MaryEllen Tribby: The Day I Went to Court (Part II)

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Last week MaryEllen started to tell you about her jury duty experience and what business lessons she took away from it.

Now don’t get me wrong. Having a sense of responsibility is nothing new for me. I feel it every day, running a company and raising children. But to have to make the decision to send a man to prison or give him back his freedom was new for me.

We are all human – and I will freely admit there have been times during long meetings or events that I have attended, I have momentarily zoned out. But given what was at stake here, I vowed that I would listen intently and consider all the evidence put before me.

And I did that for five hours.

When the testimony was complete, the judge gave us explicit instructions. And when we got to the jury room, I was nominated to be the foreperson. It took us only an hour to make our decision: We found the defendant not guilty. It was clear to us that the state had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

It saddened me to think that there are many countries in the world where this man would not have received a fair trial – where he would have been thrown in prison based on the little evidence there was.

It also made me very proud. Proud that at a time when some people believe it’s fashionable to hate everything American, we have a system that presumes a defendant to be innocent until proven otherwise.

As I drove away from the courthouse that evening, I was happy that I had gone through the process. I was happy about our decision.

I try to learn something from every new experience. And jury duty was no exception. I found two valuable business lessons inside the courtroom that day.

Lesson #1: Five things that you should be doing for your customers.

As I said, I was surprised by how smoothly the check-in process ran. But it was the orientation that really interested me as a marketer. This included a live presentation followed by a five-minute film. In both presentations, the court made the following points:

• They thanked us profusely up front.
• They emphasized the importance of being a juror.
• They broke down the jury selection process into concise steps, so we knew exactly what to expect for the day.
• They gave us many suggestions for what to do at the courthouse while we were waiting to be called.
• They provided clean, comfortable waiting areas – including a quiet room with computers, books, news and lifestyle magazines, as well as puzzles.

There was something to interest just about everyone.

I immediately thought of how this could be related to business. Take a second to think about your own business… and ask yourself:

• Do I thank my customers when they buy my product?
• Do I emphasize the importance of their purchase?
• Do I give them clear instructions on using the product?
• Do I make suggestions for what they can do or accomplish with the product?
• Do I deliver the product in such a manner that it excites my customers to use it?

Check back next week for the other lesson learned by MaryEllen…