I wrote a blog recently – “You get What you pay for” about quality cost and time – click here to see more.
This blog is not about that! This is about the fact that you WILL pay for what you get. Confused? Let me give you a few examples……
Take our little robot vacuum cleaner. We purchased pretty-well the cheapest one we could buy that apparently did all the things that the more expensive robot vacuum cleaner did. We were so excited when it arrived – we called her Reena, and we thought our little machine was great; although it could not manage to go from tile floor to carpet and continually got wedged under the lounge. On virtually the day after the warranty expired, our little Reena completely broke down.
So, we decided to purchase a better quality one and bought a mid-range model. We call it I-Reena, and 3 years later it is still doing our floors, can manage to move across different floor types and is never stuck under the lounge. If we kept purchasing cheap Reena’s over the next 3 years, we would have paid six times the price of I-Reena and would still not have received the benefits that I-Reena provides. You pay for what you get! So, which Reena was actually more expensive?
Let’s look at products – if we are going to purchase something inexpensive, cheaper, and generally not made locally (i.e. not made in Australia), should we really expect to get the same value, support, and longevity than that of a locally made product?
What about services? Do you believe that paying the cheapest rate for a service delivery is ultimately going to be the most reasonable and best for you and/or your business in the long-run? If you are paying the lower end rates for services, can you really expect to receive quality service?
For many years in the professional services industry, I have heard opinions of clients stating that their service provider does not communicate with them, is not pro-active in providing their services, and is sometimes late in their service delivery. If you are paying bottom line rates, you will receive bottom line service delivery.
Paying a higher rate, generally, provides the additional benefits of timely service delivery, pro-active service delivery, and delivery that will assist you and your business.
Just like Reena and I-Reena, you need to compare apples with apples. If you only look at the price of a service and not about what you are going to get for that service, you are shortcutting the value this service can provide for your business.
A bit of food for thought before we let go of everything and have a time-out over Christmas.
Feel free to read our other blogs and please contact Elke by email hello@miebs.com.au, or by phone on 0410 819 783.