Cheaper Isn't Better...

We are all aware of our current economic times and watching our dollars is essential to our business. We are all having to make some cut backs, spend less, save more and do more on our own. In this economy so many of us are wanting the “best bang for our buck” but are forgetting that you get what you pay for.

When it comes to your buying decisions, what are the factors you look for? Typically they would be: quality, knowledgeable staff, ease, customer service, price, or additional features or options? Now take those factors and put them into order from least important to the most important when you are making a buying decision. In most cases price isn’t the number one factor when you are making most of your buying decisions.

I recently found a study on The American Consumer Institute web site regarding “Who consumers prefer – Wal-Mart or Best Buy?” The study took a look at consumer buying decisions for consumer electronics using the two largest retailers, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Part of the survey asked consumers to rank (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the least important) how important various factors were when buying consumer electronics. As you can see from the chart below, price is not the determining factor. Quality is the most important.

Ironically you would think price would be higher on the scale due to the cost of most electronic goods. However, when you look at all the complexities involved with an electronic product – memory, storage, pixels, format, connectivity compatibility, compression, HD, etc… you then realize that the price no longer is the key factor anymore.

The same can be said about other buying decisions and even wages. It’s no lie that everyone likes a good deal but, when is a “good deal” too good to be true? Would you expect a minimum wage employee to perform the same quality of work as someone being paid $20.00 an hour? And if they did – how long do you think that would last.

Most of your practices outsource a laundry service. What if your current laundry service wasn’t meeting your expectations; the linens weren’t cleaned well enough, the service was never coming on time, your linens didn’t smell fresh. You are clearly unhappy but, they were the cheapest price around town. Why would you put quality behind price?

These are all just examples but we see, even ourselves, put price above quality every day. The point we need to remember is that quality is what will make us appreciate and want to refer a product or service above all. Price is nice, but it will not provide the quality needed to perform the job we want It to. The next time you are making a buying decision for your company, whether it is a product or service, think about all the factors. If you are wanting the “cheapest” price for something make sure you know all the complexities of that product or service first. If not, you could end up paying more in the end.

Article written by: Chanel Schonert, MediClean