The Value of Quality?

I recently encountered a situation this weekend where a long-time friend of my husband's was interested in ordering pens for his company. He knew I worked in the promotional product industry and gave me an opportunity to find the pen he wanted. Years ago, he had received by mail some pen samples with his company name printed all over the barrel and he wanted to duplicate the pens. Well, I succeeded in finding the pen in question and even gave him a discount on the quote.

Unfortunately, the online seller who originally sent the pen had a lower price than I could offer. I informed him that I was unable to match that price because I had to keep enough margin in the sale to cover the administrative overhead of processing the order, tracking the order's progress, and doing the graphic layout that guarantees a good imprint on a pen. So, my husband's friend proceeded to order his pens online through the do-it-yourself website where he chose the pen, uploaded his logo and company info, and paid at checkout.

Not long after, we received a call from this friend. He uploaded the wrong thing for the imprint and didn't know how to go back and change it since the order was already paid for and their customer service department wasn't available over the weekend. Panicking that his investment was all for nothing now, he had to settle on emailing customer service and hoping to contact them first thing Monday morning in time to save the order. At the thought of this, I simply smiled....THIS is the reason companies use promotional distributors and consultants like me. WE take on the liability of the order's correctness. WE enter the order and have years of experience with the different items and imprint techniques so we know how and what is doable on imprinting. We may not be the lowest price when there are a plethora of do-it-yourself promo webstores out there who don't have the overhead or knowledgeable professionals to ensure every order is correct, but we do have the track record of customer satisfaction. We're the buffer to ensure you get the correct item with the correct imprint. So many people have focused on dollars lately, that they forget the cost of quality and service. The adage of "you get what you pay for" still holds true and what you pay for is a reflection of your own company. If you give a customer a smudged or unwriteable pen that breaks or leaks, you send a message that your company is equally cheap. A good investment is not just how many times you get your name out there, but letting the quality of the product advertise your name for you.