27 “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

Quality – what does it really mean –clearly different things to different people would seem to be the answer – consider the following famous quotes –

The phrase in the header which has been adopted as a mantra by many companies –

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

is frequently referred to as being attributed to Benjamin Franklin, inventor and patriot and having been first referenced during the 1700’s although others believe Aldo Gucci (Of shoes and handbags fame may have been the first) said it in the early 1900’s and some schools of thought actually attribute the saying to Shakespeare, back to Franklin and it is amazing how many of the quotes and statements we take for granted originated from his lips -see http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/benjamin_franklin_8.html

If Franklin was the originator of the above the same theme was picked up again during the 1800’s the Common Law of Business Balance, the origin of which again is in question but which is widely attributed to be by the Art Connoisseur and Social Economist John Rushkin and states –

“It’s 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.”

Or should we take the Henry Ford father of the car as we know it – view – when he said –

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

Or the more modern approach as expressed by Management Consultant Peter F Drucker

“Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else c onstitutes quality.”

There is a common theme that runs through all of the above – simply- choosing a product or service solely on price is generally a losing situation and people almost always end up paying more in the long run when price alone is the controlling factor, as the lowest price may not always include the add-ons that are hidden in the small print.

To truly get the “best deal,” both seller and buyer must move beyond focusing solely on price and consider what “customer value” is -it is something which can only be achieved by factoring in price, quality, service and reputation. As a buyer, it is in your best interest to buy from someone with knowledge and understanding about the products and the market, someone who offers the best long-term value, has your best interests at heart.

At Timber Composite Door we care passionately about the quality of the product and our service, and the wellbeing of our customers, the Solidor doors we sell are far from the cheapest but they are one of the very best, similarly with our installation service our installers are a nationally known company with an excellent reputation, plus we guarantee the product for 12 Years and the installation for 5 years so if you do have a problem we will come back and sort it. If you are in any doubt about our sincerity to return to fulfil our obligations we even have that covered we register all our installations with the DGCOS (Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme) http://www.dgcos.org.uk/ which means if something does go wrong you have the benefit of their services to mediate on your behalf.

At Timber Composite Doors we are not really too concerned with who was the original author of the phrase –

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

That with which we are concerned, is to ensure that none of our customers ever experience that “bitterness”, we may not be the cheapest and we are to modest to say that we are the best but we take a pride in every aspect of the way we deal with our customers because we do not want to disappoint anyone who is prepared to put their faith in our expertise.