In absolute terms, Price is the amount paid for acquiring a product or service, and Value is the utility of a product or service. Price is calculated in terms of money, while Value cannot be calculated in money or numbers.
Value is different for different people, and is based on personal opinion. Therefore Value varies from customer to customer, but price remains unchanged.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get”
– Warren Buffet -
Every time you’re faced with a choice on a subject you know little to nothing about, first reaction is to make a judgement call based on price. Why is that? Because, in the absence of other factors, price is the only term you can relate to. It either makes sense, or it doesn’t.
Conventional wisdom tells us that a lower price usually means lower quality, while a high price is usually associated with top-notch quality. That’s why you first resort to price as a reliable comparison tool.
You may have come across situations when the deal seemed too good to be true. And sadly, it proved that way in the end.
Within every industry, there are minimum standards from which no company should make exceptions.
Things such delivering on time, standing behind your product or service, and treating clients with respect
... are just few of the many.
However, as you may have found through personal experience, these standards do not apply to every interaction with a service provider. You may have been left waiting around, given a faulty product, or even plain disrespected by some of the companies with you chose to do business with.
If you look back at these unpleasant experiences, you will find that, in 99.97% of the cases...
It was the low cost alternative who has failed you!
There is a simple explanation behind this. In their quest for more customers, some companies choose to lure you in by promising good value at a low price. Which it is, in our experience, extremely difficult (if not downright impossible) to achieve.
In order to create a quality product or service, and provide real value to their clients, companies must invest heavily. Resources, time and money, end up being spent for this purpose. It is simply economically impossible that the result of such intense investments be offered at a low price.
Rules are no different in the car cleaning industry...
Quality employee training, reliable equipment, high quality chemicals, they all necessitate a sizeable investment. In turn, the price you’re paying for a car clean done by a company, which went through all these steps, cannot be low.
On a flip side, when you choose to pay a low price for your car cleaning service, most of the times what you’re getting in return is a low quality result, provided by untrained employees with the help of ineffective (or even dangerous) chemicals.
On top of that, such low cost providers cannot afford to pay insurance or worker’s compensation. Which means you may become liable if damage is done to your vehicle, or an employee gets injured while cleaning your car.
In the end, you alone can decide which criteria are more important when you’re choosing a car cleaning service: Price or Value.