Why I'm Always Talking About INTEGRITY

Integrity is one of those traits, those values that has always been a foundation for me. It's interesting that I ended up being an agent for Integrity Merchant Solutions. I want to share with you the evolution of my thinking about Integrity....

Why is INTEGRITY important? I guess I was just brought up believing that the sole measure of worth was someone's word. Did they keep it, or did they break it? If someone was good to their word, they were valued, if not... Well.... We just didn't trust them. It didn't matter how much money someone had... How big their house was... The value of a person, as far as my parents were concerned was based on whether you could trust them. Trust them to their word, and trust them to do the right thing.

My dad was a banker, a branch manager of a large bank in Connecticut that has since been bought/merged/rebought.... But in it's day - Hartford National Bank was the epitome of a great, old fashioned bank. I can still remember the smell of the Torrington, CT branch. It smelled of polished mahogany, steel vaults and a smell that I call "turn of the century". I still get whiffs of it when I visit some antique shops, or someone's home that was built in the 1800's. Dad worked for the bank for 44 years before he retired. The bank had changed over the years, but the one thing that never changed, was my father's integrity. Yes, he took care of the bank - but more important - he took care of his customers. He always did the right thing for them. He always did what he said he was going to do - no matter what he had to do to make it happen. Integrity was the one thing that made his customers love him. (Ask me to tell you my favorite stories about my dad at the bank. They're pretty good. The one about the small business loan being rejected by the home office - PRICELESS!!!!)

Roll forward many years to my work as a business coach. The one thing I always harped on was INTEGRITY. Was that business owner doing what they said? Were they taking care of their customers? Their employees? Were their customers treating THEM with integrity? My roots of honesty, and values were part of every conversation that I had as a coach.

How amazing it is that I ended up working for Integrity Merchant Solutions. First off - I had NO IDEA that most merchant account companies were crooks. I had no idea how much of the industry was represented by people who had absolutely NO INTEGRITY. And quite frankly - had I known how I was going to be treated by the world at large because of their previous work with unscrupulous merchant account agents, I'm not sure I would have come aboard to sell merchant accounts.

But...

My company - Integrity Merchant Solutions - really does earn it's name every day. I've watched the president of the company handle issues with absolute integrity. I have always seen him do the right thing. I have watched him fight to get things handled correctly for my customers. I've seen him make the customer right (even when that customer was wrong....). I've seen him continuously do the right thing in our pricing and our policies. When I introduce myself these days at a networking event, I say: "Hi, my name is Jerry Wistrom with Integrity Merchant Solutions. Everything we do, we do with Integrity." I made that little tag line up - but it fits.

Maya Angelou had a great quote that I've said so many times - I probably mumble it in my sleep:
"When people show you who they are, believe them the first time." There's so much truth in that.

Most companies have worked in the past with merchant account reps that have ZERO INTEGRITY. They get the account, get paid and run. Never to be seen again. That is not the way I work with my customers. I check in on them as needed or wanted. I give them my contact info as their first line of help when they have questions. And I always, always do my best to do everything I do with Integrity. Thanks again dad, for giving me those strong Swedish values. I use them every day.

If there's ever a way that I can help you regarding your merchant account - please feel free to contact me.

Jerry