AV123 Forum Update (January 29, 2009)

[Dr Dave]

Mark has removed update capability of the AV123 forum.  I'm not sure what the intentions are when it returns.  Here are my two cents regarding some issues.

Vendor forums, such  as the AV123 forum, are great vehicles for people to talk about the vendors products, share experiences, tips, ask questions and communicate with others with similar interest in the products.  Many vendors have such forums. 

It's not unusual for the forum to have areas to bring up customer service issues, in this respect the AV123 forum is not unique.  What is unique, at least in my experience, is involvement of the owner in respect to addressing problems and issues.  But the unique goes beyond simply seeing the owner directly address issues.  In the case of the AV123 forum, Mark will resolve the issues, in the clear, out in the open for all to see.  Open Kimono is a popular way to describe this approach.  It's easy to be, when watching this play out on the forum, impressed with the level of service. 

There is a flip side to this coin, however.  As a company grows and as they sell and deliver more products there will, naturally, be more problems.  While there may be patterns of problems, a bad batch of "something", often each problem is unique.  The conversations that occur between customer and vendor will differ as the circumstances differ.  When someone sees another customer get satisfaction for their problem, it's human nature to assume they will receive the same service, even though the problems may be different and circumstances communications may have occurred which the customer may not be aware.

The problem is expectations are being set, correctly or not, consciously or not and all of them will not be met.  They can't be, there are simply not enough hours in the day for the owner.  Even if somehow each person who raised a fuss on the forum ended up satisfied, there are those who won't post on the forum, either because it's not their style or they may feel calling or emailing the company should elicit the same level of satisfaction.

It also appears that the greatest satisfaction for resolution to problems comes to those who make the biggest stink.  This goes beyond the AV123 forum as I've seen it on the AVS forum as well. 

I don't know the right way for AV123 to handle this as I don't know Mark well enough to understand his thinking.  Time will tell how this plays out.

[Hugh]

Mark has removed update capability of the AV123 forum.  I'm not sure what the intentions are when it returns.  Here are my two cents regarding some issues.

Vendor forums, such  as the AV123 forum, are great vehicles for people to talk about the vendors products, share experiences, tips, ask questions and communicate with others with similar interest in the products.  Many vendors have such forums. 

It's not unusual for the forum to have areas to bring up customer service issues, in this respect the AV123 forum is not unique.  What is unique, at least in my experience, is involvement of the owner in respect to addressing problems and issues.  But the unique goes beyond simply seeing the owner directly address issues.  In the case of the AV123 forum, Mark will resolve the issues, in the clear, out in the open for all to see.  Open Kimono is a popular way to describe this approach.  It's easy to be, when watching this play out on the forum, impressed with the level of service. 

There is a flip side to this coin, however.  As a company grows and as they sell and deliver more products there will, naturally, be more problems.  While there may be patterns of problems, a bad batch of "something", often each problem is unique.  The conversations that occur between customer and vendor will differ as the circumstances differ.  When someone sees another customer get satisfaction for their problem, it's human nature to assume they will receive the same service, even though the problems may be different and circumstances communications may have occurred which the customer may not be aware.

The problem is expectations are being set, correctly or not, consciously or not and all of them will not be met.  They can't be, there are simply not enough hours in the day for the owner.  Even if somehow each person who raised a fuss on the forum ended up satisfied, there are those who won't post on the forum, either because it's not their style or they may feel calling or emailing the company should elicit the same level of satisfaction.

It also appears that the greatest satisfaction for resolution to problems comes to those who make the biggest stink.  This goes beyond the AV123 forum as I've seen it on the AVS forum as well. 

I don't know the right way for AV123 to handle this as I don't know Mark well enough to understand his thinking.  Time will tell how this plays out.

Mark has NOT learn this word: PROACTIVE.

[Dr Dave]

Mark has NOT learn this word: PROACTIVE.

No one country has a monopoly on quality and value and we will find substandard quality worldwide.  Sourcing your product overseas has it's challenges and one of them is developing the relationships necessary to ensure all parties have consistent expectations.  That's hard to do over the phone.  Hopefully things are turning around as we speak. 

Mark and Lynn are wonderful people and I hope they are able to take the their company to the next level.  They deserve it as do their supporters.  I'll go further and say the industry will be better for it as well.

[Dr Dave]

Much has transpired since my last update and for AV123, it's customers and maybe mostly those affected by the raffles, it hasn't been good.  Here is the most recent update.