Recently, I had the good fortune of meeting with the owner of one of the most admired and well-known brands within St. Louis (hint: they make pizza). The meeting was to present some new screen designs (which our amazing design team absolutely killed, by the way), but we were able to spend a little time talking about business philosophy and life in general.

Toward the end of the meeting she made it a point to share with us that one of the reasons she picked our firm for the website redesign was due to the fact we… well…had integrity. She was genuinely thankful in how we approached the relationship.

I like to tell clients “we try to work ourselves out of a job,” meaning we don’t purposefully lock ourselves into having any client rely on us for continued service/support (which seems to be a sales strategy for many firms). Instead, we work hard to empower our clients to better understand technology and then help them better leverage technology themselves to support their overall business objectives. Many of our projects actually end with our taking the time to train our clients to do a job we could easily charge a lot of money for. It’s like old proverb of teaching a man to fish… we want our clients to eat for a lifetime.

Somewhat surprisingly, a few of our clients have even questioned why we would be so unselfish in our approach.

The answer is simple.

We believe every project we do, and every client we have, is a reflection of us as a company. We strive to paint all our work with excellence, pride and, perhaps most importantly, by staying true to who we are.

We do business with Integrity. Do you?

Ed Morrissey, Partner and Chief Creative Officer of Integrity, will be presenting “The Importance of Design” at the 2010 St. Louis Innovation Camp held at UMSL Campus JC Penny Conference Center, February 26-28.

“Every great idea starts in the design phase,” says Morrissey, who brings over 18 years of experience building and selling businesses, launching products and opening markets for both start-ups and Fortune 1000s. “And this presentation will highlight the benefits and opportunities that good design creates for start-ups, product developers and anyone interested in launching an idea.”

Please join members of the entrepreneur, information technology and marketing communities as they join forces with local businesses to offer this one-of-a-kind startup and innovation camp.

For more information, visit the St. Louis Innovation Camp site at http://www.stlinnovationcamp.com/.

Personally, I have never been a fan of Domino’s pizza. After college, bad food delivered quickly didn’t hold much appeal – but I will definitely buy my next pizza from them.

Why?

Because on national TV they admitted their pizza was bad, apologized and explained how their all new pizza will be dramatically better. As a customer, they listened to me and have taken bold steps to win me back. Awesome.

This kind of brutally honest self reflection is applicable to us all – especially when a sale could be worth millions of dollars. Do you actively search out what is said about your company, products or services through social media channels? Have you interviewed your clients to understand how they really feel? Is there is a separation of expectation? If so, how do you respond?

The brands that last are the ones that consistently make good on the promises they make. Think long term, embrace criticism and don’t be afraid to head back in the kitchen with a fresh perspective.