Each day we receive feedback from customers rating their experience with BuildDirect on 3 different criteria. 1) Customer Service 2) Product quality 3) Delivery service. We treat this feedback as crucial to our business. Even though it hurts when the feedback is negative, it uncovers areas that we improve upon. We never hide from it. In fact we share the product quality reviews un-edited for everyone else to see.
The vast majority of the responses are not only positive…but extremely positive. Although it would be nice to take full credit for this, I actually think there is something bigger at play here.
I think that something bigger is the perception of risk!
And when we deliver what we promised or more, customers are blown away.
I think most people are taught to think “you get what you pay for” and as soon as they see a price/quality that is far better than their competitors, a natural scepticism sets in. If it is too good to be true, it normally is… so the saying goes.
The problem with this line of thinking is that the Internet has changed the rules. Supply chains are completely changing. Many of those changes result in a completely different cost structure and therefore pricing structure. The comparisons we used to use are no longer valid.
Look at the news for an example of what I mean. News is just as relevant today as it ever was. If this is true, why are most newspapers dying? The answer is that the medium has changed. Many didn’t realize that the value was not in the paper….it was in the news. Like any change, the easiest thing to do is pretend that the new channel is somehow inferior…that it lacks quality. In this case, it is true that many blogs and news sources are inferior in quality, but the best are very high in quality. People today consume news that is more specialized and important to them through specialized sites and blogs. I myself get brilliant financial information from sites like www.calculatedriskblog.com and Mish’s blog Thought leaders like this who understood this new medium and committed to quality are thriving today, just as the thought leaders did before them, when the medium was the paper.
This transformation is not just happening in news. It is happening in all industries…..some faster than others.
Do you remember the last time you looked in the yellow pages (Google) or bought a CD? ( iTunes)
In the Google example: Is it the right information that is important, or the pages that it is written on.
In the iTunes example: Is it the music that is important, or the store that you could buy it from.
The same business principles apply to using new technology as they did to the old way of doing business. Great businesses that drive more value to their customers….. win and businesses that do not….fail.
With respect to building products: Is it the product that is important, or the shelves that the product sits on?
I think that many of the people sending their feedback have found the answer.
Do you agree? Disagree? I would like your comments!
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Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
No problem at all
While I believe there is still merit to the old way of doing things, meaning store fronts and such because it can be somewhat of a social thing to go shopping at a store rather than staying home. I do however think that these businesses don’t have to fail, it is the lack of knowledge or grasp in how the industry is changing that will decide that, whether it’s the building industry or the music industry.
As a poor carpenter blames his tools, these failures cannot always just be blamed on the sitiuation.
If you are fortunate enough to absorb the costs and able to quickly change direction then a bright future should be the result. While that is a more positive outlook on the issue I think if there were more of those we would spend less time on the failures and more time celebrating successes.
No one can disagree that the world is now in transition. The new ways of doing things and new tools for it exists already, but it need time the people will use it naturally. I think there is coming new generation for which using internet is natural thing, but there is still a lot of people used to do according to the old way.
Anyway the future trends is what I am looking for. Years ago the agriculture was the main industry in every country, then comes the industralization, now the trade and service is the main part of economy. But will it be that the internet trade and service will replace the old structure ?