Transparency Agenda #025: A Kickstarter Donor Customer Service Fail!

If they come to your store, use your free in-store gaming area BUT don’t by anything, are they customers?

OK this seems to happen in a lot of game stores. People use the in-store gaming areas as their new extend play area like they are home. They play game after game of what you sell in your store. They have books, dice, card or whatever else they need. They play for hours and hours in the space you have given them. The bring food and drink in from the outside and leave their garbage for you to pick up. And after all that, they don’t even buy anything from your store. Even worst, they purchase products online and tell their friends where they got the book cheaper than what as a retail store owner you pay. So the question I have to ask is, “Why should I provide them with space to play, if they are not going to purchase anything and support this retail location?”

Let’s be real, the reason retail stores have that space is to get customers to play at their store so customers will purchase products from the retail store. Retailers don’t have in-store gaming areas out of some kind of love affair with customers. This is a straight up marketing move to promote your store to customers. But what happens if they take advantage of your goodwill as a store and don’t help keep your store in business? When I worked for Tate’s Gaming Satellite we were only 500 square feet (25 feet by 20 feet) and half of the store was dedicated to in-store gaming. We initially wanted to charge for gaming space but decided against it think it might scare off customers. So the question if you aren’t buying anything do I really have to respect you as a customer or are you just a freeloader? Talk to you later…

5 YouTube Channels for Small Biz Advice...

5 YouTube Channels for Small Biz Advice is something I found on Mashable.com that I though many of you woulf find interesting.  Talk to you later...

A real FAN of LPJD and Obsidian Twilight...

I few days ago I wrote about  The Difference Between Sales and Fans in my post and this morning I got this email: 

Dear Mr. Porter,

Thank you for your kind gift of the Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting.  (Part of the Red Cross blood donation offer.)  I should have responded earlier, but I neglected my e-mail over the holiday. I have not had time to fully absorb the PDF, but what little I have glanced at is impressive - particularly the artwork and layout which is immediately noticeable. I also have the pleasure of reading your blog.  In an effort to show my support as a "fan" rather than a mere "reader," I will be making additional inspired purchases from your catalog at RPGNOW shortly.

Your loyal customer,
Clarence Harrison

P.S.  I was very impressed with the dedication.

All I can really say to that is thank you for your support.  And writing the dedication in Obsidian Twilight was the most fun I had with that project.  Thanks again!  Talk to you later...

The Basic Rules for success ARE eternal...

The website New Rules for the New Economy put up the  The basic Rules for success are eternal, and if you follow them, you will be successful.  Simple and to the point.

Not really that groundbreaking or surprising, but I will say that they are effecive and directly to the point what many of those in the RPG business field are missing.  With so many books out on how to be successful, the question I have to ask is how many RPG publishers have actually read AND learned from them.  The sad part is, I think the number is very small. What are you doing to push your business to be successful? What are you doing to make you business more responsive to your customer base? If you could work on your business for 4 hours a week how would that change what you do? A good book for you to read on being successful is Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasaki. If you haven't read this book you are missing a great opportunity to make your average business into a successful business. And yes there is a difference.  Talk to you later...

Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

This is why Tony Hsieh is a genius in business and customer service.  Watch this then go pick up Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.  Talk to you later...

Why is your store so dark? It's like I could get mugged in here...

On Saturday, I went to a gaming store down in Miami, while it was small it did have one thing that irked/pissed me off/drove me crazy and that is the place was dark.  I mean like "back alley dark".And this is not the first time I have walked into a comic and/or gaming store like that. I mean would it kill you to get some lights in the place? I don't understand the need to sit around in the dark in a store when you want people to SEE what you are selling.  TURN ON THE LIGHTS!!! The brighter the store is, the easier it is for people to see things you are selling.  Better yet, the easier you can see what needs to be cleaner up in your store! Women don't like going into dark places in fear that something might happen to them and I agree with them completely.  Here is a little retailer trick I learned a long time ago, the bright your store is, the more thing they will buy! So for all you retailers out there do me a favor: TURN ON YOUR LIGHTS IN YOUR STORE! If I want to get mugged and get my money taken, I will go into a Games Workshop store.  Talk to you later...

Why the Ennie Awards, Origins Awards and basically ALL AWARDS are a waste of time…

I don’t really care about awards and award events. Ennie Awards. Origins Awards. All of them. It is not my things. To me, awards are basically high school popularity contest. Everyone makes this big deal about them and how important they are. “People” vote on them and a winner is picked. Normally what happens is you see the same old people voting for these awards and the same old people keep winning awards. Once in a while something wins that no one expects should win, but more often the person who is expected to win, wins. In the RPG industry it is even worse, because it is amazing how many of these companies win the Ennie Awards or Origins Awards on ONE product in a product line and then they never put out more products for that product line. In some even crazier cases, the winner is never heard from or seen again. WTF?!?!?!??!? It is like the Best New Artist award in the Grammys.

I understand why people like them and in some cases need them. But for me, WASTE OF TIME!!! Instead of wasting time on seeing if you can get an award, how about making better products? How about you focus on building you fan base or expanding your Tribe as Seth Godin suggested. You think Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com according to the company, the core value is to "deliver 'wow' through service. Talk about an award you give to your customers. Work on getting your customer the best products they can purchase and you will win the best prize of them all: Freedom to run your RPG Hobby company as a full time profitable business. No little award will do that, but a dedicated fan base will. The only award I want is success and I work very hard everyday to win it. How about you? Talk to you later…

The people have spoken -- are you listening?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called, "How much should a PDF cost". Then over at Paizo.com a thread was started talking about the exact same thing I talked about in the post.  The saddest part of all this is that they company in question still has not come out with any kind of statement to explain what they are doing and why.  Is this an missed opportunity to make a direct connection with your customers?  It is.  The worst part of all this if the roles were reversed, I bet you the company would be screaming bloody murder.  If you want to be in business, then act like a business who cares about potential customers.  Talk to you later...

The US Postal Service is a failure as a business...

The US Postal Service is in dire straits.  They are looking to cut delivery down from 6 days to 5 days (No weekends), cut full time workers, close locations and raise the price of sending mail.  When you have a business that does want to or have to act like a real business you will get into crazy situations like they are in.  FedEx and UPS have attacked their market share and all but decimated any potential that the US Postal Service might recover.  What will it take for the US Postal Service to survive?  Basically a miracle and an act of God because when you main focus is getting money from tax papers and you do have to worry about making a profit, things like this happen and are common place.  The US Postal Service should take a page from Zappos.com and focus on what makes businesses great, customer service.  But since this is a government run institution, I just wait in line with these other 20 people at the Post Office with 10 open spaces for tellers and only working to help customers.  Talk to you later...

How much should a RPG PDF cost?

Normally I don't comment directly on this, but this one made have to look twice when I saw it. I was over at RPGNOW.com and saw this new product for sale. When I looked closer I saw the price of the PDF and their page count. After some quick math in my head I came up with 43 cents per page for this product. Then to add insult to injury, the publisher disabled the cut & paste feature AND the print feature. Basically these guys want someone to pay the $20 for something they can only look at. WTF?!?!?!?!?!

When I first got into RPG PDF publishing, the accepted retail cost of a RPG PDF was 10 cents a page. I have seen this number creep up over time to reach as high as 18 to 25 cents per page on average. I never really worry about pricing issues; because I know the "market" will judge what prices is "reasonable" and adjusts itself accordingly. This happens everywhere in the world so this is not an issue. But there is a slight price creep that has happened over the last decade in RPG PDFs. I like, Chris Anderson, believe free is a price point that we have to embrace as business people to get people interesting in our products. With so many other things vying for our interest, cost does become an issue that we need to realize will affect our buying choice. So instead of trying to "grab all the money you can", think about how you can best service your customer and how can you do that for free. After you do that, THEN and only then think and find a way you can make a profit from your product. This will make you a better business person which in turn will make you more money. How much should a RPG PDF cost? How much are you willing satisfy your customers needs? Talk to you later...

I used to shop there, but now their customer service sucks so I get it online instead…

This is the tagline I normally use for Best Buy. They have gone from a very well run professional store with great customer service, to a mega-giant store where you can never find a service person who knows about any of the products they sell or you find them clustered together in a group ignoring customers. Why does that happen? People used to take actual pride in the work they did. But now they don’t even care about anything going on in the business they work. It is like you are bothering them by asking a question.

This also carries over to comic and game stores too. Basic customer service 101, greet ever customer that comes to the store. Then you ask them if they have ever been to the store before. These two questions are the corner stone of retail customer service. Some of you are thinking, how can you do that same thing to people online? Simple, you build a friendly website for people to come to. Something that is not only welcoming but something that is very interesting. Disney got it right. Everything they do is about customer service. Do you know how many complaints it takes to get fired at Disney? One. A Bad customer service experience just once time can get you fired. People at Disney understand and live the credo of Good Customer Service. Also a simple little thing you can do online is change you images on your website once and a while. For LPJ Design, we change the main image on the website once a month. We really need to change the image once a week. See everyone can improve what they are doing. Every time someone comes to your website or retail location they need to see something new. If you don’t do this then you will see something new, no customers and then a closed or out of business sign.

Ask yourself this, “What can I do to make customer’s feel better about the product they have purchased from me?” You answer that question, you are half way to creating a successful business. Talk to you later…

PDF Business Focus: Customer Service

Due to several CRAPPY dealing with companies including Comcast and Stanley Steemers (NEVER USE THEM!!!!!) and two great companies; Cisco and Hart's Painting; I have decided to start talking about customer service and how can I and you do it better for my own business.  I don't know how long I will talk about this but I would like to get the opinions of people who read this blog, good opinions and especially the bad ones.  The best source of customer serives I have heard of is Zappos.com. According to the company, their core value is to "deliver 'wow' through service". Who wouldn't want to work with a company that makes that it core vaule.  What is your business' core value and do your potenial customer know what it is?  Made they do and that is why they don't purchase from you.  Guess you need to step up your game.  Talk to you later...