We as Americans tend to be passionate about shopping. We have so many options to choose from, you might call it an embarrassment of riches. There’s a process we go through and it’s fairly common amongst us all.
Comparing brand names, checking online reviews, finding convenient locations. Those are some of the considerations we make, but it’s not the biggie. Not by far.
We narrow our options down to 2 or 3 choices, and then we use one factor to make the final decision. PRICE. Sometimes we do this process in reverse, and sort by price first and then compare the cheapest ones. Regardless of the order we use, using price as the main determining factor almost always comes back to bite us in the end.
Made In China
But the problem is that price says nothing about actual value. This holds true for most products and services, including hair restoration and other quality-of-life products and services. Those who balk at the price of a well-deserved massage or an upgraded engine on a new car purchase haven’t spent much time around those who preach the value of treating yourself to what you deserve.
Even though we’re taught “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” products will sometimes give us some reliable hints at just how much quality they really have. If you’ve purchased “Made in China” products or gifts over the years, you may have learned this lesson the hard way. These items are usually attractive to us because of the low price, but after a short time of using them, they break or show their true nature of being assembled with cheap parts or labor.
Lessons Learned
We’ve also learned this lesson from knock-off components like phone charging cables. The brand-named ones like Apple or Samsung are very expensive. When we shop, we see this high price and are tempted to purchase generic brands, even if we’ve been burned in the past by short-lived cables that always seem to break easily or just stop working. We end up purchasing the generic brands over and over because of the illusion of saving money. It’s true that it is a temporary saving the first time, but because the item doesn’t last very long, we end up purchasing more of the cheap cables over and over, instead of truly saving by forking over the brand name money the first go round.
This is exactly what happens when we consider the most inexpensive plastic surgeons or hair restoration offices. They get you in the door for cheap, and then you have to revisit them over and over (paying a new fee each time) to patch up the mess.
That presents us with a life lesson. But we rarely learn from lessons unless they involve a large purchase. Phone charge cables don’t exactly break the bank. This is one reason you hear about experienced drivers tending to lean on driving one particular brand of vehicle. They’ve learned lessons in the past about vehicles that break down too easily or have simply given them too much trouble to bother with. And since those troubles, they have found one brand that has outlasted the others and find joy in driving that brand and telling others how solid a purchase it has turned out to be. Their word of mouth carries weight because they’ve told us the value of their preferred vehicle brand.
It’s All the Same, Right?
Now, you and I know that when we’re talking about a surgical procedure, price is not the most important factor. But the customer wants to believe it is. They want to believe that all doctors are the same and all hair restorations are the same. Why do they want to believe that? Because of that illusion of saving money mentioned above. To them, it becomes all about who’s charging the least amount of money.
But the ones who’ve paid more for the best quality will tell you they’d do it again, 100 times out of 100. Why? Because everything was just right on the first attempt. Or it was amazing and they can’t and won’t go back to cheap. I invite you to a no-pressure consultation where my customers have told me over and over that their only regret is not trying quality sooner.
