Hmm…. and, at times, grrr …. Our sphere of work can be challenging. In fact, it is most days of the week. I cannot count the number of occasions in the last two weeks alone that I have had to break the news to people I have never met that someone in their family has passed away. When I say that, I mean – they didn’t know.
More often than not, we are one of the first telephone calls or first letters (if not, the first) the individual has received. Imagine that as the recipient of the call/letter. An unexpected contact, out of the blue, from someone you do not know. And then, you get another company contacting you about it …. and another…. and another.
For our Senior Research Team, we never know what to expect when we dial a telephone number. Will our call be received well, or not? Will another company have been in touch with the potential beneficiary and broken the ice already? If we send a letter out, will the recipient communicate with us in any way?
Cracking a case is about a quarter of the battle, if not less. We don’t sign every case we crack. No-one does. We pride ourselves on high moral values and an ethical approach to our profession. If people choose another company to represent them, that’s fine. We will never lower ourselves to lying to people to get contracts signed.
However, others do it would seem. Two companies have come to our attention recently, encouraging folks to break contracts with us as other members of the family had signed with them and also, telling people they had been in contact and been asked to represent other family members when they had not. It’s a challenging game but lying is too far below the belt for words.
Telling pork pies to seal a deal is not right. It’s not ethical. It’s not professional. Stop.
[If in doubt of the translation of the term ‘pork pies’, check out the Urban Dictionary.]
