Greetings – we’re in the midst of last minute Christmas preparations and looking forward to 2013, which promises to be full of opportunities to make a difference for damage prevention in Texas.
Our Director of Operations, Chris Stovall, is pursuing an advanced degree at Texas Women’s University. He recently finished up a class in Marketing Management, and forwarded the following excerpt from his textbook to me:
The relationship between price and revenue:
Myth # 1 – When business is good, a price cut will capture greater market share.
Myth # 2 – When business is bad, a price cut will stimulate sales.
Price cutting is generally not in the best interest of the firm unless sales volume will increase.
A better strategy is to build value into the product offering at the same (or even a higher) price.
This is a great time to reflect on what it means, since there are those in the one-call or notification center business for whom price is everything. At Texas811, we know our success stems from and depends upon the service we render to our stakeholders every day: our member facility operators and the excavators that depend on our work. By fostering continuous communication through many channels and among all parties, Texas811 adds value to membership beyond the direct dollars spent.
Our staff, from the Damage Prevention Managers who travel throughout Texas meeting members and excavators face-to-face, to the Damage Prevention Agents in the contact center, is dedicated to and focused on improving our quality of life, now and in the future. It would be great if the best (or even adequate) quality could be had at the cheapest price – but that’s just not so. When lives are at stake, it’s small comfort to have saved a little bit of money. Over 1,300 facility operator-members in Texas have found the value in Texas811 membership.
And speaking of Damage Prevention, the 2013 Texas811 Damage Prevention Summit is right around the corner. The Summit will be held at the historic Hilton Hotel in downtown Fort Worth (the old Texas Hotel) February 19-21. Elsewhere in this issue you’ll learn a lot about those preparations and the program itself, but I can tell you that you’ll receive great value in return for your investment in attendance.
The Summit is for all those interested in keeping Texas a safer place to live and work. Last year’s attendees comprised stakeholders including facility operator personnel from municipalities and all other industries, professional excavators and locators, regulatory folks from the Railroad Commission of Texas and PHMSA and national figures from the Common Ground Alliance.
I look forward to seeing you at the 2013 Texas811 Summit in Fort Worth, if not before.
