I hope LCaudio can finally can get their act together. Emails staying unanswered is a frequent complaint (I have a couple of them also). Maybe their product variety is just to big (generating a lot of different questions) for their rather small staff. I see a movement towards country distributors. If they choose them well, these may be able to provide better first line support.
Duck Twacy: I think you have a very good point. I remember when i was working in L C Audio, every day came over 100 E-Mails with all kinds of questions. Some of them would take a long time to answer, and some might not even have anything to do with the products. It was actually possible to answer all the E-Mails, but then you would have absolutely no time left over for other stuff. Like shipping out orders, development, accounting, ordering components, talking to incoming customers and picking up the telephone. Also very important tasks.
So i can't really say i had the solution to that problem when i was working there, other than simply not reply to e-mails unrelated to the company, or of a too complicated nature.
Let me give you a typical example: How should i optimize the BIAS setting on a class A amplifier to fit the impedance curve of my B&W 801 model 1990 speakers?
This kind of question is actually possible to answer, but it would require a lot of research to find a valid answer to give. Lets say half hour to 45 minutes. How many e-mails of this kind can you answer during the course of a working day?
One solution is to hire more help. But as it turns out there is only one guy who knows the answer to all the questions.
It is simply more complicated to sell DIY Audio stuff than hamburgers.
It is not easy for the new guy to learn enough about it to be of any good help. 
I think it would be a good idea to just have a very small product line to support, and then concentrate the effort to make good documentation for the product. In many cases the questions from customers are valuable input to improve the documentation (when you have the time to do it).
This way many problems can be avoided. And like you suggest it is a lot easier to make good documentation for one or two products than 15. Let alone support them.
Cheers
Lars
So i can't really say i had the solution to that problem when i was working there, other than simply not reply to e-mails unrelated to the company, or of a too complicated nature.
Let me give you a typical example: How should i optimize the BIAS setting on a class A amplifier to fit the impedance curve of my B&W 801 model 1990 speakers?
This kind of question is actually possible to answer, but it would require a lot of research to find a valid answer to give. Lets say half hour to 45 minutes. How many e-mails of this kind can you answer during the course of a working day?
One solution is to hire more help. But as it turns out there is only one guy who knows the answer to all the questions.
It is simply more complicated to sell DIY Audio stuff than hamburgers.
It is not easy for the new guy to learn enough about it to be of any good help. I think it would be a good idea to just have a very small product line to support, and then concentrate the effort to make good documentation for the product. In many cases the questions from customers are valuable input to improve the documentation (when you have the time to do it).
This way many problems can be avoided. And like you suggest it is a lot easier to make good documentation for one or two products than 15. Let alone support them.
Cheers
Lars
Dear Lars,
Yes you are quite right! when you were there, I had a few emails to you and you normally reply in one to two days and i really appreciate that! But now, I have sent 4 emails over the periond of 3 months and the latest one I sent was over 3 weeks ago - asking for the confirmation of the order of 700xe!
but still no answer. I really like to try your master piece but the way it is going, it is difficult for me to perservere!
Yes you are quite right! when you were there, I had a few emails to you and you normally reply in one to two days and i really appreciate that! But now, I have sent 4 emails over the periond of 3 months and the latest one I sent was over 3 weeks ago - asking for the confirmation of the order of 700xe!
but still no answer. I really like to try your master piece but the way it is going, it is difficult for me to perservere!
ackcheng: If you send me an e-mail with your real name, i can try to contact L C Audio for you ( i live only a couple hundred meters from their HQ ).
My E-Mail addr is: lc@lightball.dk
All the best
My E-Mail addr is: lc@lightball.dk
All the best
I hope it was helpful
Another solution to providing good DIY service, that i find interesting, is to only service a limited number of customers. This way you can make sure you have time to give each one a good service, and make sure each one get the right answer - every time.
Of course this way you can't service everybody, and so you make less money, but i think all in all the DIY audio market is not suitable for industrial scale production.
Much better to keep it small, and make all your customers happy!
Lars
Another solution to providing good DIY service, that i find interesting, is to only service a limited number of customers. This way you can make sure you have time to give each one a good service, and make sure each one get the right answer - every time.
Of course this way you can't service everybody, and so you make less money, but i think all in all the DIY audio market is not suitable for industrial scale production.
Much better to keep it small, and make all your customers happy!
Lars
Lars Clausen said:I hope it was helpful
Another solution to providing good DIY service, that i find interesting, is to only service a limited number of customers. This way you can make sure you have time to give each one a good service, and make sure each one get the right answer - every time.
Of course this way you can't service everybody, and so you make less money, but i think all in all the DIY audio market is not suitable for industrial scale production.
Much better to keep it small, and make all your customers happy!
Lars
Hello Lars,
Your project at lightball looks very interesting. Hope your tests are succesful.
Best regards
Gertjan
Hi Lars!
You answer here may, or may not have someting to do with my e-mail to LC-Audio, sent some days ago. I wrote about the complaint here, regarding LC-Audio not answering e-mails and included a link to this tread.
We all do understand that a company like LC-Audio can´t answer
questions unrelated to their products, and that the time spent on answeing e-mails has to be reasonable.
However, a policy statement(on their site), about which type of question LC-Audio is supposed to answer, shouldn´t be out of place!
I´m quite sure that my friend´s questions to the company was relevant ones, and delt with products sold by the company.
In addition , I have read on LC-audio´s site , that the telephone
help line has been dropped , as e-mails are a much better way.
But if someone is calling the company, he or she can imediatelly
be informed , if the question is considered irrelevant.
As it is now , many people seem to wait in vain for an answer .
And this situatiom is neither good for the company, nor for the customers!From a customer´s point of view, and in my case, it can be regarded as an additional cost for risk or uncertainty;will there be additional delays, will I get any support, if....will I have to wait much longer to hear some reports from users, about how good the product actually is??
When it comes to documentation about a certain product, LC-Audio should be more careful not to publish news about a product
before there indeed are more information about;e.g. availability, technical specifications, implementations. By news, I mean publishing like the one that has occured about the Zapulse 700XE.
For sure , this type of publishing induce a lot of e-mails. Thus I blame the company.If they don´t want a lot of e-mails,they have better wait and publish more information later, and at the same time!!
If a company publish some photos e.g. , about an upcoming product, then have a long delay when it comes to deliver them, then it´s possible that some consumers will stay away from this
company for a long time. The company may think , that an early publication may prevent customers from buying products from a competitor, but in fact people can be disappointed by the delay.
I speak in general now, as I don´t have any information about any intentions in this particular case.
When it comes to my decision, I hesitate to order from LC-Audio, until more information is available, and some clearification about the e-mails is done.
BTW Lars, I have a LC-Audio Patriot class-A amp, which is a good
amp for the upper registers. For the bass , I use a Dynamic Precision A1. Norway has some advantages too, as you know!
You answer here may, or may not have someting to do with my e-mail to LC-Audio, sent some days ago. I wrote about the complaint here, regarding LC-Audio not answering e-mails and included a link to this tread.
We all do understand that a company like LC-Audio can´t answer
questions unrelated to their products, and that the time spent on answeing e-mails has to be reasonable.
However, a policy statement(on their site), about which type of question LC-Audio is supposed to answer, shouldn´t be out of place!
I´m quite sure that my friend´s questions to the company was relevant ones, and delt with products sold by the company.
In addition , I have read on LC-audio´s site , that the telephone
help line has been dropped , as e-mails are a much better way.
But if someone is calling the company, he or she can imediatelly
be informed , if the question is considered irrelevant.
As it is now , many people seem to wait in vain for an answer .
And this situatiom is neither good for the company, nor for the customers!From a customer´s point of view, and in my case, it can be regarded as an additional cost for risk or uncertainty;will there be additional delays, will I get any support, if....will I have to wait much longer to hear some reports from users, about how good the product actually is??
When it comes to documentation about a certain product, LC-Audio should be more careful not to publish news about a product
before there indeed are more information about;e.g. availability, technical specifications, implementations. By news, I mean publishing like the one that has occured about the Zapulse 700XE.
For sure , this type of publishing induce a lot of e-mails. Thus I blame the company.If they don´t want a lot of e-mails,they have better wait and publish more information later, and at the same time!!
If a company publish some photos e.g. , about an upcoming product, then have a long delay when it comes to deliver them, then it´s possible that some consumers will stay away from this
company for a long time. The company may think , that an early publication may prevent customers from buying products from a competitor, but in fact people can be disappointed by the delay.
I speak in general now, as I don´t have any information about any intentions in this particular case.
When it comes to my decision, I hesitate to order from LC-Audio, until more information is available, and some clearification about the e-mails is done.
BTW Lars, I have a LC-Audio Patriot class-A amp, which is a good
amp for the upper registers. For the bass , I use a Dynamic Precision A1. Norway has some advantages too, as you know!
The golden mean: Thank You for the good advice, i hope the people who are running L C Audio now, will read them constructively. I can only say for my part, that i agree with you 100%, but at this point i am not in a position to influence L C Audio's customer policy. Maybe one day i will have enough money to buy back my good old company, but that is not in the near future.
About the advantages of Norway, it didn't turn out so luckily for me, as it evidently did for you
You win some you lose some...
About the advantages of Norway, it didn't turn out so luckily for me, as it evidently did for you
You win some you lose some...
Hi Charles: The story is that the company was sold out of a chapter 11 bankrupcy 4 years ago. So i kind of had to sell. As part of the deal i agreed to work for the new owners for at least 3 years. Now the 3 years have long past, and i'm working on something else, at this point ocean wav energy. Which is a lot of fun!
Lars Clausen said:Duck Twacy: I think you have a very good point. I remember when i was working in L C Audio, every day came over 100 E-Mails with all kinds of questions. Some of them would take a long time to answer, and some might not even have anything to do with the products. It was actually possible to answer all the E-Mails, but then you would have absolutely no time left over for other stuff. Like shipping out orders, development, accounting, ordering components, talking to incoming customers and picking up the telephone. Also very important tasks.
So i can't really say i had the solution to that problem when i was working there, other than simply not reply to e-mails unrelated to the company, or of a too complicated nature.
Let me give you a typical example: How should i optimize the BIAS setting on a class A amplifier to fit the impedance curve of my B&W 801 model 1990 speakers?
This kind of question is actually possible to answer, but it would require a lot of research to find a valid answer to give. Lets say half hour to 45 minutes. How many e-mails of this kind can you answer during the course of a working day?
...
Cheers
Lars
Hi Lars,
Too make things clear I realy like LCaudio for the kind of products they have been offering in the last 5 years or so. And I don't think that they have been unhelpfull or uninterrested for their customers intentionally (as a matter of fact the warranty given in case of failures is excelent)
The example you give is just not a reasonable question. To give that kind of support would be a form of consultancy, and can imo not be done for free by a commercial company (unless you dont really need to earn money for a living, because you have allready a bilion in the bank
). However, I think its important to give any kind of reaction within a few days, even if the only respons is to tell that it is not possible to answer that kind of detailed question (a couple of standard replies will make that a lot easier). Of course the difficulty is where to draw the line.Still, the majority of the questions can probably be answered (avoided) with a good FAQ/manual (like the cookbook and do's and dont's that where available for some products). Some of the products probably can really benefit from a good dealernetwork, because installing them is a bit too complicated for a lot of people, eg the Zapfilter (as is the case for the vacuumstate mods). I would focuss on that (maybe make some special price arrangements, so that prices via a dealer won't go up too much
)Decreasing the number of products would be another strategy, but ofcourse then so will the amount of bussiness. Probably you (or LCaudio) have to find an optimum there.
Anyway I have bought the upgrade form the 2.2 to the 700XE, so I hope that LCaudio will stay in bussiness for a long time. I think a bit of variety on the diy market is a good thing.
Kind regards
Ronald
BTW I noticed you no longer have your own audio related website
edit, didnt see the last post before I posted this, good luck with the ocean wave thing.
Duck Twacy: I agree with you of course! Except on the 'standard answer' issue. If standard answer is something like: 'We are sorry, the question you are asking is at the moment out of our answering capability'. I usually find a standard answer rather annoying. Better to get a personal answer, meaning where you can see someone has actually read your question.
That is what i like best 8)
I still have my audio related website, just not on my signature.
My audio web page is as always: www.oliveaudio.com
All the best from
Lars
Except on the 'standard answer' issue. If standard answer is something like: 'We are sorry, the question you are asking is at the moment out of our answering capability'. I usually find a standard answer rather annoying. Better to get a personal answer, meaning where you can see someone has actually read your question.That is what i like best 8)
I still have my audio related website, just not on my signature.
My audio web page is as always: www.oliveaudio.com
All the best from
Lars
Seems at last that the LC-Audio people have grasped the importance of answering (relevant) e-mails.
A quate from Anzqar today:
"The tech support guy assumed I would get a replacement module but that's up to Jens Posselt to decide.He forwarded my mail to him and I've heard no more about it.I was astonished to get an email reply at 7.30 in the morning.According to him lcaudio had made a desicion to really answer emails asap except in weekends."
If so, I´m glad , cause we all benifit from competition!
And the web might just give us an edge!
A quate from Anzqar today:
"The tech support guy assumed I would get a replacement module but that's up to Jens Posselt to decide.He forwarded my mail to him and I've heard no more about it.I was astonished to get an email reply at 7.30 in the morning.According to him lcaudio had made a desicion to really answer emails asap except in weekends."
If so, I´m glad , cause we all benifit from competition!
And the web might just give us an edge!
- Status
- Not open for further replies.