6 Quick Questions: Emphasizing Quality Over Price

HYB has a competitive price policy when compared with the OEM but it is based upon premium quality products. The low-priced, low-quality sector is a crowded space we do not want to enter.

Kim: We have plenty of true stories to share. What has surprised me most recently, is that many of our distributors in different countries keep asking us for T-shirts bearing our logo. Their employees love these shirts. That’s because, in countries including Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Paraguay and South Africa, we have established a good reputation with our trademarks. Customers who are proud of your trademark want to be a part of the success you achieve.

David: Can you share an experience where you lost a customer because of price but won them back again because of quality?

Kim: One such case was with our compatible TK-6305 toner. Most of our competitors use a formulation developed by a famous Japanese manufacturer. However, HYB’s technical professionals found this formulation was defective after 5,000 copies. So, we rejected it. We found a different Japanese supplier where the toner formulation is 100% efficient and effective. But we found that our toners were 30% more expensive than our competitors. One of our customers switched to another supplier. However, after five or six months, he returned to HYB again. He told us the competitor toner caused damage to the drum unit after 4- or 5,000 pages. In switching back to HYB, he was willing to pay the higher price and has been with us ever since for many years.

David: Under what circumstances could it be possible to have very high quality and low prices at the same time?

Kim: In the 5Q Interview in a previous edition of RT ImagingWorld magazine, our founding director, Vincent Chen, discussed the importance of control when it comes to the supply chain. In my opinion, a manufacturer like HYB can find many opportunities to control both the quality and the prices at the same time. We own our own engineering skills. We are quite capable of developing our own toner formulations and patents. We keep updating our testing procedures and quality standards. It’s a combination of all these important factors that makes it possible.

David: To what extent are you loyal to HYB because of its view and standards relating to quality?

Kim: We have many distributors who are contracted to us for up to 10 years. They are loyal to HYB’s consistent quality. This delivers benefits including high end-user satisfaction and the opportunity to confidently establish relationships with new customers. As a result, their businesses grow alongside HYB’s.