In class, when we discussed quality management, I immediately
thought of the new company that my cousin and I have recently started. We are
currently selling produce products to restaurants and small produce centers.

When we were talking about quality management in class, I noticed
that when I met with our potential buyers, it was evident that they were most
interested in the best of price and quality of the products that they were
potentially buying. We understood that we had to find a way to obtain the best
quality produce to improve our reputation, therefore my cousin and I made sure
to get the best products available to our customers. Since we are just starting
this company, we are aiming for earning a great reputation with our current and
future customers. We do our best to increase our sales and have the lowest
prices. By competing with other competitors, such as major companies, when we
go to purchase the product for our customers after an order, we make sure to
pick and choose the highest quality produce of all the products available to us,
even if they are most expensive.

By having the best quality and lowest prices, we are able to
make a lot more sales to be able to make a higher profit.  By doing so, all of this will raise reputation
of our company and gain customer loyalty.

Unlike the other companies where the customers either go to
pick their products up themselves or have the products delivered for a price, we
offer a free delivery service with our products. This will not only benefit us
with customer satisfaction in the long run, it will also make our customers happy.
We are trying to serve companies locally for now so it’s easy for us to be able
to offer free delivery.

All the other employees that we work with are very close to
us and are known to be trusted to complete their tasks. This is very important because
we know that our customer satisfaction is extremely important, so it’s imperative
to have trusted co-workers. By wanting to succeed, we can also have product liability
by making sure that other products are in great condition by the time we get to
the customers. These services that we offer will give us a great advantage over
other competitors.

As a starter company, do you believe that we should be
offering a lower price than major competitors for our high quality produce?

In class we discussed the product life cycle. When I first heard about the 4 Steps, which include the Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline of a cycle, I automatically thought of a job I used to work for being a cable company provider. I was selling cable TV, phone and internet. The company I worked for was being offered in new locations and I had to go around door to door selling the product for commission.

In the beginning, or in other words, the introduction phase of the job process, was overall okay since it was a new company in the area and nobody really had much knowledge on the company so a few sales were made. People would not take the time to open the door and listen to my pitch. When some people did want to start a conversation, I would have to explain the company in great detail because no one has heard of it.

Then, as time passed in the growth phase, there had been some knowledge of the company spreading around and residents started to get intrigued by the idea of this cable provider so more than a normal amount of sales were made. Less people said, “no thank you” or “I already have cable” and stayed to listen to my explanation of this growing company.

In the third phase, the maturity phase, word had gone around that this company is good and for the amount of money to be saved verse the competitors the residents couldn’t refuse the offer. So as you can imagine, after all the neighbors talked about the company and shared more knowledge of the company and a little extra information by me the sales were being made more than ever. My boss was obviously happier during this phase because more sales were made overall.

Unfortunately, in the next phase, there is a decline, in the decline phase. After a numerous amount of sales, there were no more residents that would have wanted the product offered. So as you can imagine there were less and less sales being made after time.

As you can imagine, any kind of company could go through this problem. Do you believe that there is any way to expand the maturity phase and to avoid or delay the decline phase?