I recall a story about Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, that illustrates the importance of timing.

Every summer, there is a professional golf tournament in the Washington, D.C. area that draws spectators from miles around.

Qualifying rounds for the tournament are held on the two consecutive weekends leading up to the official start of the tournament.

It was on these weekends that Bill Marriott’s enterprising young grandchildren set up a lemonade stand, selling cups of lemonade for $1 each to the spectators who came to the qualifying rounds to get a closer look at the golfers before the actual tournament began.

The weather cooperated and his grandchildren’s lemonade stand flourished. When the qualifying rounds ended and the official start date of the tournament arrived, his industrious grandchildren were there early to set up their lemonade stand.

Later, Bill Marriott arrived along with throngs of spectators. On his way to the golf course from the parking lot, he passed his grandchildren’s lemonade stand and asked them how their venture was doing.

One of his grandchildren proudly explained how they had set up the lemonade stand on the two previous weekends during the qualifying rounds in order to capture more sales than if they had only sold lemonade on the weekend of the tournament.

Marriott then asked, “And how much were you selling a cup of lemonade for during the qualifying rounds?”

The children answered in unison, “One dollar Grandpa.”

“And how much are you selling it for today?” he asked.

Confused, the children repeated, “One dollar.”

What he said next likely shaped the enterprising young minds of the Marriott grandchildren forever…

“The qualifying rounds have ended. Today is the official start date of the tournament. Raise your prices!”

The children increased the price of a cup of lemonade from $1 to $2 and made more money during the official tournament weekend than they made during each of the qualifying round weekends combined.

How about you? Is it time for you to capitalize—on a higher price, on a different market, on a unique product or service offering?

Don’t wait. Timing is everything.

I recall a statistic: 68 percent of customers quit doing business with a company or entity because of perceived indifference toward them as customers.

When I share this statistic with groups, most participants are shocked: “How is it that so many people claim to be treated indifferently? That’s appalling!”

And when I ask audience members to describe what it feels like to be treated indifferently, I hear responses such as:

• I feel like I don’t matter.
• I feel as though I’m unimportant.
• I feel ignored.
• I feel taken for granted.
• I feel devalued.

Exactly.

And the same sad phenomenon is happening in the social sphere. Businesses are establishing a social presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels and then ignoring attempts by their “fans” to engage.

Not long ago, I wrote a post titled, Engage or go away. The gist of the post was my surprise and disappointment at the lack of engagement from businesses in the social sphere.

Let’s be clear. By “engage,” I mean to take part in conversations, to be responsive to others, and to be interested in others.

Some people mistake activity for engagement. Activity (e.g, frequency of Twitter updates) has nothing to do with engagement. If you’re actively promoting yourself and your links via Twitterfeed, you’re not engaged, you’re probably a spammer.

If, however, you’re contributing to conversations as your schedule allows and making a sincere effort to reply to Twitter @s, DMs, emails, and blog comments from your social media fan base, then you’re likely engaged.

While it’s doubtful that you’ll be able to reply to every social media or email contact in a meaningful way, it’s a good idea to minimize the frequency of communication lapses with your fan base.

Here’s why: Lapses erode your brand.

Three nights ago, on November 8th, I tweeted this message to @comcastcares and have yet to receive a reply. That’s a shame. Seriously, to be treated indifferently by a commercial Twitter account with “cares” in its name is quite ironic and, sadly, all too common.

Here’s more irony: Bill Gerth, the Comcast employee behind @comcastcares, found the time to post a blog titled Connecting with Our Customers on November 10^th but didn’t find time to connect with a real, live customer who reached out to his Twitter account two days earlier.

Now, I haven’t met Bill. He’s probably a great guy. But Bill’s travel, work, family, and social schedule (or whatever may have contributed to his inability to follow up with me—a social media “fan” and Comcast subscriber—for three days and counting…) have no bearing on my perception that I was ignored and that my feedback was not valued by Comcast.

I’ve been contemplating a switch from Comcast to DirectTV (mostly for the unique NFL access) for a while now and lapses like this just make it easier to justify the decision to change cable providers.

If you’re going to make the decision to hang out a shingle in the social sphere, remember to be social. And a large part of being social is to avoid the perception that you’re treating others indifferently—as if they’re unimportant and don’t matter.

While fans and followers likely make allowances for those brands—people or companies—with whom they’ve established a genuine connection in the past, if lapses persist, the brand and its fan base will erode.

Do you agree? I welcome all comments, bouquets, and brickbats. Or, you can be like Comcast and just ignore me.

I recently received a jury summons in the mail and my first reaction was, “Really? I am way too busy to deal with this now.”

Then, in a moment of sobriety, I recognized that the protection of our rights and liberties as Americans is preserved by the American system of justice—which is predicated on the right to a public trail and the right to be judged by a jury of one’s peers.

This caused me to reflect on other opportunities to serve that I had passed on for a variety of reasons (e.g., time consuming, inconvenient, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, etc.) ranging from volunteering at children’s church once a month (“Certainly, others will step up…”) to assisting a stranded motorist (“Surely, he has OnStar or AAA…”).

So I’m thinking about all this when Joe Girardi, the coach of the New York Yankees, comes to mind.

Let me explain…

A friend of mine was in Dallas on business during the American League Championship Series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees.

His hotel was a block away from the Crescent Hotel, where the Yankees were staying. One morning, he walked over to the Starbucks located inside the Crescent Hotel, purchased a cup of coffee, and found a seat outside on the patio.

It was then that he noticed the Yankees coach enjoying a cup of coffee at a nearby table. A moment later, a woman with an itty-bitty dog approached the muscular coach and asked him if he would mind watching her dog while she went inside to buy a cup of coffee.

He accepted. The woman handed him the leash and, for the next several minutes, he alternated between sipping his coffee and petting the itty-bitty dog. When the woman returned, she thanked him, accepted the leash, and resumed her dog walk—oblivious to the man’s identity.

When I shared this story with another friend, she reminded me that after the Yankees won the World Series last year, Girardi stopped at the scene of a single car accident at 2:25am, sprinted across three lanes of traffic, and aided the motorist whose vehicle was precariously jutting into oncoming traffic.

It would have been easy enough for Girardi to have declined the request to watch the dog: “Ma’m, ordinarily I’d be happy to but I need to prepare for tonight’s American League Championship Series game against the Texas Rangers.”

And it would have been entirely reasonable for him to have dialed 911 to report the accident from the comfort and safety of his automobile.

But he didn’t.

The next time I think I’m too busy to volunteer my time or to assist another person, I’m going to remember Joe Girardi’s example and his tendency to put others first—whether or not it’s comfortable or convenient.

And I’ll recall the Arthur Ashe quote: “From what we get, we can make a living; from what we give, however, makes a life.”

Thanks for reading. Now give of your time and make a life.