Avoid the Race to the Bottom

Have you ever ordered anything from an online company other than Amazon that arrived damaged? What happened when you emailed the company to explain what happened and requested a replacement or refund? Most likely, you received an auto reply. And if you tried to call, how likely would you be able to talk to a live human being? Your chances are pretty low. Why do companies avoid human interaction and the expense of customer service? Because it costs less.

Every BKBG Shareholder has competitors, and many of them have not earned your admiration because they win the price war by eliminating customer service or abandoning common sense. Lowering the price is the easy button to making a sale, but it’s hardly the smart button. It’s extremely difficult to face the prospect of losing customers because they claim that they can buy a new kitchen or bath for less somewhere else. That’s most likely to be true, but when you race to the bottom in a price war, you compromise, and may lose, what makes you successful.

Marketing guru Seth Godin writes, “Cheap is the last refuge for the marketer who can’t figure out how to be better. The alternative is to choose to be worth it, remarkable, reliable, a good neighbor, a worthy citizen, leading edge, comfortable, trusted, funny, easy, or just about anything except ‘the cheapest at any cost.’” We often discount the valuable service that we provide to our clients. We are changing our clients’ lives for the better. That’s what we do, and it’s priceless.