Are you really saving money using cheap foreign labor or are you alienating your customers?

Question

I run a business. Which means most of the time when I am here I am working. Today alone the same yellow pages representative called me not once, or twice but THREE times trying to get me to upgrade my listing, I didnt have time to deal with her the first time.. This would not be so horrible except that the reason for the second and third call was that I didn't understand one word she said on the first call.

I understand companies are giving these phone room contracts to foreign companies for the cheap labor force but she spent nearly an hour talking to me today and the only the she accomplished was frustrating me and making my vow never to do business with them again.

People in this country are sleeping in the streets and children are starving because these cheap, stingy, multi-billion dollar conglamerants do not want to pay a decent wage. Is anyone else as angry about this as I am. I have decided I just will not try to communicate with them anymore.

Answer 1

It's not just megacorps that are stingy and use the cheapest possible source of labor. It's customers who are stingy and buy the cheapest possible goods or utilize the cheapest possible services. The companies who want to succeed are forced to respond to people's stingy spending habits and either cut their costs (by outsourcing, for example) or fold up.

Until customers realize that the best long-term solution for their macroeconomy is to first support their microeconomy, we cannot expect corporations to choose the more expensive, more ethical route.

What I'm saying is that there has to be a million other customers saying "I vow never to do business with them again" before corporations can be expected to change their cost-minimizing service delivery.

As a liberally-oriented person, I have grown up despising politics and big business. But what I've come to realize is that these establishments are very, very reactive to the people they intend to serve. The attitudes and values of the masses need to change before the entities that govern and provide for them can be expected to change.

Answer 2

I see a chicken vs. the egg argument here. I also run a business and because my customers are in constant pursuit of the lowest price and have no true loyalty to me, I must constantly look for ways to provide my service at least cost. In one example, I have faithfully preformed every service on contract at a fair yet profitable price for the same organization for 12 years. A competitor of questionable sorts, put in an unsolicited bid to do the same work for a LITTLE less. I got the boot. I agree with the first responder, we do this stuff to ourselves.

P.S. A "Mexican" cuts my lawn. I hire him not because he is the cheapest, but because he shows up sober each time and takes pride in his work. I've yet to get that from a spoiled American teenager. Some of these Hispanic people remind me of "old American". When we were a young country people were willing to do a hard days work for a fair days pay. Now everybody wants a free ride and don't want to work for their "fruits". I would never pay this gentleman less than he is worth because he is worth every dollar he asks.

Answer 3

The unfortunate truth is that unlimited cheap labor matched only by unlimited wealth for those who control it is the unabashed goal of those who have created this environment. Those who advocate such an end are getting more and more bold in their resentment towards what America stands for by the year. This latest administration is an obvious testament to the fact that America is no longer the pet project of those in charge. It has been parcelized, bankrupted and is being allowed to drown intentionally. Not to be a doomsayer, but the sooner Americans come to these realizations, the better equipped we can be when we have to fight. In the meantime as an entrepreneur myself, and as a person with disposable income:

I do not shop at walmart.
I do not hire Mexicans to mow my lawn.
I do not eat fast food.
I do not buy cars that are neither Eurpean or American personally or for my business.
I pay attention to how companies and vendors behave and buy or refuse to buy their goods or services accordingly.
I pay attention to exactly who commercials are catering to. If I don't like what I see or I see propaganda, I look for products from that company's competitors.

There are a lot of things that YOU can do to fight the system that has been established.

Look for those who are like you (they will be your best customers) and by all means contact whatever phone directory that you are dealing with a written letter (not email) explaining why your money is going elsewhere.