities nor business practices. They think they are honest, but they are deceptive, guilty of sometimes deliberate errors and omissions. It’s a long convoluted story beyond the scope of this blog.

My mission is to learn to accept all this, not to beat myself up when something beyond my control happens, to listen/read better and most of all, trust my instincts before spending much time with anyone or any projects. Sometimes you have to move on. (Stephen Sondheim brilliantly examines that in “Sunday in the Park with George” and the song “Move On.” Not for nothing he’s getting a special Lifetime Tony Award on June 15).

Remember, when one door closes, another one opens.

So instead of worrying about who is transparent or not, spend time finding and attracting those whose visions, personally and professionally, align with yours. When you start to do that, the world really opens up.

Yes, it’s a struggle. Yes, you and I will continue to be burned, because people are devious and things happen. We all get burned, even those who do the manipulating. No one is immune. But you can hold the feet to the fire of companies who advertise one thing and do another. It’s also how you approach it.

I constantly run into issues and I always emphasize: this experience is a good customer service learning experience. I don’t want someone to think I’m just a complaining woman, cos they often don’t want to deal with that and I won’t get help. I want them to understand, if possible, or at least hear/read, that I asked certain things first, I read what they posted or listened to what they said BEFORE I made the purchase or signed on with them, and they let the customer down.

Sometimes they get it, sometimes not. But by telling them I want their business to succeed, maybe they will help me. If they still give me a hard time, I threaten to blog them and worse (there’s laws against false advertising). Hey, I can and do fight fire with fire.

Sometimes people just don’t care. Usually they don’t stay in business or they never achieve the kind of success they could have. Not my problem.

I was just meditating on this issue when I read the email from Court. I ran into some issues the past week.

An offer from Amazon and a publisher wasn’t quite the deal it was supposed to be. Amazon told me to contact the publisher. I pursued it, despite a nasty publisher customer service email. I managed to get hold of someone who actually remembered me from the past when I was a computer trainer. I told him I could have blogged it, but because it’s my favorite computer book publisher, I wanted to alert them to the problem, not just the offer but the way I was being treated. He sent me a nice box of books and thanked me for pointing out the problem (which was promptly fixed on Amazon). Sweet!

I had an issue with a new piece of s/w I bought. I kept insisting they help me, and last night, I got the help I needed. Nice. Not out of the woods yet, but I need to do some more research first. I never ask for help unless I’ve done my part and hit the wall. It took far more time and some strong wording from me than should have been necessary. But they finally provided what they advertised.

It would have been far wiser if they responded from the beginning, because it took less time for them to fix the problem than for me to struggle with it. I also wrote and posted some really negative things because they simply wouldn’t take me seriously. I have never made public the things I posted, but they wanted me to use their forum. The irony is I love their product. I just wanted to use an advertised feature.

Today I’m dealing with my new bank cos they put a hold on checks and my rent is due this week. They were not transparent nor honest about their check holding policy. I spent hours, but one check is going through and waiting for the second. It took a lot of time and work to get their attention because some employees were uncaring robots, some finally realized my desperation (lots of follow-up calls will do that).

Not MY fault this situation occurred, so I wasn’t going to turn down pressure on them. I’m not going to be evicted cos they didn’t tell me their policy when I asked before I became a customer. Will I change banks? Yes, because their policies are far worse than my past bank, and I still have that account open. Some of their employees are caring, but are limited by their very restrictive policies. AND they were not transparent, despite many phone calls trying to glean their TOTAL policy on holding deposits.

Transparency also has to do with integrity, overall business attitude and intrinsic personalities.

Some people think they are very transparent when they are extremely closed about many things. Some people will never open up, no matter what. I recently was briefly involved with someone who thought he had a fine personality, when he was very deeply troubled. Very private and very cold and I’m so open and warm, giving and trusting. He was so surprised when he attempted to talk to me on Mother’s Day. I told him we had nothing to discuss. The look of surprise and incomprehension on his face verified I had nothing to discuss. He had been rude, cold and dismissive to me for weeks. Don’t need that in my life!

Neither of us will change, and I simply don’t have time for people like that. I have too many other friends. Like attracts like, and I’ve attracted so many great people online. And no, I don’t reveal some private things online — so true it can come back to bite you.

But I don’t reveal some things in public either, just one-on-one with trusted pals. But some things we do or should keep close to our heart. Betrayals are too common, especially today with so many people on edge and finances so tough.

So that’s that from a formerly shy woman, who has dealt with thousands of various personalities in her life. I’ve had a compulsive need to please everyone, teach everyone their lives will be better through understanding honesty is the best policy. Oy vey, if only everyone intrinsically “got” that! Buyer beware, be careful “in[to] the woods” (another Sondheim musical, if you want to know about deception — listen to that!).

Why does every culture have fairy tales? We need to teach children to listen, to obey, to be careful of wolves in sheep’s clothing or grandma’s nightgown. But for every wolf we run into, we will find more caring, honest people using our discerning eyes and being honest ourselves.

Life is what you make it. If you worry about or try to convince people to be more honest, have more integrity, well, you might be whistling in the wind. “Be the change you want to see,” as Gandhi stated. Set an example and fight the good fight. But it’s hard enough to live our lives to high standards, let alone expect it of others who could care less or just can’t. Focus on being the best you can be, and let the cards fall where they may.

So I sound like a bunch of cliches. Well, grab onto wise words wherever you find them and don’t let go!

And HAVE FUN! Life is too short to worry about that which you cannot change. Focus on what you can do! Namaste!

May 21st, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Oh, silly me, I forgot if I quote using double <, the quote disappears and only appears. Oops, that was a vital quote that is hidden:

Being open and honest is part of our personality. If a business has policies that are contradictory, vague, misleading, etc, you can bet the person who runs the business is the same as well. And might employ others like that person. That’s why due diligence is vital in all aspects of our lives!

“He gained a lot of attention for his personality, but has also closed some doors. It doesn’t effect his business model, but that type of publicity would be very negative for sites like Court’s.”

Like attracts like.

May 21st, 2008 at 7:12 pm

Transparency to me ALSO means providing your full contact details - name, address, phone, email address etc - on your web site, and NOT hiding behind a contact form.

Without them, you put that seed of doubt into the mind of a potential customer… With them, you’ve taken the first step to building trust.

Cheers
Stephen Spry

May 21st, 2008 at 8:05 pm

Yes, transparency does show guts and character, and to get your customers/visitors to trust you, transparency goes a long way to achieving that trust.

However, for me, the biggest problem with the issue of transparency is when someone says they are transparent and gives us examples of that transparency to ‘prove their case’, but omits to tell us of other areas where they have been much less open.

As Stephan said above, we often have think whether we should take a writer’s transparency with a grain of salt.

Overall yes, transparency is important in business, but in setting yourself up as transparent and then not following it through to the letter, you are setting yourself up for a fall.

I think that, at the end of the day, all we can do is our best to be true to ourselves and, as you say, being able to face ourselves in the mirror without remorse.

May 22nd, 2008 at 2:49 am

I would never put my home address online, let alone a separate mailing address. I do provide that to my customers after they’ve written to me. I embed many links to my email addy or a contact form, and references all over my site saying “write me,” and “contact” on the top and bottom.

I hate hate hate businesses that hide their contact info, or make you go through hoops to finally get to their contact page. And these are often big companies, not home-based or small businesses.

I ONLY use myspace because it’s a music/art gathering spot. It’s been great to reconnect with pals from the past or new fans. I think the only people who make money from it are primarily musicians and some artists. It’s not a serious site.

Good example: I hate hate hate their emailing section. I can’t put emails into folders like Outlook/Entourage. So the nice little fan emails get mixed up with some more serious ones which need follow up, so I usually forget to follow up. It often takes forever to get into my mail. So what do I do? I put on myspace page: do not write me here but care of my website and embed a link, one of those mailto: whatever, to my regular email.

I even post bulletins or items wherein I want a response and tell people not to write me via myspace.

So what do most people do? write me via myspace. We are not talking about professionals. I don’t think I’ve sold one photo via myspace, but many via my site.

So would I ever reveal anything personal on myspace? No. On my website, not really. You gotta draw the line.

Secondly, email and web posting is a very fine art. It’s so easy to open yourself up and be honest and be misunderstood. You have to think about people who don’t know you, who think differently, come from different points of view, even if they share the same interests. You gotta be careful or you will find yourself backtracking, dodging bullets and worse.

Well, that’s my 2 cents worth.

And the reason I write so much about this is I’m a veteran of these kinds of online and real life warfare. It’s amazing the power of words to connect, alienate, make things better or worse. You lose two things: tone of the voice and dialogue vs monologue.

Monika, sometimes it’s better not to give the benefit of the doubt to others. Sometimes it’s better to question them or yourself why they should be trusted. Do their actions or words merit it? Because in too many cases, they really think they are transparent and you think not and that could drive you crazy. Look, I met someone who wouldn’t talk to me about his work, even though we both are photographers. He’s starting out, I’m famous (and I don’t shoot now but only work on my archive), but in different fields. He didn’t want to hear about my room-mate or friends or anything. He simply was one of the most closed off people I’ve ever met. And as you can tell I’m one of the most open people (or at least one of the most talkative). But he thinks he’s got a great personality and a good person.

What can I tell you? We all perceive differently. It’s important to question your perception, but just as importantly, to put yourselves in another’s shoes, if you can. Tough stuff, but the more we do that, the easier it comes. Helps us to move and survive.

Oops, just got an email. I don’t want to brag, but I just finished sending photos to England for an official Ramones calendar with only my pix. and they want a shot of me! I have a fun shot of Dee Dee Ramone and myself, and have to resize it for them. It was such a trip tonight to look through hundreds of Ramones shots and then catch part of “End of the Century,” the section with one of my shots. Memories. I just don’t have time to deal with people these days, and yet I am dealing with more people every day. The cost of doing business, no matter what your business!

That is why this issue is so important to discuss. But I really think we all have our own interpretation and although it’s great to share, I wonder how many of us will walk away thinking differently? Oh does that sound negative? Just kinda goes with the topic.

Monika, I want to read your blog about namaste. I just started studying yoga, partially to deal with the crazy peeps and mi vida loca! I can’t believe how much my body is responding to yoga! Now I have to spend less time with troublesome people and more time on yoga.

Pls send me your link — you can find my addy at my site: jennylens.com. Take care all!

May 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm

It’s not as cut and dry as you all make it out to be. All businesses should make at least their email contacts easily available (and more than one spot on their blogs/site, at least every page and maybe at least header and footer), and if several employees/consultants involved, more than one contact.

They should then make more info available IF the need arises. If a customer or pre-sales potential customer requests further info from someone else, they should get another email contact. Addresses and phone numbers should be provided under careful consideration. Thieves, liars, crooks, and just crazy, bored people who love to make life miserable for others in this large world (I speak from experience).

I am shocked that people expect full disclosure of contact info online for all businesses. NO ONE has ever questioned nor doubted me and I only provide an email. Perhaps it’s is dependent upon the kind of business you are doing (and your reputation in the field). I’ve been told to get an unlisted number (which made my life worse, people don’t trust unlisted callers) and never give out my home address. But I have inventory and perhaps that makes a difference.

Next, if you are a consultant, or selling via affiliates, why would initially only giving out contact info beyond your email address be relevant? What would I do with a phone number in England or Australia: spend a small fortune calling them at a very different time zone?

People order my photos and rarely obtain anything beyond my email address and then my mailing address on the return address of my package. People are thrilled and surprised I actually answer all my emails, whether paying customers, fans, people interested in licensing, whomever.

However, I’m about to buy s/w for Joomla. For weeks I’ve written and written via their site, myspace (the only contact I found for their founder, a woman with a friendly smile who can’t bother to write me back), dug up a couple email addys of the folks listed on their site, in addition to their site, and no, they don’t list their phone number online or could I find it in any free phone listings.

You better believe not only does it make me wonder what is wrong with them, but do their products work or most of all, will their business survive or will I be stuck with an outdated product in a year or two?

I contacted one of their customers (because they had a list of customers on their site) and he verified the Joomla extension I want does work. We discussed other extensions, so he isn’t a paid parrot for them, just a nice guy in the same situation as I.

The other issue is although their customer service person responded to me, it took many, many emails to finally get the info I needed from him. He is the worst customer service/tech support person I have met, and I’ve been in that end of the computer industry.

I’ve taught and been using computers for 20 years, so I’ve seen all kinds of companies come and go (and those outside of this field). I’ve even written to this company about that issue.

I wonder how much they care they are losing customers because I bet I’m not the only one with these issues, but one of the few to write them about it. Although finding email addys was not easy, and some of the top people could not be contacted, I did better than most, but still concerned about how long will they stay in business with this horrible attitude.

This lack of response and transparency totally contradicts what they say on their site. So it makes me wonder if their products work (and from that one customer, not all work as advertised).

I think they are arrogant and figure their products are so good with their friendly, proud, confident spin on their site, they don’t need to hear from us. Or they only pay attention to paying customers via their forum, but pre-sales aren’t important. Or they thought I’m stupid and a pest (that’s really what I think).

Their products might be fine, but I wonder who long will they last. And that makes me wonder if their product will stay around as long as I need it!

Why do I bother: because so far their product is the ONLY extension that does something I really want/need to do with my blog/site.

That’s where transparency is really an issue. Combined with business practices, it will be the difference whether a business lasts or not at some point. As the Small Business Association said years ago, 80% of businesses fail due to bad management. Management is all about their policies and how they treat customers because customers are the ones who really suffer.

So here’s my question: what if you don’t have a choice, that you want the product, but not only their site is vague about contact info, or other things, but their customer service lacking? No matter your decision, it’s never easy.

One thing to mention: this company offers a 30 day money back guarantee. So I’ll get the product, put it through its paces, ask questions on the forum, and if I’m still running into problems, discontinue usage and request my money. But I’m praying it works out! Always the optimist, no matter what, but trying to balance with pragmatism too!

May 24th, 2008 at 5:30 am

I agree with most of what you say there about being transparent, but sometimes it makes sense to withhold certain information and only give as much information as may suit the requirement at that particular point of time.

May 26th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

You are right on with this post.

In the stock market, I never invest in any company that is not transparent. I need to know what they are doing, getting company news every day, and being able to trust management is doing the right things. This is also true in blogging, and you make a great point.

May 27th, 2008 at 5:26 am

[…] the course of hundreds of blog posts.    Blogging is great when you’re open to engaging in the Art of Transparency.  However, if you don’t know shit… then blogging can be a real […]

May 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

[…] a few steps further and helps establish an even deeper connection with your customers. According to Court’s Internet Marketing School, being transparent has the following […]

May 28th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

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