By: Dennis Rongo | October 18, 2008
Every company should adhere to the best practices possible and more importantly a great business model. While a lot of people don't like Walmart's business practices, their model works and it has earned them a solid profitable framework. Although Walmart doesn't always have the best facility available, the company utilizes the best backbone infrastructure possible today to track their inventories. This means that their tracker foresees items that are running low or which items sells the most--just a few of the examples.
I've heard numerous boycotts on Walmart with complaints about their low wages and poor treatment of employees in third world countries. There was even a documentary that detailed all these exploitations. Crazy. But to put the negativities in perspective, Walmart provides employment while stilll offering serious bargains to the consumers. Regarding the argument about low wages and poor treatments in third world countries, Walmart also provides employment opportunities to them. Remember that Walmart does not force people to work--people do make their own decision as to whether they want to work or not. If the pay or the work environment is bad enough, the best thing to do is to get out of it. As far as I know, there are thousands of other companies available out there.
Still, with all these multitudes of complaints, the company still prevails and you know why? Walmart have a great business model. They know how to attract consumers by providing the lowest prices available on most items and regardless of all the complaints out there, you can't beat a good deal! It is essentially a one-stop shop for all your needs and surprisingly enough, Walmart is everywhere and is not going away for a very long time.
Walmart is just one example but it is a company that exemplifies that great value and service overcomes negativities. There's a lot of company that offers great deals on their products BUT are missing the other half which is to take care of their customers. Take for example an ecommerce based site that sells miscellaneous items for a lot cheaper than its competitors. With the idea of low-cost as your baseline business model, a delay in shipment or non-existent customer service only gives your potential customers a poor impression about your company. Since most consumers are skeptic nowadays, first impressions matters and should be highly be regarded as a priority to make sure that your business meets their expectations. It's either you meet their expectations or you're out of their radar.
A first impression can make or break your business model and it can go a long way as far as relationship goes. With Internet's advancement, consumers can rate, comment and discuss anything with everybody anytime. The word of mouth is a powerful tool and it's even greatly enhanced with Internet's openness to the public networks. With strong competitions everywhere, it just saddens me that some companies still don't get it.