There has been a lot of Twitter and Blog activity which showed a couple who were looking for a new kitchen eventually manage to get Magnet to reduce the price by a massive £7,300.
While this is of no surprise to most independent retailers, it begs the question of how we educate consumers on how the multiples hike up their prices to offer so-called big discounts.
But now the question is that, a client who we have been quoting for, which said: 'I would be happy for Modern Homes to do the job as the designs and specifications are exactly what we are looking for, but with an uncertain economy, we would like you to reconsider the quotes without compromising on quality, and then we would be happy to talk further.'
The subject of discounting is one that we usually have with our clients during the initial stages of their visit and we explain that rather than inflate their quote to be able to offer them a discount later on, we would rather be completely transparent and just give individual prices. Generally this is accepted as being more professional, and in truth, as we have discovered on more than one occasion, we can offer a better service all round with superior product and still beat the ‘one-off special-offer price’ offered by the multiples.
But how do we get this message through to those consumers who haven’t explored the independent route and are just taken in by these massive discounts?
As a genuine retailer, there is nowhere I can go with this quote other than the bin! We have individually priced all the items on the quotation so the client can see the price of each product, and can clearly see that there are no inflated prices included. We have nowhere to discount without altering the specification of the design or leaving things out, or providing the job with no mark up, which is fine until I have to pay the bills at the end of the month.
I do wonder if now is the time for more consumer magazines and TV programmes to support independent retailers by educating consumers that dealing with a more local, smaller business can be beneficial in all sorts of ways, and that the bottom line on a product that should give you 20 years of use is not the be-all and end-all.
A lot more needs to be done to better teach our clients to focus on what we all provide, rather than just the price. I'm talking about product knowledge, quality, good design, great service and peace of mind… In conclusion, I quote the Common Law of Business Balance by John Ruskin: “It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."
Contact Luna Ping(sales@monalisa-china.com)
For more information: http://www.monalisa-china.com
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