Poor standards mean poor quality of life- it's a vicious trap and for long we have been accepting low quality goods and inefficient services as a part and parcel of our daily routine. Have a look at some of the problems we commonly face:
You keep on using a cheap detergent powder which has strong toxic ingredients. It is not safe for you, your family and the environment. Why don't you buy a better brand and get a higher value for your money?

You go with your family to watch a movie. The air conditioning system in the cinema hall is not functional, the seats are in a very bad shape, overall housekeeping standards are extremely poor. Why don't you decide not to visit the same hall again, till the cinema management provides better facilities?

You frequently use the same petrol pump even though there is hardly any other facility like free air, stock of good quality consumable, etc. Have you ever thought of changing to another pump offering much better services.

There would be a never ending list of problems like these and most of us don't care about poor standards till the time these cause us great inconvenience. Right from the childhood we have learnt to live with these problems-the problem is we don't even consider these deviations as problems and continue to accept poor standards as a way of life. Think for a minute what would happen to such businesses if we consciously choose high quality goods or better services. All such establishments would either perish or improve quickly-there is no other choice.

As consumers, all of us have an extremely important role in promoting better standards in our daily life. In fact everything starts with the consumers and ends with them. As proactive consumers we must give lots of suggestions, feedback and raise complaints with sellers, in case we are not satisfied with their products or services. The sellers would come back to the market with improved products and services-no one can afford to lose customers in today's business scenario. Such an improvement cycle would go on and on endlessly. Each rotation of this cycle would mean higher standards and thus a better quality of life for all of us.

Let us not settle for anything less than this.

The writer is working with a multi-national firm based in Mohali.