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Harvard Business Review, Kdice, and loyaly
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0 wrote
at 11:57 AM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST
So I was reading the Harvard Business Review the other day and I came across an article that got me thinking. The title of the article was: "Por que la satisfaccion del cliente no siempre se convierte en lealtad" Don't ask why I was reading it, I just was.
So the article went on to explain the problems of customer loyalty. I'm not going to bore you with all the details of the article, and considering that Spanish isn't my first language, I doubt I'm the best person for that job. Regardless, it got me thinking. Can the same "formula" that is applied to goods and services on a macro scale, or even on a micro scale when dealing with individual companies, be applied to an online game in the same way? Technically yes, since this is Ryan's business. Does he have clients? Yes. Does he have paying clients? Somewhat. If his clients are impressed with his service, then yes, they will proceed to pay him. Have I paid for my service in playing kdice? Yes. Now, taking that in stride, how many times have I seen people complain about the things that go on in kdice? It seems like every forum post is about something wrong with the game, this one could even be included in that, if you want to look at it that way. With all of the complaints on a daily basis, I'd say that the customer satisfaction on average isn't that bad. With the thousands of players Ryan has a day, the 20 or so that bitch on the forums isn't that significant. However, if you factor in the number of people who actually read the forums, that brings in a whole other level, however I won't go into that. Now, looking at customer loyalty. Montecarlo has played 3058 games, Vohaul played 5890, Diceygirl and Nuflis has played a similar numbers. That's some pretty good customer loyalty. Those numbers no doubt are more than hundreds of other accounts combined. I'd say that it's safe to assume that these players are the most loyal to kdice. Also look at the number of players that kdice has lost. Panzer, Unlucky, X LUCK X, rnd, leekstep, Mikeypoo. Those guys all played thousands of games, and they don't play anymore, because of the business model implemented by kdice. (And kdicefreak, find me some other player other than Mr. Anderson who has played more games than rnd or Mikeypoo and I'll use their names. I'm just using their names because they've played the most in the game. Period.) Have they all donated? rnd had more stars than anyone except CoMik, integral or Leekstep. Do any of them play anymore? No. Where have all the customers gone? The loyalty of the customer is waning. Their loyalty is waning. Anyway, that's what you get when you read the HBR. That's my two cents worth. And I'd like to hear what other people thought of the idea applied to kdice. Cheers. -Jeff |
Replies 1 - 9 of 9
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Bone-Roller wrote
at 12:17 PM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST As a small business owner myself, I can attest to the essential need for customer loyalty. However, not all customers are worth keeping and at times it is necessary to discontinue service to those customers. Whether because of poor payment perfomance, excessive consumption of resources, breach of contract requirements, or any other reason, sometimes maintaining a customer's account is just not worth it. In the case of at least a couple of the players you mentioned, they were encouraged to take their business elsewhere. That is different from "losing" a valued account.
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kdicefreak wrote
at 12:37 PM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST finally something insightful on the forum......but......
dont confuse loyalty with addiction........ players may not be playing using their past username, but given it's easy to set up another e-mail, proxy cheat/ip bouncing, it's not impossible that those are playing under a different name. i for one have more than one account........ |
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nuflis wrote
at 1:49 PM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST Good analisys Jeff/0, but you are going one step above the concept of loyalty/customer satisfaction, you are introducing here the concept of segmentation of the market, as Bone has done too. Let me try to develope my opinion:
I'm pretty sure (although I don't have access to the stats) the traffic of the web is holding and the number of members, due to the efforts of Ryan (and his idea of the 2,500 points), is for sure increasing. I can find a great number of the same players each month, so I don't guess Ryan or kdice has a serious problem with his customer loyalty. But (and sorry kdicefreak).... are all the kdice players equal? Each single company has diferent types of customers, they give several names to these diferent types: platinum, gold or blue; premium or standard; etc. And you mentioned a group of "platinum" customers of kdice. No, freak, I'm not talking about addiction or skills, I'm talking abut the way these kind of players interact with kdice: they play more than each other, are active in the forums, they donated when there wasn't any reward for doing it, and donated more than the strictly necessary to get a membership, they give ideas or vote for other's ideas, they talk to Ryan in order to improve the site, they used actively all the beta versions, they give drama and amusement to the community... Most of the companies can divide their costumers following the Pareto principle or the "80-20 rule" which says that 20% of the costumers provides 80% of the income, I'm sure that kdice isn't an exception. So, turning back to your original post, Jeff, listen to these customers, handling with care their complaints/advices/suggestions, or even providing them of exclusive communication channels, would be healthy for the business. And, along with the idea of Bone: do you want loyal customers or loyal GOOD customers?. |
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kdicefreak wrote
at 2:06 PM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST We are talking as if kdice is a for profit business. I am not Ryan so I cannot say if that?s the case. But let's just assume it is for this argument.
All business wants loyal 'constructively contributing' customers. Those who play the most games or are active in the forum are not necessarily the constructively contributing customers. I am not even sure if I can call them loyal. Some people are just here to try to sway things they way they want, argue for arguments' sake, and get attention that they don?t have in real life. I would say these people are acting more like shareholders (bad shareholders) than customers. The difference between them and real life shareholders is they bitch no matter what, they bitch to sway things to their own advantage and not to the benefit of the entire kdice community. They simply bitch. These people behaved as if they are the board of directors when they are not and no one really cares about what they say. The real customers, the loyal ones, are those who contribute $$$, play somewhat above average number of games, visit and post in the forum once in a blue moon, and support Ryan by discussing (not arguing) their concerns and make constructive suggestions. As the CEO of this organization, I think Ryan is running this business pretty good. If there was a proxy vote, I think Ryan would definitely be re-elected. |
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0 wrote
at 2:34 PM, Thursday February 21, 2008 EST Since we're on argument's sake, kdicefreak, what do you say about this post?
http://www.kdice.com/discussion/topics/44756266 |
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dasfury wrote
at 8:26 AM, Friday February 22, 2008 EST This was almost the first post by kdice freak that didnt use one of the following terms:
-PGA -IP -Proxy You were so close, till the end. |
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montecarlo wrote
at 8:45 AM, Friday February 22, 2008 EST bombardier ds 65
games played: 5181 |
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r0n wrote
at 12:57 PM, Friday February 22, 2008 EST "Some people are just here to try to sway things they way they want, argue for arguments' sake, and get attention that they don?t have in real life. I would say these people are acting more like shareholders (bad shareholders) than customers. The difference between them and real life shareholders is they bitch no matter what, they bitch to sway things to their own advantage and not to the benefit of the entire kdice community. They simply bitch. These people behaved as if they are the board of directors when they are not and no one really cares about what they say."
-Kdicefreak OMG!!!111 SELF-INFLICTED DEATH-BLOW!!!!! |
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Mike_Mike wrote
at 1:30 PM, Friday February 22, 2008 EST I really lik ethis post Jeff! and oviously I have an opinion (which, BTW, is a great way (forum)of providing customers an opportunity to provide feedback, vent or feel empowered in an online environment).
My experience (8 years military, 21 years professional services, 5 years financial services UT and 3 years retail) has shown that while the customers are always right and should be nade to feel that way, they don't really get a vote on the direction the business takes down stream. Usually, the officers and board of directors have a better global view or big picture of company performance that the customers and therefore guide the company in the overall direction it needs to take for future success. The customers (especially the loyal ones) do not always like or understand the necessary changes being made at the time they are made, so they vent, complain, praise and otherwise try to direct change. (and we let them to provide some small measure of customer service and feeling of ownership) However, sometimes major changes are made contrary to the desires and wishes of the customer. It's a risk that ownership takes to ensure future success. It seems to me that bold change usually has a price in terms of customer loyalty, but that the discussion, press and upheaval weather negative or positive, may result in broader product branding. (I'm no advertizing specialist though) Even negative press results in future name recognition! While i am personally addicted to kdice and enjoy the virtual global relationships the game brings to me, I recognise that it is Ryan's business nd he can do as he pleases with it. I would buy stock if it were public! Thanks for your nice post, Jeff! |
