Thursday, November 1, 2012

The cost of quality through online reviews

In an economy as tough as ours, it is important that companies produce nothing but quality products. Not just to ensure the safety of the users, but to keep the customers coming back.  This "slump" in our economy has brought on a certain level of frugal spending by us, the consumers. Therefore, if we buy a product or item from a certain company, and it fails to operate correctly, we get upset and immediately want a refund.  In addition to that, we often times take our business elsewhere.  Thanks to the internet, we can also post blogs and reviews about the product, so others can see what we experienced, and prevent them from having the same discomfort that we did.  This in turn, can often times cause other possible consumers to be awry of purchasing the same product. This can be a huge hit for companies who rely heavily on the internet for purchasing.
 Because so many companies, like amazon for example, rely on the internet for their sales, the reviews are right on the site for all to see. These are the intangible, hidden costs that can have a huge impact on a company and their sales.  I for one, have used these online reviews for not only posting about products or services I have purchased, but to do research on items I am thinking about buying. With the exceptional quality that most companies have these days, the majority of the time the reviews are positive. But, occasionally things fail and people write their poor reviews on the product.  How much impact this has is unknown, but generally speaking, most reviews are positive.  This is a time where it is impossible to put a number value on any losses that may be incurred by the company. 
-OE

No comments:

Post a Comment