What does a company have to do to lose you as a customer? To win you back?

[IronMike]

Every now and again, though for some reason nothing lately, someone comes along and posts a rant about a gaming company. In this rant they occasionally list their reasons for being upset, but they usually all end with the person saying they are never going to buy anything from that compnay ever again.

So, what would a company have to do to lose you? And then possible more importantly, what do that have to do to get you back?

I think that the biggest thing that would cause me to stop purchasing products from a certain company is a loss of trust. And when I say 'loss of trust' I mean a loss in my trust that the items that the company produce (and I am paying my hardearned money for) are complete and usable products.

A classic example of this for me is the fact that for years I refused to purchase anything from Games Workshop. Why? Well, after purchasing the new (at the time) Warhammer boxed set, reading through all the rules ("Finally, a magic system that doesn't suck!") admiring all the impressive miniatures and assembling all the cardstock buildings, I noticed that one thing was missing: The Army lists! The one tool you need to make the whole game work, and it wasn't there! You had to either purchase a seperate mini-supplement with a batch of 'get-you-by' army lists, or wait until the army book for your particular force came out, and cough up another $30. It was like ordering a meal at a fantastic restaurant, only to have the waiter ask if you'd be interested in purchasing some silverware...

And to get my trust back? Produce solid usable products. Again, back to GW: I'ma huge fan of their 'Lord of the Rings' miniatures rules. Why? Simple really: The rules are well-written, easy to understand, and fun to play. They're complete in one volume, and the boxed sets contained literally dozens of well-sculpted models at a more than reasonable price. If there was a shining example of what I considered to be a 'good product', this would be it.

Do I still avoid just about everything else GW produces? Pretty much. There's an old saying in business: "It takes ten good products to build a reputation, and one bad one to ruin it." The way I see it GW has about 9 more products to go...

 

[TGryph]

Wow. You don't play Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer or D&D? Poor guy...

In fact, I don't. I play Harp and Gurps 4E. Now, not that I said with a couple of years. I understand a company wanting to improve and update their products, but it just seemed a bit too soon for me


And I am perfectly happy with a superior system

TGryph

 

[danbuter]

To lose me:

Put out products with piss-poor editing and proofreading.

To get me back:
Hire decent editors and proofreaders.

 

[Longshadow]

Guess either I've had better experiences than most people, or I'm simply much too laid back. A company really has to cross some lines to lose my business.

I'm forgiving of some customer service lapses. I know how small and stressed out some of the companies in the industry are and I don't expect them to behave like trained reps making good money. Also, I've seen too much vitriol and bile slung by some so-called "reasonable consumers" to blame some poor guy for momentarily losing his cool after being castigated for being human, too many "and I wanted more pages in the book, and your color plates suck, and this is obviously a soapbox for your views and...and...and it all means you're a terrible person and you're going to burn in hell!" rants to harbor a grudge against a beleaguered and beseiged writer or publisher that I know is already struggling just to keep the lights on. That being said, routinely caustic or habitually supercilious behavior will register and persuade me against a company, regardless of their products. I won't name names, but I doubt I have to -- the internet is deceptively small and reputations spread quickly. Of course, this only applies to actual customer service interaction. The opinions someone chooses to post somewhere are a different matter -- they aren't relevant to me at all in my game-buying decisions. Some people are opinionated. So be it. You may have political views antithetical to mine... but, if you make a good product that I like, I'll still buy it. It's a free company and people are entitle to their viewpoints. Deciding to sell stuff doesn't mean you stop being a citizen with rights. A designer who has a personal blog celebrating the political virtues of fascist snuggle bunnies and their unending struggle to make the world safe for telepathic invasion from Lovecraftian furniture-designers simply isn't going to figure into whether or not I'm going to like or buy their game work. Politics is politics and games is games. (Of course, if the aforementioned actually is representative of your game materials...I'll probably pass on dicing with malevolent plushies and their mind-breaking extradimensional bauhaus overlords. YMMV .) I also don't think that writing a game immediately strips you of any rights you may have to criticize product you yourself have bought. A professional can still be a consumer and still be irked. As long as the criticism is civil and reasonable, I won't balk. Hell, I might even agree. A thinly veiled tirade against another designer or personal attacks against a company because you don't like some of the people still working there, those are another matter -- and if such mudslinging becomes a rampant occurence, my estimation and preference meters can't help but be negatively influenced :\ . Luckily, the list of such offenders that have registered on my radar is thankfully small.

Poor products ... well, that's another story. If I don't like what a company puts out, I'll quickly turn off my mental reception of their advertising. Nothing personal against their staff, but I have a finite budget and specialized interests. Simple consumerism. No harm, no foul. Editing errors, if egregious, will push my buttons, however. I won't throw a gear over a few typos here and there, and the infrequent "page XX" will usually only provoke a wry grin, but indecipherable text, mutliple typos averaged per paragraph, and so on, really pets my peeve. Even if a company can't afford the snazzy graphics or expensive art, basic editing is just a sign of professionalism and consideration for your work. RPGs survive on being , well, actually readable. Fail that and I walk away without apology.

Business practices -- that's a quandary. If I know someone is slimy, I won't support their work. The trick is -- I have to know. Rumors are rife, and this is an industry that thrives on some very strong personalities, many of whom quickly form opinions about each other that influence business dynamics forever after. Reading a rumor on some board somewhere is likely going to get dismissed out of hand by me without supporting evidence. I've met any number of creators and RPG company folk who've been vilified at length without a single actual shred of support for the condemnation. I now take everything with a grain of salt and leave the stone throwing to people with the time, energy, and inclination. It's not that everything is out-and-out relative, but quite a bit is really just perception, and I prefer to make my own judgements (one of the reasons I read so few reviews about other people's products).

Right. That's my two coppers. Take 'em or leave 'em.