Something For Nothing

My Two For £20 post yesterday got me to thinking. What I wrote yesterday points to a wider problem in this country now. Because of the recession and more emphasis now on bartering, people expect to get something for absolutely peanuts now.

Yesterdays two sealed units for £20 is a prime example. Others have told me they would have sold them for at least £60, if not more. So how do we get round this problem?

People have tightened their belts over the past year and a half and so whenever they are looking to purchase, they are looking for the lowest price possible, even if they are going to suffer on quality, and this is especially true in our industry. We are a company that sell a very high quality product, but also have a price tag slightly more than other companies. So the scenario at the moment is when we come up against our competitors they are sweeping their quotes making no profit or commission. The key at this point then is education. In the double glazing industry you get what you pay for. You buy cheap you get cheap. You buy more expensive you get a much better product and customer service. Once this is explained to the customer we usually come out on top. But there is always a small percentage that ignore that advice and go cheap anyway.

But I digress! I think one of the problems we face is the invasion of things like price comparison websites. These teach people to look for the absolute rock bottom price every time. Admittedly I do use them for things like car insurance, but it seems to have a knock on effect when people start looking to purchase anything from car tyres to windows to laptops. Bargaining power and penny pinching is going to hurt some companies who are trying desperately to stay afloat. Especially the businesses that offer the premium product/service in their sector. It is these companies that need to toughen up in my opinion to stop penny pinchers and tyre kickers eating into their much valuable profit margins. If we all start to do this, stop giving it away for nothing like I know some window comanies are doing at the moment, customer's attitudes may start to change and appreciate a bit more the efforts businesses are making to continue trading.