|
A Matter of Quality: Don't Let Your LED Sign Customers Get Burned
By John Kunze
Increasingly consumers are eager to capitalize on the benefits of having a dynamic advertising force on their property. In a rush to buy an LED sign, they often neglect the important work of properly researching the product. Sign maker Joel Hansen, vice president of Bangor Neon Signs in Bangor, Maine, knows what it’s like to lose a sale to a competitor hawking low-quality products at bargain-basement prices.
Against Hansen’s advice, a recent customer bought an LED sign from an Internet company. The customer insisted the company sold excellent LED products, offered top-notch technical support, and promised a money-back guarantee if the sign wasn’t up to snuff.
One thing the online company didn’t provide, however, was installation services (as Hansen notes, a red flag). But the customer wanted the sign, and even paid Hansen’s full-service sign company to unload and install it.
The days that followed caused a huge headache for Hansen—and no shortage of heartache for the customer. Contrary to the promises made by the online company, getting the sign running was a complicated, almost impossible process. “We spent days and days on the phone with their tech support,” says Hansen.
Once Hansen’s crew finally got the sign operating, its resolution and overall quality failed to meet the customer’s expectations.. “It just wasn’t what they expected at all,” says Hansen.
The customer asked Hansen to delay the installation while he worked with the Internet company to get his money back. As weeks turned into months, the sign languished in Bangor Neon’s yard. A full six months later, the online company told the customer it didn’t have the money to buy the sign back.
With no recourse, the customer had the sign installed and now pays yet another company hundreds of dollars each month to service and maintain the sign’s software. In the end, Hansen says, the cost of running the sign is far higher than any savings the customer realized on the initial price.
Signs of an Epidemic
Increasingly consumers are eager to capitalize on the benefits of having a dynamic advertising force on their property. In a rush to buy an LED sign, they often neglect the important work of properly researching the product. This leaves them vulnerable to situations like the one described above by Hansen.
It’s understandable why customers gravitate toward low prices. It’s a tough economy. In many cases, customers can find cheaply made LED signs for up to 40 percent cheaper than their high-quality counterparts. But any savings will likely be negated by the cost that comes with operating, servicing, and maintaining an inferior product manufactured by an unreliable company.
As LED signs grow increasingly popular over the next several years, sign shops will find themselves at a crossroads. Will they sell a high-quality product at a higher price or save money and maximize sales on a low-quality, low-cost product? Undoubtedly some shops will be tempted to beat their competitors by selling cheap signs manufactured overseas.
Net Profits?
Al Ross, CEO of National Signs in Houston, has been in the sign business for two decades. In that time, he has become the leading sign provider in the greater Houston area. Yet, in spite of his sterling reputation for providing high-quality products, he still loses customers to companies offering low-cost deals on inferior LED signs. “I ask my customers, ‘Are you buying with results in mind? Does it matter to you if your sign isn’t working after a year?’” he says.
Ross’s advice often falls on deaf ears. When the sign malfunctions later, the customer usually comes calling again. “LED signs aren’t a commodity,” Ross said. “This is a custom-made product we’re talking about. You need to know how it’s going to be installed, serviced, and maintained, and how you’re going to get the parts when things go wrong.
“Once a week, I get a call from somebody who says, ‘My sign doesn’t work! Can you come out and fix it?’”
Cheap Shots
Low-quality, low-cost LED signs are all over the Internet; that can’t be stopped. The real problem occurs when brick-and-mortar sign shops, looking to make a quick buck, team up with the overseas manufacturers to sell their products. Some shops even claim they have overseas manufacturing facilities—a claim that Ross says is often flat-out untrue. “Do people know what it takes to have an operation overseas?” he said. “Do people understand the kinds of sales you must have to maintain that?”
According to Bob Kessler, owner of Kessler Sign Company in Zanesville, Ohio, this is a recipe for disaster—both for the customer and the dealer in question. “Sure they make a big splash with price,” he says, “but they stay in business for maybe three or four years, and then they’re gone.”
The customers are left with nowhere to turn when their low-cost sign stops working. Even if the company is still in business, it usually lacks the expertise to fix the sign, Kessler says.
Like Ross, Kessler is often asked to save the day after a competitor’s LED sign stops working. Unfortunately he’s not always able to play the role of Superman. “We do have expertise in different types of message centers,” he said. “But for a lot of these foreign signs, it’s hard to get the parts. And if you can manage to track down the manufacturer, there are often communication problems due to the language barrier.”
Kessler has some advice for sign companies who think selling “cheap, overseas products” is a wise way to do business. “At the end of the day, your reputation will be damaged. You won’t be able to service the product,” he says.
Worst of all, a potential long-term customer is left with a piece of junk, a smaller bank balance, and a feeling they’ve just been had.
Seeing is Believing
Most sign shops selling low-quality LED signs have one thing in common: They rarely offer an on-site demonstration of the sign. According to Sam Van Bruggen, president of Van Bruggen Signs in Orland Park, Illinois, an on-site demonstration only makes sense for the consumer and can help an authorized reseller of high-quality signs make the sale when competing against a low-cost sign shop. “If the client isn’t sure there’s value in the money they’re spending, it’s often an issue of ‘seeing is believing,’” says Van Bruggen.
Confidence in the product is something every customer buying an LED sign should insist upon, according to Van Bruggen. “How often do you buy a car sight unseen or undriven? You like to take it for a test drive first. Even though the brochures and commercials say it’s a great car, you want to see for yourself,” he says. “When you’re spending this kind of money on an LED sign, it’s equally important to see what you’re buying.”
John Kunze is the sales director of Watchfire Signs. To download the free white paper, “Ten Things to Know Before Buying an LED Sign,” visit www.watchfiresigns.com/signbuilder.
|
