What fairness means to us, as parents & customers

“It’s not fair, it’s not fair,” is a phrase we hear a lot as parents, acknowledges Julie-Ann at Supermummy. Children are exquisitely attuned to the issue of unfairness. We certainly don’t want to see it in our dealings with adult life and our bank.

“My Granny used to say treat everyone the way you would like to be treated and you know, that should be not just a value we hold true to ourselves, but in all of our life – including the companies we decide to do business with,” says Joanna from Mummy’s Knee.

A group of BritMums bloggers wrote recently on the issue of loyalty and fairness, considering what those values mean to us in everyday life, including with businesses. As parents, of course, these are particularly important values to impart.

“Loyalty and fairness are words that we hear bandied around our family a lot,” Lesley Scottish Mum writes, as the mum of three adopted boys. “They have many birth brothers and sisters who live in other adoptive and foster families. Being able to cope with that, and treat everyone fairly is quite a tricky body of water to navigate, even for us adults.” She talks about teaching loyalty to their birth family while still instilling loyalty for the current family.

Genna at Blethering Boys has 4 tips on teaching these qualities (be a role model, teach empathy, use books and storytelling and play board games). “Loyalty and fairness is a difficult concept to grasp!” she writes.

The project was sponsored by RBS, which is recognising loyalty by not ignoring existing customers. They’re waving goodbye to best offers aimed only at new customers while excluding existing customers, goodbye to 0% teaser rates that cost more in the long run and goodbye to the practice of hiding the best deals online. (They’re calling it a Hello/Goodbye campaign and those are benefits we definitely want to say Hello to. We love how the new RBS ad wittily illustrates some of the things people like to say goodbye to. Check it out. http://youtu.be/s1sbwKC0qYo)

Elaine at Fun as a Gran thinks the lessons children learn on their way to being adults is a lesson well learned by companies too. “I get rather annoyed when you see your current house insurance or car insurance or broadband provider offering better rates or big discounts or shopping vouchers to new customers that does not apply to their existing customers.”

“One of the things I found from working in finance for over 10 years,” writes Laura at Yummy Mummy Flabby Tummy, “is that people really appreciate loyalty and being made to feel like they matter….If a business looks after me and my family, makes me feel important and offers me great service and deals, then I’ll keep my business with them. I’ll tell my friends and family which, in turn, helps that business to grow. Loyalty and fairness are very important when it comes to business.”

It’s an attitude that Lynne, who blogs at And 1 makes 4, supports: “…Although I was paid to write this post, [this topic] is one I am happy to promote as I have been a customer of RBS both personally and as a business since I was 10. That’s about 25 years.”

Sarah at The Knott Bump says, “I really respect RBS for their new Hello/Goodbye campaign. It’s far too easy for companies to come up with ridiculous offers to get new customers in the door but harder for them to come up with long lasting, sustainable policies that benefit all customers.”

Amy at Diddle Diddle Dumpling writes, “I do hope John & David do grow up with similar ideals & values to the new ones of RBS, with a good grasp on what’s fair & what it means to be loyal, especially to one another.”

These blog posts were part of a paid project BritMums did with RBS bank.