I spend a lot of time thinking about quality. Quality wines, quality rugby, quality attitudes but mainly quality service, and I love it when I’m proved right. That’s happened a bit recently. We’ve had three major account wins in recent weeks, and every one of them was on quality and reputation. One came back after a brief sojourn with a far cheaper competitor, who didn’t live up to expectations or assurances. I pride myself on living up to expectations throughout life.

From experience, there are two main reasons why customers choose a company in our sector over a competitor. These two things are price and quality.

Price can so often be the leading factor, but a short-term gain can lead to a long-term pain. I have never pretended that Harvey Environmental are the cheapest, but time and time again we’ve been called in to sort out the long-term pain of cost cutting.

My team aren’t target driven in terms of client wins like some competitors, so we won’t win a contract at any cost. We’ll charge what it costs to deliver it.

This is something our former client who jumped but is now back aboard the big ship Harvey found out. The quality of service they were receiving just wasn’t up to scratch. They thought what we offered was industry standard, but found out that quality of service is what we really pride ourselves on. The competitors had cancelled visits, the work wasn’t effective and they were sluggish to respond, but the invoices still came on time.

Here’s why the quality of service isn’t available at rock bottom price: Quality costs. Delivering a long-term service to high standards costs. Employing the best staff costs. That’s why we’ve built up a fantastic reputation over the years for delivering a consistently high quality service delivered by high quality people.

The real cost you risk by going for cheap is reputation. For so many, Pest Control and Washrooms have the ability to shatter that reputation. There’s no place for half a job when it’s your reputation at stake.

Quality, from the first time you speak to us all the way through your journey with us. Quality defines us. Quality is what we do. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Martin

Follow Martin on twitter at @HarveyEnviroMD