When business owners cut corners, it’s usually to save money or avoid difficult regulations. It’s understandable, given the amount of money it costs to run a business and the challenges presented by certain regulations, but cutting corners usually diminishes the customer experience.
In the last couple of decades, cutting corners has caused the general quality of consumer goods to greatly decrease, and customers aren’t happy. People are tired of buying products that break after little to no real use; that’s why businesses that offer real quality are getting the lion’s share of business in their particular industry.
Since more businesses are starting to prioritize quality, it’s slowly pushing the cheap businesses out of the market, because when consumers have a choice, they’re going to do business with a company that makes quality products.
Businesses might be able to get away with cutting corners for a short time, but not for long. Once people find out a company is selling cheap items that are either not as advertised or break easily, word gets around and people stop buying from that company. It’s no longer a viable business decision to cut corners; only businesses that prioritize quality are going to last.
Cutting corners will eventually cause customers to leave
Poorly designed products, cheap products, and things that break before getting much use are all factors that will cause customers to stop doing business with a company. They might make one or two purchases before they realize it’s not what they expect, and then buy from a more reliable competitor. Businesses might not know why this is happening, and might assume that their low numbers just reflect their place in the market, and they need to step up their marketing game.
As a solution, they’ll start implementing advanced marketing strategies, like PPC ads, email marketing, and more, and that will bring them a small number of steady sales, but they will be one-off sales. Meaning, people will buy from them once and never again. But, as long as they’re making a little bit of a profit, they’ll attribute a lack of big success to the wrong factors. They won’t stop to consider that their products are the issue.
Businesses that want to succeed can’t afford to cut corners on quality because each time they gain a new customer, they’re potentially losing that same customer after the first sale. Plus, when unhappy customers post bad reviews online and complain on social media, it deters other people from making a purchase, which keeps sales low. You can’t have a thriving business without an amazing product. Even if you hire the most amazing marketer in the world who can sell anything to anybody, once people find out the product is bad, they won’t buy again.
Why are so many products poor quality today?
There are many reasons it’s hard to get quality products today, but sometimes, it’s a lack of access to fundamental materials for production. Quality materials that seem like they’ll be around forever often disappear, like when the last selvedge denim factory in the U.S. closed.
Other times, business owners are capable but aren’t willing to invest in quality base materials to make their end products because it lowers their profit margins. However, starting with quality materials is essential. For example, high-quality polymers, like Genestar from Kururay, can make a big difference in the quality of your end product when you need specific characteristics, like heat resistance, to make electronics or car parts.
Producing cheap products makes customers feel cheated
Although they’ll be a little upset, nobody’s going to feel cheated if their $2 squeegee snaps in half the first time they use it to wash their car windshield. However, when it comes to products customers expect to last for many years to come, businesses can’t use cheap materials, especially when the price point is rather high. For example, if customers spend $70 on a tool to scrape ice off their car, it better be easy to use, work perfectly, and last many winters. If it doesn’t, customers will feel cheated.
The bottom line is that a successful business requires quality products
Cutting corners on quality is not a good way to run a business, and business owners who engage in this practice will either see stagnation or a decline in sales. Only businesses that create quality products will see long-term success in their market.
