Every January, I buy a new journal for my business and there is one particular brand that I really like and have been using for years. This year, I discovered that its manufacture had been altered and the quality of its pages reduced to the point of being unusable. While it is not unusual, especially these days, to find an item you really like being diluted and offered at a lower price point, this particular product was still being offered at the premium price. With no indication that a lower quality version had replaced the standard I was accustomed to, I bought one, and went about my day. When I realized what had occurred, I was disappointed and a little annoyed that the manufacturer had misrepresented the product and essentially "pulled a fast one" . I decided to contact customer service to vent my frustration and hear their side. Surprisingly, customer service was unenthusiastic and expressed no sense of urgency or desire to understand my issue or solve the problem. I can forgive a mistake or even a misrepresentation as long as there is an honest effort to correct it, but to have no response at all is equivalent to asking me to take my business elsewhere. In the frantic rush to maximize profit, many companies are engaging in practices that leave customers feeling as though they have been duped. In doing so they forget the core responsibility of any business that wants to remain in business: Find a need or desire and provide a superior quality product or service to meet it at a fair price point. Putting profit ahead of customers diminishes a company's reputation as well as its product line and will drive customers to seek quality elsewhere.
Putting Profit Ahead Of Customers
