Subject:
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Re: Fed UP!!!!!!!!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color
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Date:
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Tue, 20 Jul 2004 03:22:23 GMT
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Highlighted:
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(details)
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1670 times
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In lugnet.color, Justin Pratt wrote:
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In lugnet.color, Alfred Speredelozzi wrote:
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The problem is, I don’t think most people agree with you. This issue has
touched a nerve in the community and it will continue to hurt until
something real is done to fix it. People are still quite confused as to why
this decision was made.
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It’s part and parcel of the denial that AFOLs are but a passing afterthought
to TLC. Some people can’t get over the fact that, in the scheme of all
things related to Lego in the marketplace, they generally* don’t count in
these kinds of decisions. Yes, lugnet and AFOLs are a community and all, but
people need to stop thinking we’re going to get anything but token
recognition out of TLC.
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Lego may or may not care what we think. At their peril. And since I have
already said my piece, I will add a quote of someone else’s to the fray. This
was not written about lego:
===quote===
(from http://www.retailernews.com/898/phill898.html by Rick Phillips)
“Marshall Fields, the great Chicago retailer once said: ‘Those who buy, support
me. Those who come to flatter, please me. Those who complain teach me how I may
please others so they will buy. The only ones who hurt me are those who are
displeased but do not complain. They refuse me permission to correct my errors
and thus improve my service.‘”
“Most managers view customer complaints as annoying headaches, and they avoid
facing dissatisfied customers. Customer-service driven managers, however,
welcomes complaints. They know that complaints represent an opportunity to excel
and become even more profitable.”
“Dozens of studies conducted by government, universities, and industries have
proved that a customer whose complaint has been resolved will create much more
revenue than they ever cost. A satisfied customer will return to buy more, and
he or she will refer more new customers than a customer who never gave a manager
the opportunity to resolve his or her complaint. ”
“A study, by the Technical Assistance Research Programs Institute pinpoints
three key findings regarding customer complaints:
--The average customer with an unresolved complaint will tell nine to ten
people; 13% tell more than 20 people.
--Up to 70% of complainers will return to your business if their complaint is
resolved. Up to 95% return if the problem is resolved quickly.
--For every one complaint received, the average company has 26 unhappy customers
it never hears from; six of these customers have problems that are
considered “serious” problems.”
“Lets examine that last point. The TARP study tells us that for every one
customer who bothers to complain there are 26 who remain silent. If we are
getting five complaints a week that means that there are as many as 130
dissatisfied “former customers” out there with unresolved problems.”
===end quote===
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(* ‘generally’ meaning that although, yes, they buy sets and sometimes an
awful lot for individual AFOLs, they still don’t measure up to the vast bulk
of Lego-buying non-AFOL parents of whom are the focus of any studies done by
TLC)
TLC is a marketing entity, selling their brand. They’re getting squeezed
all the time by chinese knock-offs, cheaper brands and other toys moving in
on their space (GI Joe vehicles with studs for ‘other compatible toys’), so
the brand has to change to compete. I assume the new parts are to thwart
copycat brands, using patent or copyright laws with new bricks to
differentiate them from brand X.
That’s the facts and they suck, but that’s life.
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They suck worse for Lego if they think that we do not matter. While I can
accept that AFOLs represent 5% of the market (having been mentioned here and
elsewhere as the rough number) I think they represent quite a bit more when you
are talking about their brand equity. AFOLs are out there pushing the brand,
doing all the cool things that Lego says you can do with thier toys.
Now, I am not saying that Lego should act on every little whining thing that
some AFOL or group of AFOLs says. However, this color change really isn’t in
that category. Its big. It affects nearly all AFOLs negatively. (Anyone have
any positive reaction to the color change?) In this case, they should
consider our complaints. What should they do about it? I don’t think they have
to “change back” to solve it, however, I still don’t think anyone but Jake has
tried to solve it.
Yep, once again, Jake is nice. Not the enemy. I keep saying it, and I’m not
alone, and yet the anti-color movement still is labeled as anti-Jake. In fact,
I can only remember one anti-Jake post, and it was so rude, it was pretty well
shot down by everyone. The problem is, Jake’s role seems to be more of a
conduit when it comes to this issue. I don’t see how he has the power to fix
it, really, or even to realistically suggest the solution. Maybe he does, and I
don’t know (certainly possible, since I don’t work there!) Someone higher in
the Lego heirarchy needs to take notice, and do some fixing.
So why are we complaining here? In Lugnet, where it essentially does no good?
Because we feel comfortable complaining here. Its what you do with your
friends. Granted we are not all friends here, but many of us are, or at least
feel that comfort level when it comes to Lego topics. I am sorry for the people
who have to read rants in .general, since we have the nice .color place to
complain, but that still doesn’t make us wrong. That still doesn’t make our
voices insignificant.
Here is another little tid bit I found in looking up customer complaints on the
web:
===quote===
(from http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/usability/library/us-cranky11.html
by Peter Seebach)
“Once upon a time, I wanted to buy a game. So, I went to the Web site for the
company that sold this game, I browsed their online store, I found something I
wanted, and I clicked the “Add to cart” button.”
“Nothing happened.”
“I tried again. I poked around. It turned out that the page used JavaScript, and
you could not add an item to a cart without it. I wrote the webmaster to
complain. His response was:
‘As this is the only such comment in 2 years of the e-store, and 6 years of the
Web site, I feel safe in assuming that your opinion is not widely held.’ This is
a pretty rude response. It’s also an outright lie. I frequent a newsgroup
related to the products sold in that particular store, and the unusability of
the Web site is a regular topic of discussion. I may have been the only person
to bother to write them and complain...but I somehow doubt it, since my mother
reported a similar problem when she tried to order a game, and spent quite some
time asking the store’s support staff to help her. She eventually gave up; the
online store couldn’t be made to work with her computer.”
===end quote===
The problem is that you, Justin, are falling into a belief that plagues business
these days. They think some of their customers don’t matter. You think it is
something that I have to get over (no, I didn’t really take it as a personal
attack, so no hard feelings), but I think it is the other way around. It is
something Lego has to get over if they are going to survive.
-Alfred
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Fed UP!!!!!!!!
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| (...) I've wondered about this for quite some time now...is that 5% supposed to be by straight head-count, or by total dollar sales? If it's by the head, then we should be accounting for a rather hefty chunk of their gross income. (20 years ago, 20-Jul-04, to lugnet.market.theory, FTX)
| | | Re: Fed UP!!!!!!!!
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| (...) (Marshall Fields customer stuff snipped) There is a disconnect here. The AFOL segment is largely disconnected from the Lego-buying parent segment, even if there's overlap between the two groups (at 5%, there can only be so much overlap with (...) (20 years ago, 20-Jul-04, to lugnet.color, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Fed UP!!!!!!!!
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| (...) It's part and parcel of the denial that AFOLs are but a passing afterthought to TLC. Some people can't get over the fact that, in the scheme of all things related to Lego in the marketplace, they generally* don't count in these kinds of (...) (20 years ago, 19-Jul-04, to lugnet.color, FTX)
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