How important is it for you to keep your word? Although it may sound a little old fashioned, keeping your word will never go out of style. But what, exactly what does it mean to "keep your word?"

Simply this: to honor any commitment you make to another person. I recently experienced the downside of this with a local business (come on, you know who you are, don’t you). Due to a very unfortunate situation I was promised a refund only to have the person in question change his mind after he had committed to an agreed upon refund of thousands of dollars.

What was the result? Not only did it cost my firm the lost refund, but it also impacted us in lots of other indirect ways that "Mr. Change His Mind" could never comprehend. It impacted us in other financial ways, slowed down our ability to recover, upset our entire firm and caused me lots of extra time and work.

Meeting commitments, exceeding expectations and customer satisfaction are all 21st century ways to say that keeping your word is not out of style. Unfortunately, I am very concerned, and more and more convinced, that we have raised a whole generation of businesspeople who believe that failing to meet a commitment is acceptable. Perhaps even a way of life. Perhaps even a business strategy.

Lest you think that keeping your word is only about products or services that cost lots of dollars, let me give you another example. My wife and I were recently shopping for a relatively inexpensive item – a bed frame. She called one store where the salesperson promised to call her back at a specific time. No call. We then went to the store and were promised that the item would be brought from another store the next day. I went to pick it up and – you guessed it – no bed frame. I was then dispatched by the salesperson to the "other" store to pick it up.

I did get the frame – from another, totally different store. They had it in stock and I had it in 15 minutes! The difference between this example and the first one is that I could readily go somewhere else and pick up the item. In the case of the refund, I was stuck for lots of money. This case was time.

The bottom line? Whether it is business to business or business to consumer, the principle is the same. Meet your commitments, honor you obligations – simply keep your word.

In our seminars we talk a lot about promising a lot and delivering even more. Perhaps the whole issue is more basic than that. Perhaps it is simply doing what you say you’ll do. And that’s not only the courteous way to do business, it’s the only way.

Woody Allen may have been right when he said that a lot of success is simply showing up! Why is that? Lots of people really don’t show up at all – and if they do, their ethics, honesty and commitment simply don’t.

Let’s look at some how-to-do-it tips that may help people keep their word (it’s really sad that I even have to do this). Here they are: