How Not to Buy What You Don’t Want?

In the last few years of my life, I realized that the most difficult job for us is to make decisions. We are simply scared of it, because decisions have consequences and sometimes they might not be in our favor. Buying a product is a decision. Although, we are sure about what we want we still look out for the options that are available in the market. When we do that, we are more confused than ever before. We see ten different items having ten different features with ten different discount offers and that’s it, we are doomed and we end up buying something that we don’t want.

One of my blogger friends Dan wrote about product reviews recently and mentioned that there are three kinds of people that write product reviews online. Read his post here. Here I am not trying to justify anything or trying to claim that writers are right and buyers are fools. I am bringing in a new perspective and new ways to look at things that will help buyers choose wisely. I've been in the service industry for quite some time now and I see this buying pattern almost everywhere I worked. Based on my experiences and what I have observed all these years, I decided to come up with this post.

I believe it is the responsibility of the buyer/consumer to segregate and evaluate all the pieces of information before making any decision. As a buyer/consumer I want better satisfaction ratio/value for money in every product and service that I buy. Why? Because I am putting my hard earned money on it. I patiently invest small amounts of money for many months before I buy anything, so I want to make sure that all that patience and hard work pays off, in the right way. If I am not satisfied or happy with that product or service, even a 5-star highly rated product/service is as good as junk for me. 

Now, most buyers that I have come across don’t even know what they want in the first place, so there is a high probability that they are going to end up buying something that won’t offer complete satisfaction. Secondly, buyers believe everything that is written in product reviews, offline and online. Third, they ask too many people about what product/service they should buy and get multiple recommendations that again leave them clueless about which product they should purchase.

I am not someone who does lot of shopping, but whenever I plan to buy something I make sure I get 100% satisfaction from the product I buy. Now, how do I do that? 

What You Want?

Even before you start researching and read product reviews you need to know what you want. It’s like deciding your destination before you pack your bags and step out. All around me I find people who are not really sure what they really want. All they know is that they want something that can help them to simplify their life. For instance, many of my friends ask me which smartphone is really good in the market (since I write lot about smartphones). That is a difficult question for me to answer because there is no one single model that has all the features packed in, not even the most expensive ones. Some smartphones are for budget consumers, some are good for photographers, and some smartphones are designed for better web browsing and social media and so on. Buying the latest Android version or iOS version doesn't help because you have to focus on the processor, RAM, internal storage capacity and so many other things. What I do is I sit down; write down all the features that I want in my smartphone. I also write certain features that I don’t want or that I am willing to sacrifice because you will certainly have some drawbacks in any model that you choose. I then focus only and only on what features are absolutely necessary for me, irrespective of what others think or buy. I do this for all other products that I want to purchase that helps me to narrow down on what I really need. 

Read Product Reviews

Before I even proceed further, let me confess that there are various kinds of product reviews you will find online. Some written by irate customers, some paid ones that are written by freelance writers like me and some by industry experts. Take your time and read through multiple product reviews before you make your mind. Also please keep in mind that not everything mentioned in the product review is true. It could be that the product that the reviewer is reviewing is not as good as he/she expected and therefore the reviewer voted poorly, but the same product could satisfy all your expectations because you have a different set of expectations. Some product reviews are written by freelance writers like me who are paid by companies. I have written positively about many products that I personally thought were waste of money, but that’s my job. Of course, if you bought those products you would be cursing me and I understand that frustration completely. When you read a product review, focus only on features and not on how the reviewer is feeling about those features. For instance, the reviewer will say the reading angles of the smartphone from the side is poor, so you can't see the fonts and icons clearly. Now, the question is are you really going to read that way all the time? If not, you should not be bothered about the side visibility of the screen. Instead focus only on the screen ppi which is the pixel density and the glass panel used.

Customer Feedback and Reviews

Many customers prefer to write their experiences after buying products. Hence, when you go on sites like Amazon you will find that there are many customer reviews right below the product. Now, it is important for you to read those reviews, but don’t be judgmental about it. There are many companies that actually pay writers like me to write those reviews posing as customers. So, even those reviews or experiences are not completely true. Some are written by irate customers who are not even sure what they want and now that they have not received the right product they are just venting their frustration using whatever options they have to drive down the sales. What I do is I just stay focus on what features are important to me. For instance, if the smartphone is voted poorly on battery life and if the customers have mentioned that they hate the battery life because it gets depleted in few hours, I don’t mind because for me that is not an issue. So even when the smartphone has been voted poorly for battery life I would still discount those reviews and focus on something that matters to me.

YouTube Unboxing and Review Videos

I always make a point to watch these YouTube videos where they unbox and review the products. It’s a great way to watch the product first hand and see how it looks in real. Unboxing and review videos are good, but again you got to detach yourself from what the reviewer has to say. There might be some good points that these videos might tell you that normal reviews might miss out on so ensure that the product fits your requirements and budget.

Compare

I believe the compare factor works really well for those who are not brand focused. If you are loyal to certain brands you might not make the most out of comparing different products, but if you are willing to move on other brands comparing will help you find a better product. For instance, I am quite loyal to HTC in terms of smartphones and I was recently searching for a new smartphone. The features I wanted were available with HTC smartphones, but the price factor was beyond my budget. I compared it with other similar phones and I found Asus Zen Phone 5 that has similar specifications. I bought Asus Zen Phone 5 at a price that fits my budget and that fits my requirements. So, comparing helped me to discover similar or better products that I can use. In fact, I also found that Moto G was in the same performance category and price bracket, so I could have bought that as well.

Recommendations

Recommendation is a better way to find better products/services. Why? Because our friends and relatives are using those products and at the back our mind we start assuming that those products are good for us as well. We buy it even before we think twice about it. For instance, I go to a friend’s place I see this great HDTV and I am in love with it. I buy it impulsively in the next few days, but then I realize there are certain features in it that don’t suit my lifestyle, or there are certain features missing that I wanted in the first place and that brings my satisfaction level crashing down. Personally, I don’t ask for recommendations because I have a different lifestyle as compared to any of my best friends or relatives. In fact, every family has a different way of living. I certainly take that product into consideration while I am researching, but I don’t just buy it blindly because my loved ones have it.

Conclusion

Consumer market today is flooded with wide variety of products and services from different companies and brands. This makes it easier for us to make choices, but at the same time it can be dauntingly confusing. I believe there is no buying tips and trick that can help you find the right product/service that you want, but you need to stay informed and aware to make the right decisions. I hope this post will help buyers to make better decisions when they go out shopping online or offline and get 100% satisfaction and ensure that they invest their hard earned money on the right product or service.