There has to be a point where seeking lowest price for a good or a service gives a less than optimal result.

“Isn’t the lowest price always the best result?” I hear you ask.

Sure, financially, if you can screw the merchant or the vendor down a few dollars then you can end up walking away from the transaction feeling the victor, but what have you really achieved?

Indeed, there are some vendors who set their prices with “wiggle room” so that they are able to play the “Best Price?” game.

And so every penny and every dollar for those vendors in that “wiggle room” is really cream, or a bonus, and if they surrender those wiggle dollars to secure the sale they have still achieved a win by making the sale.

But, if most vendors set their prices not to be wiggled, then are we as purchasers not thieving from our vendors by demanding a lower price?

The money that you supposedly save, that the vendor concedes to you the purchaser to secure the sale, has to be surrendered from some future transaction for that vendor, or made up for from another customer purchasing in the future [and on top of!!].

I recently had a short online discussion with a friend who mentioned that he now purchases all commodities online so as to secure best price.

His logic was that with delivery prices being next to non-existent, he is able to locate and purchase commodities quickly, and without the personal expense of fuel and parking.

Now that may certainly be the case, but what are the consequences of such a philosophy?

Really, is life that short or that tough that we need to be saving a dollar here and fifty cents there? What will we buy with all those pennies that we save this way?

His example was that he even purchased golf balls online.

Well down here we’ve seen the demise of the privately owned golf pro shop at many private golf clubs, with the golf club now employing golf professionals and managing the previously independently owned golf pro shop store themselves.

Is the service any better?

I can tell you that categorically it is not, but given time, golfers will forget the “old ways” that things used to be done.

Are golf balls cheaper online?

Of course they are.

But for the sake of a dollar or two savings per golf ball, we now have lost our old friend and comrade the club golf pro, who we have been doing business with for years and years and years.

How about your local butcher?

If you have to travel to your local butcher for the best cuts of meat, then isn’t it also sensible to purchase your vegetables and fruit fresh from a greengrocer next door where you can see the fresh produce first hand?

Rather than wrapped in plastic off a supermarket shelf?
Or by clicking a tab online?

The way I see it, the proliferation of the online retailer, the Amazons and others of the world, has seen the demise of the local store where we’ve had a relationship for years with the owner of that store.

I still yearn for those memories of the good old days of accompanying my mother shopping as we visited Mr. Olsen at the newsagency, and Mr. Horwood’s butchery, as well as Vic Bomaderry’s fruit shop.

Where are they now?

My mother even changed butcher shops when she found out one day that one of her favourite butchers had moved to another butchers’ shop in a nearby suburb.

And who can ever forget the great service we received from Merle at the fruit shop?

And I’m forever grateful to Jamie Saba and his family who bought Mr. Olson’s paper shop and then later employed me to work there on weekends while I was still at studying at high school.

You see, sometimes it’s more than about the dollars.

It’s the relationships.

Is this relevant to dentistry?

Absolutely.

In this day and age of corporatisation and depersonalization of dental services, the discerning consumer will still seek out the dental office where good old-fashioned service is worth paying for.

“You get what you pay for” is a cliché but also a truism in this instance.

It has been shown that twenty five percent of the population are happy to pay for a service whatever the price without even wondering what the competitors charge to do a similar job.

If you can focus your business and cater to that twenty five percent of the population more than the remainder, and deliver on your promise of great service then you will build yourself a very healthy business with sufficient customers to pay you what you are truly worth.

*****

My next public speaking presentation showing Dentists how to grow their Dental practices will be in Chicago, USA on Friday 2nd June 2017.

For more information and to secure your seat click this link here.

*****

Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

*****

The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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