Hi there, Ronnie here.
I just wanted to give everyone a quick update about our customer service and our plans to improve it.
Over the last couple of months the speed we replied to emails and gotten back to people has fallen below the standards we set for ourselves. During the summer we had caught up and not only were back on top of things but actually had a bit of spare capacity to start writing blogs and having fun!
However, as soon as we get into the shipping of a Kickstarter the questions, problems, address changes and other real world problems just go through the roof. Add in the pledge manager allowing backers to delete their pledge (yes that happened somehow – a few backers got their add-ons but no core pledge –it took us a while to track that one down!), the postman losing a few deliveries, and US customs randomly charging duty on orders, and suddenly there is a huge pile of work. Genuinely I feel it is a shame there are a number of frustrated people, because behind the scenes we have increased the support team from part of 1 job to 2 full-timers, and we have done a lot of work to improve first time accuracy too, such as pre-bagging armies.
However, we have to get better and quickly. To make sure we can cope going forward we have taken a couple of decisions to make sure we get upto the standards we want and to make sure it stays there.
Firstly we are recruiting a full-time customer experience manager – this means their first responsibility will be to make sure everyone gets the service they expect from Mantic. When you ship 1000’s of orders every month as we do (and sometimes many more than that), there will of course be errors and mispacks.
However, the test is how you deal with those. I believe people are very understanding as long as they get a quick and accurate response. This role will be the person to ensure that happens, and also the first port of call when it isn’t sorted the first time round. I enjoy getting messages saying how much they love Mantic and their service was great – not people frustrated with us. I will personally sort issues that come to me- but I’d much rather this be a rare event rather than one or two every time I log on. If you or anyone you know is interested in this role then you can find more about the role HERE, and please do apply.
We will also be flexing the team up as we come to ship a kickstarter. After all, our warehouse team goes from 5 to 15, so surely the customer service team needs to flex up too to reflect that huge increase in dispatches.
Finally we will be utilising a customer ticketing service such as Zendesk or Freshdesk. This will become the primary way of communicating with us and because every enquiry will be tracked then we can see how many we have outstanding and can increase staffing levels accordingly. We will certainly have the ticketing in place and more staff ready to go as we start to ship Dungeon Saga.
Ok, enough misery! Let’s finish on a high. Kings of War is really showing signs that it is going to take over the world!! Almost all of the USA has declared that their fantasy tournament scene will now be based on KoW, and we are already on our third print run for BOTH the hard and soft back KoW rulebooks (yes 3rd!) after just 8 weeks on release. We are flying in new deliveries of the counters and wound markers too – they are hugely outstripping forecasts.
And then on to Dungeon Saga – the first boat of Kickstarter backers’ stock has landed as we speak and the second boat is sailing through the med.
There are other boats sailing to the USA and Australia so their deliveries will be shipped internally (we will get details for them when we can), avoiding duties and with much better accuracy than post. Obviously this is a little later than we originally planned – but that was before you went and raised $1m+ and we had to do all four expansions – not just the game and Adventurer’s Companion we originally had planned!
The great news is that the whole KS will be dispatched in one wave (although in some cases it might be in two parcels). This is the first time we have done this on a major campaign and everyone has worked really hard to make this possible.
Once we have fulfilled the KS deliveries we will then ship the trade stock that looks to be in stores late November. All the reviews and walk-throughs have been very supportive and enthusiastic, as have the demos. The work that has gone in to make this a top drawer gaming experience seems to be paying off and we are hopeful this will become a game in every child’s toy cupboard – and in more than a few of their parents’ too!
Here is a video taken today in the warehouse full of Dungeon Saga.
Thanks for reading.
Ronnie
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