Hello and welcome,
Many of you have come seeking answers, although I can not tell you the meaning of life, I can answer the question in relation to this interesting situation.
You see here, I work in Finance, Accounts to be precise. In any industry or business, the customer is always the number 1 priority, because quite simply, without the customer, there is no business. You have to understand that a customer can be anyone, and should never be discriminated. There is NO SUCH THING as a GOOD OR BAD customer, if you start speculating which are bad or good, you will no doubtedly lose business.
So here we are, with TWI, and before I go further I would like to take the opportunity to mention that I do not care about the delay or the consequence. I am simply tired of uneducated people flaming those who have the right to complain.
So, having purchased the product, with a release date set, a customer expects the product to be available upon release date. Sure, sometimes problems occur and it is not possible to achieve a goal.
However, this is not an excuse to say the least.. that It is somehow "acceptable". Take John as an example; John works for a TOP 4 GLOBAL Financial Firm, JOHN had a string of bad luck and has come to work several hours late EVERY day for the past week or two. He had various excuses, ranging from family problems, transportation issues and so forth. Is JOHNS lateness understandable? YES. Is it Acceptable? NO. You see here, in work etiquette, it is JOHN's responcibillity to come to work on time and to account for delays and any set backs. Most employees around the world, can do this quite easily by planning ahead.
Now we can relate the same principle to the MODERN GAMING INDUSTRY: Company A wishes to release GAME A, however the game is posponed due to technical issues. Is this understandable? YES. Is this ACCEPTABLE? NO: the company director/project manager has FAILED in his DUTIES to PLAN AHEAD and form a CONTINGENCY PLAN.
You see here, the trouble is that this has happened FAR TOO MANY TIMES with far too many companies. It is now common for game/product releases to be delayed. Infact people have begun to accept this. Let me use an example of why this is bad for business.
You are a customer. You wish to purchase a product from ACME. The product is good quality, and is priced OK, not cheap, not overly expensive but OK. You could probably buy SIMILAR products from other companies, but you chose ACME because you like the company morals and agree with their ideas. So, here you are, you purchased your new shiny product and a delivery date for it to be dispatched has been allocated and signed off.
Now that you bought your product, you realize you spent your weekly budget on misc products and that you wont be able to buy similar products until next week/month/year etc.
Over the next few days/weeks you wait impatiently for your product to arrive as it impacts your life, you will be spending at least an hour a day on this new product and you feel your day without it is missing something. So you spent the whole time waiting because there has been no notifications or advanced delay warning and as far as you were concerned everything was going to plan. Come the delivery day, you got up especially early just not to miss the mailman in case it arrives super early. Infact, you asked your boss for a day off giving hi m a generic reason such as "I had to go see dentist", just to make sure you didnt miss the product delivery.
Suddenly you hear the sound of post, you rush to the door only to find a measly note lying on the floor. YOu read it in a rush, it has the ACME LOGO on it! The note dully informs you that the product you requested has been delayed due to technical reasons.
You start thinking quickly, perhaps there is another vendor that will sell you a similar product, but ALAS! You realise you dont have enough budget untill your money is returned!
The next day you angrilly ring up ACME asking the supplier for more information, how can this possibly be? Why wasnt I informed etc? You are put on HOLD for an hour or two by the operator.
ACME replies to you generically, saying that if you dont like it, cancel the order and buy another product. Tells you to calm the down and breathe.
My question to you; how do you feel in this position? Do you feel that your relationship with ACME is unaffected? Would you conduct business with ACME in the future or would you seek to buy products from another vendor?
Whilst many people build special relationships with companies and communities, others still see themselves as consumers/customers. Unfortunately with many companies, especially ones ran by inexperienced staff (EXAMPLE: TASOS from DARKFALL community), do not realize that although they might get a cash/sales boost from say delaying a process, what they do in return is ruin the RELATIONSHIPS upon which the business/sales was built. This, is the most important fundamental rule in business.
Good business etiquette calls for good communication, exceeding client/customer care, meeting client expectations and most important consistency in their standards.
Take BLUE chip companies, have you ever heard of overdue accounts or AP delays from their departments? Ever? Really? Because that is why they are labeled for investment. They pay their bills in a consistent fashion, never overdue, never any reason that relates to them.
Sure we have technical issues, great, we are in the 21 century, plan ahead, call an agency, hire temporary staff to meet deadline demands. Ask your staff to work overtime. Cut short specifics, if a target is unobtainable, so be it, include it in a later update. Most importantly MANAGE your PROJECT, or it will fall apart.
I just want to finalize that this post is not associated with beta or TWI in any way and serves only to explain and create discussion around business etiquette and how it affects our modern gaming industry.
