Why Good Ideas fail
Filed Under (Marketing and Sales) by admin on 09-08-2009
Well it has been awhile since we have posted to our business blog. Even though the market place is showing signs of improving and the stock market is beginning to respond it is still clear we have a long way to go before we see a return to a retail market that we experienced some two years ago. I’m going to write a couple of articles one on bad and one on good customer service. Small businesses must survive in the long haul by first having something folks want to buy and second by providing the type of customer service that will bring new customers through the door to purchase your product.Today I’m going to give you an example of how a good product can fail in the marketplace just because of poor support or customer service. I’m an avid flight simmer. My platform is Microsoft Flight Simulator X but I also buy a lot of flight simulator add-on products such as aircraft, scenery, and utility type software, to enhance my flying experience. I recently purchased a program, FSPassenger, that is a business, career, and passenger interface program, that helps you build your own airline and then manage and fly it.
It’s a truly a great little program that does wonders for the flight simulator experience. I recently had to re-format my hard drive on my computer to make way for Windows 7. In the process my original key code used to re-install the program showed as ” no longer valid”. I went to the site and posted on the support forum and also sent a separate email asking for a new code and giving my original purchase information. Well folks it has been since May and after many emails and postings still no code. The site admins tell me that the owner is very busy and will get to it when he can. The forums are filled with discontented customers like myself with the same issue. Now new potential customers are becoming concerned about even purchasing this product. This is a sure way to kill your market place potential for good even if your product is a good one. My recommendation is make sure you maintain enough resources to assist folks who need your help and handle them as quickly as possible. Once the word gets out that your support and customer service is flaky you will fail even if your product is a good one.
I feel your pain. It seems as though poor service is just something that we in the flight sim community tolerate way too often. Many (not all) FS Addon vendors seem to have the attitude that they’re doing us a favor by allowing us the privilege to use their great product.
This being said, I’m not sure that enough in our community will “vote with their feet” as you suggest to really make a difference. We seem to just accept poor quality products (e.g., Wilco Boeing 777) and service as par for the course.
I continue to be astonished by the common practice of developers releasing poor quality addons and then charging customers to perform the role of tester. In our lust for the next great add-on, we pay our money and then spend hours noting problems and posting on forums hoping that the problems will be fixed. I’m not sure I can think of any other market (in which you pay for a product) where this happens.
Not only do we (the ones who pay for the product) act as the test group, we also flock to forums (which is the sole source for support for many addons) to assist others.
To summarize, we pay full price for half-baked addons and along with that comes the privilege of testing and reporting problems and acting as customer support via forums!? Sure, it all makes perfect sense, right!?
I guess we should just be happy that the benevolent developers choose to create the addons that keep us in front of our PCs for hours. I’m fully aware of how things work in this hobby and yet I voluntarily continue. I guess that’s the point of this post.
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