Random Thoughts From Today…

One of the things I’m most proud to be known for is representing a trusted level of quality. I take this very seriously, whether its here in my blog or with my businesses. To me, quality and credibility are more important than anything else.

When it comes to my businesses, I see it as: I live or die by my reputation and the trust of my clients. If I recommend a product that is either bad quality or doesn’t fulfill the needs of a particular client’s project, I feel that I don’t earn the right to be trusted. Beating expectations is not simply a goal, its a requirement for survival at the level I intend to always play at. It is no perfect science, but I’m obsessive about trying to beat expectations 100% of the time.

There are many areas to perfect in order to beat expectations in a relationship, far too much detail to go into here (plus some of the techniques are my own secrets I’ve developed over the years) but there is one I want to focus on right now:

I work my hardest to make sure that I never recommend or sell a bad product (or brand).

This topic is what separates words from actions. Many business owners can say that they want to represent quality parts and service, but when it comes down to them sacrificing financially often they’ll just go for the quick dollar. Just look at how many shops sell knockoff brand parts alongside high end brands, its crazy. Today I once again put my money on the line for this principal I believe in. How? I removed quite a lot of products from GT-RR.COM. I not only removed items from our distribution but I canceled some orders my customers had already placed that were pending and refunded them as well (in the case of questionable products). Why? The risk of letting down my clients was not worth the profit of selling the parts, plain and simple. The way I look at it, I had to refund thousands of dollars and I’ve lost perhaps tens of thousands of dollars in the future but I will increase the odds of keeping every client I have even more satisfied and never letting anyone down. It is easy for me or someone to say that I’m focused on quality, but each time I make a choice to put substantial money on the line it reminds me of my determination in this area. Writing thousands of dollars in refund checks reminds me well why I’m doing what I’m doing.

Most of those who have known me or my businesses wont be surprised by this, it is well known that I will never sell knockoff parts and that I stay away from cheap trendy parts. I think its common to expect my businesses to be selective about what products we add to our websites, but perhaps a bit more extreme for me to take products that are currently selling and to remove them.

Out of respect and fairness, I have no interest in naming any names. Obviously my clients who had their orders voided and were refunded recently on these parts are the ones who know and the only ones who need to know the details. I ask that anyone who comments here also does not name any names. My interest is not in drawing attention to anyone…I just think this is an interesting topic that was on my mind as I’ve struggled over the past two weeks with the decision of how I was going to handle some products that I had developed deep concerns about. All I needed to do was remind myself of my core values and the choice was easy.

People can always trust that if its on our websites, I vouch for it. Being in this industry for 10 years, rest assured I can get anything and everything made anywhere by anyone. What matters isn’t that I can get everything, but that you can trust my advice.

Just what’s been on my mind lately…maybe some of you can relate to how I feel on this topic.