As I’m sure we’ve all noticed by now, the quality of products and services available these days is dropping at an alarming rate. Extremely expensive consumer electronics appear engineered to break, call centers where clients expect competent and timeless conflict resolution are instead outsourced to countries where the Customer Service Representatives barely speak English and read almost everything from a script. And when was the last time you heard about a major car company sending out a recall order because of a fault this or a faulty that?
It wasn’t always this way, and the fact that it is now saddens me. Saving money where possible is a great idea, but not when it involves cutting corners, and comes at the cost of providing the best possible service you can to your clients. This is completely unacceptable, and quite frankly, a little sickening. Especially when you consider that this kind of shoddy service may require replacing or repairing a defective product, or completely redoing a piece of work that should have been done in the first place. This can result in additional financial cost outside of your original operating budget, which in turn cuts into your Personal Independent Earnings. At this stage in the game I don’t think I need to repeat why that is a very bad thing to have happen. It is your responsibility not only to your clients, but also your staff and perhaps most importantly yourself, to ensure that your products and services are the best they can possibly be. No cutting corners. No skimping.
One of the core foundations of success (and something I’ve mentioned briefly before but will go into further depth in a future article) is repeat business. Not only do you want clients to come to you, you want them to keep coming to you. But if you’ve cut corners and your quality of service isn’t up to snuff, why would they? What reason do they have? The answer of course, is none. The end result is the loss of repeat business, negative word of mouth, and potentially even total failure. Of course as I’m so fond of saying (I believe this is the most linked to article on this blog) if at first you don’t succeed, try again. But why set yourself up to have to in the first place?
So my friends, when preparing to take your business out into the world, remember. Cut no corners, skimp on nothing of import. Set your quality standards as high as possible and keep them there. To do less is to do yourself, your clients, and your coworkers a great disservice, and in the end could very well cost you more than you think you’re saving.
