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Does Saving Some Money Beat Out Good Service?
By Ken Montville
Recently, I've been a bit perplexed about how people choose who to use for any number of services. As a service provider myself, it has always been important to me to provide the type of service that would bring a client back to use my service again and to refer my services to their friends, family and co-workers. Sometimes I wonder if any amount of good service is enough. Scenario 1 - Great Service Let's say you need a contractor of some kind - a roofer or a plumber or an electrician - and you get a name from the phone book (or Internet) or maybe a friend or neighbor. The contractor shows up and it turns out that he or she is: - on time
- thorough
- competent
- friendly
- and, just for the heck of it, let's throw in honest The guy may have told you that you don't need the $1,000 fix, that the $500 repair will work just fine. He does a good job, you like him and when he leaves you feel your needs were taken care of at a fair price. The contractor may even put you on his eNewsletter list or send you a refrigerator magnet so you'll know how to reach him the next time you need him or refer him to someone. Time goes by. Scenario 2 - Price Something else goes wrong or,in my case, you just need my help again. However, this time something has changed: Some friend or co-worker has told you about Brand X contractor who is really, really cheap. Or they have a big rebate for first time customers. Or something other pricing scheme that makes them look really attractive for no other reason but price. You remember this first guy - personable, honest, competent - but hey, this other guy is cheap! Decision So what do you do? Obviously, you may try to be subtle with the first guy about his pricing (remember, it was fair at the time you needed him) and, maybe, that works. If the contractor holds firm on his pricing, do you dump him and go for price? And hope for the best.
Ken is the Realtor Extraordinaire of the MD Suburbs of DC. Personable and knowledgeable with a great sense of humor. You can find out what he knows, what he thinks and what he can find out on his blog - www.MDSuburbs.com
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I sold trucks for a number of years and on many occasions did my best to get the customer's vehicle in for service in an emergency. most of these were commercial vehicles and they needed them for work.
However, when it came time to replace the truck, a lot of these customers shopped me for price.
Did the good service help? I hope so.
Good intel.
Frederick
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks for visiting my intel, Frederick. I appreciate knowing that others have gone through the same frustrating process.
I like that article - it is true. I have been caught a few times going purely on price. I am far more inclined to go for quality with fair pricing rather than budget pricing with questionable service these days. And offer that myself to my clients.
Thank you
Atalanta
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi, Atalanta. Thanks for visiting my intel. I, too, try to go with what I know to be good service at a reasonable price. It's one thing to cross someone off the list because of shoddy workmanship. It's another to dump them just because someone is offering a cheaper price.
I would have given you a higher rating if you actually had answered your own question! It may be worthwhile to re-craft this article so the conclusion (the service is worth it) stands out more by example. I shop at a little hardware store in Los Altos that has the best service of any store, and I don't care what it cost because it saves me time... saving time and trouble is worth more than money.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks for the tip! I was actually trying to get an idea of what people thought. Amazingly, my experience has been that people tend to go for price rather than service or convenience. Your example of your local hardware store is a rare case. I'll take your suggestion, though, in the future.
The copyright for this content entitled "Does Saving Some Money Beat Out Good Service?" has been specified by the contributor as:
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The copyright for this content has been relinquished by the author. The content may be used freely by anyone.
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