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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Processing and shipping time....2 weeks?

#1 (not pertaining to me, but to others in this thread):

Work out a system that delivers information to your customers EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. The first 100 had the neat experience of visiting with you in CA, having cell phone numbers, and a much closer contact in general. Of course that can't be done for the 1000s that followed.

Implement a system that INFORMS customers:
- when they need to send payment
- what options are available (i.e. what are the accessories that are shipping, what is backlogged)
- where to send payment and how much (according to the customer's list)
- INFORM when payment has been received, and how much, AND WHAT FOR, this is a receipt of payment notification, followed by a notification with expected shipment date
- INFORM when items have shipped, TOGETHER with a TRACKING NUMBER, and a COPY of the PACKING LIST!!! and a phone number to call, should there be a discrepancy with ordered items



#2 (selfish, pertaining to me,):
I haven't the foggiest idea what I am supposed to do, and when I am supposed to do it.
Below is a VERBATIM doc file I was sent, which raises more questions than answers; spelling mistakes aren't mine.





-------------------------
Hello

And thanks for contacting Red Digital Cinema.
You can place all orders at www.red.com .
Visit the site to down load the manual and check out
www.reduser.net to get more familiar with REVILUTION.
After placing your order at our site allow a waiting period (6 month) for us to get to your order.
We will send you a "your order is ready to ship" e-mail.
Approximately two weeks before their camera is ready for delivery.
At this point you will have 30 days to respond and the option of completing, confirming and paying in full for your order. Or delaying your order. If you are going to delay your order please contact us at orders@red.com and let us know. Delaying your order will not result in lousing your place in line but, once you are ready to pay and receive you must allow RED 30 days to work you back in the system.
If you choose to continue forward and make payment on your order there will be a 3-5 days of processing from the point full payment is received. Please note that you can send additional prepayments to RED at anytime via wire transfer, check drawn from a US bank, money order, or cashier's check. *These prepayments will be posted to your master account and be applied to your order at time of delivery.

Once your order has been shipped you will receive tracking numbers.

Feel free to contact us with any question.
 
UPDATE:
had a VERY pleasant phone call from our bomb squad rep just now, who renewed confidence in my dealing with RED.

So, #2 of my previous post is now resolved, and a non-issue.
 
Pig, I will address #1 right now. And I hope you will see this as me trying to get to the bottom of things so we can best improve.

Implement a system that INFORMS customers:

- when they need to send payment:
This information is in the first "your order is nearly ready to ship" email. What would be more helpful? You can send payment at anytime to go towards your account. But always consider that first email blast your trigger to pay.

- what options are available (i.e. what are the accessories that are shipping, what is backlogged):
There is also a list in both emails of what is on backorder, what is "coming soon", and email also indicates that it is subject to change. As product availability shifts on a day-to-day basis, some stuff (like TOP MOUNTS right now) flows in and out of backorder. if we expect it to be in stock quickly (within days) after your initial items ship, we ship asap.

- where to send payment and how much (according to the customer's list):
Wire transfer info is in the emails and is the preferred method of payment. if the email has discrepancies to what you have on record, you can work with your rep on resolving. if they cannot resolve, Kelly would be able to help.

- INFORM when payment has been received, and how much, AND WHAT FOR, this is a receipt of payment notification, followed by a notification with expected shipment date:
The email indicates the processing time on payments. As soon as your rep has notification in his hands, he will get your order picked, and send along tracking numbers. As the email states, there is a minimum of a 3-5 day order processing time after payment is received by RED.

- INFORM when items have shipped, TOGETHER with a TRACKING NUMBER, and a COPY of the PACKING LIST!!! and a phone number to call, should there be a discrepancy with ordered items:
You receiving your tracking numbers indicates that your order has shipped. The packing list in included in your package. The packing list, at the end, clearly states what items are on backorder.

If the language in the email is unclear, I am the one who writes the copy so please PM me with suggestions for improvement. I want to help make it as easy on our customers as possible so please let me know how I can make it better.

Pig, I can understand why you feel like you might have felt a little out of touch since it looks like the email address we had for you when the original order was placed is no longer active :) . Can you PM me with your current address so I can send you the copy from those emails??? I know a lot of your above questions would have been addressed in the emails you did not get, but they were fair game so I wanted to reply regardless!

For everyone, we always post on RED.com what serial numbers we are delivering. if you see your number in there and have no heard from us, it means we emailed and it never reached you! Always, always - get us new contact info asap. I know contact info we have could very well be outdated since orders were placed months and months ago!

#2, Kelly is on this. I would have been a little confused with that email myself.

Thanks, BC
 
Pig said:
UPDATE:
had a VERY pleasant phone call from our bomb squad rep just now, who renewed confidence in my dealing with RED.

So, #2 of my previous post is now resolved, and a non-issue.
Click to expand...

Told you Kelly was on it! :)

Thanks, Pig, that is what I like to hear!

BC
 
Well, indeed, it appears that much of my original frustration did stem from having signed up with an email that I no longer use.
Once I heard from someone else (with a somewhat similar #) that RED is sending out emails, I checked to see what email addy I might of signed up with back in 2006. Email was updated, but obviously too late for receipt of that significant email.


Your responses to #1 are now becoming understandable, although I'd still like to point out, that for at least the posters in this thread, not all these steps actually happened.
Also, the inclusion of a packing list copy (together with tracking info) will help people who are not in the USA with possible customs/import issues; so I'd still suggest to include a packing list with the tracking number.

In any event, MANY thanks for sorting things out (at the very least for me).

I see I really do need to spend more time here on this forum....as questions are answered here, and confusions are unconfused...
 
Brent@RED said:
Guys, as always, we welcome feedback. Be it "My experience has been great" - or "It could have gone way better. Here is what went wrong..."

I have always been open and forthcoming on the boards and will continue to do so. Just like the camera had a very accelerated timeline to get up to "ready", so was the stuff like accounting, customer service, etc. As soon as we knew we would begin fulfilling cameras in August, we began to staff those functional areas. With each group of deliveries we have learned a lot and tweaked our process accordingly. Heck the people in the first 50 just got an email from me with some basic info.

I am not going to stand behind the old adage that "bad news travels 10x times faster than good". Sure, people are going to post on the boards when they have a bad experience. People are rarely going to post when it goes great. I know the vast majority of people have been very happy with the service - have emailed me about it and PM'ed me about it. Kelly and her team of BOMB SQUAD reps have all been told the same. But our goal has never been to service 90% of the people in a way that meets their expectations and accept 10% as not being happy. We want everyone walking away with RED with the warm fuzzies.

We are constantly looking at ways to improve all facets of RED. On the sales/service side, we developed the "your camera is nearly ready" and "your camera is ready" email program to give you your current order details and contact info, accessory recommendations, product availability, and payment instructions. We developed RED DAYs for people who have taken delivery of their cameras so they get hands on experience at RED with RED gurus (FYI, if you have your camera and have not gotten an invite yet, you will, I promise. Just like camera deliveries, we do it in group batches). We have quadrupled our sales/service staff in the last 6 months. We initiated a "Buy Now" feature on the website so people who have been delivered a camera can place at-once orders. We opened up REDCINE and RED Alert software for everyone to download instead of just camera owners. And we are by no means done evolving. We are working on the ability for you to update your order online via RED.com which should eliminate a ton of the frustration some of you are feeling if you can make changes to your order from the comfort of your couch at 2am.

So, please keep the constructive criticism coming. PM and email Kelly if you feel that you are not getting the service you deserve. I am always on the boards and have helped many people on their orders. The BOMB SQUAD guys are willing to help.

Speaking of BOMB SQUAD, we are looking for more help. Each guy we hire has to have some video production experience so they have relevant knowledge of the industry when they are trying to help you. These are not "$10 an hour" people or a temp you can find on every street corner. We want to make sure the person who picks up the phone has functional knowledge of the world you all live in.

We don't know what is wrong unless you help us. Kelly, the BOMB SQUAD, Brian, me, etc. have always shown that we are here to listen and here to help. If you just want to vent, Kelly is a great listener.

So, first and foremost, it bums me out to hear ANYONE had a bad experience. And I am sorry for that, sincerely. I know everyone is extremely excited to get their cameras and accessories. And I don't want you to feel like the kid's holiday experience of "I was hoping this box was a toy and it wound up being a sweater" as you open your RED boxes. Help me help you.

Thanks for sticking with us during the growing pains. We take every phone call, email, and post into consideration and try to improve from them.

Thanks, BC
Click to expand...


Brent:
I am sure you are frustrated customers don't appreciate while you are trying to do a good job. Sure some customers are frustrated by the service. Let us try to fix it.
We all agree Red Team is a group of highly passionate and dedicated inventors that came up with a brilliant product. The product has now moved from R & D into delivery phase and got different requirements. Let us try not to reinvent the wheel. Considering the volume you are handling, number of items involved, it seems it is not difficult to have a proper system in place. You are doing lots of different things to improve customer satisfaction, but can I say it needs to be a formal and methodical approach, just like your R & D. It appears you need a person capable of analyzing your workflow (not camera workflow), establishing policies, procedures, coming up with requirements for a system to be in place to service your customers more efficiently. That said, it is more of a science than an art, and in the good old days it was known as Industrial Engineering. I am not saying your team doesn’t have this skill but you may not have the time to do everything yourself, and typically inventors don’t want to relinquish control which is quite understandable. But it is more important to recognize the product has moved to a delivery phase, and along comes many challenging tasks unlike the ones you encountered during R & D.
You are saying every one you hire should have knowledge of video production. I don’t think so. To use people effectively, the key words to remember are Division of Labor. I hope you are dividing the jobs according to the function and skill levels, and employing people accordingly.
Anyway, my recommendation, engage an expert in the field for few months to straighten out and improve your delivery system. I have done this all my life for a living. While I am certainly not looking for a job, if you need my help, I can make myself available. Why I want to get involved, because I am passionate about the camera and I want Red team to succeed. Besides, I am local. Heck I haven’t even thought of getting paid, in my blind rage to get a Red One.
 
Glad we are moving in the right direction, Pig. Your points are all noted and we are still going to keep improving.

Prem, thanks for the offer! Esp given that traffic from LA to the OC is a beast. We do have a team of "non-inventors" (me being one of them) working on those very things. There was no way we would be where we are at today (again, room for improvement) without a team working long hours on the operations, sales, accounting, etc. sides.

FYI, just the guys in the BOMB SQUAD need to have digital cinema experience since they are customer-facing.

Thank you again for everyone's input. It never falls on deaf ears.

BC
 
I also suggest a page, where you can at ANY time log in to and see your current order status. Because all the work your are doing are manual work (payments, orders and what not)

In a manual service system there is room for human error. And If we as customers get a way to watch out for errors (like a 15 day wait for funds that have not come through) we can flag the RED staff instead of sitting in the dark.

It could say "Pending Payment" "Payment recived - pending shipment" and updated one a day.

If I were you I would consider buying an existing e-commerce solution. They have automatic control over all of this. For a small fee - they design it the way you like.

I made a movie back in 2004 - I thought it would be a good idea to sell it myself over the internet and so I did. I thought the interest and sales for my movie would be small enough for me to handle manually. Boy was I misstaken when all my DVD where sold out in 3 months to 24 different countries and it was a HELL sorting out all the bad orders and in return I got some dissapointed customers I had to make happy again.

Lesson learn: Automatic systems are a time saver and makes the margin for human error a lot less likely. And there are automatic systems ready to buy by people like you. All the time spent emailing back and forth solving orders could be used supporting customers in other ways.
 
Brent@RED said:
This information is in the first "your order is nearly ready to ship" email. What would be more helpful?
Click to expand...

Overall, I've had a good experience.

To quickly answer this question I think a better solution is for each user to have their own login where all communications are logged "as well as" emailed. Perhaps your trouble ticket system does that. If it was linked to their forum information that would be nice, but not critical.

Email alone doesn't work that great. Tracking it sucks from both yours and the customers POV. If a customers accidentally deletes an email from RED along with the 200 junk emails you got today you've lost that communication.

If all communications are logged and both you and the customer can log in and see them then you limit miscommunications. Kayako systems makes helpdesk software that will allow users to reply to an email and take that reply and put it into the companies database/communication log. That way the customer never needs to log in to reply. They just respond to emails BUT there's still a communication log on the company's server that can be accessed by both the company and the client.

Additionally, it's easy for any manager to review all communications to see who said what, when and where.

Also, if there are links to all critical documents, manuals etc. within the area a customer logs in that's helpful too.

Right now the shopping cart is weak. The client should be able to log in to the cart and save stuff for purchase later. People like to fill their cart up and then think about it for a bit. The client should be able to see what's in stock and what's on back order when they're shopping. Ideally backordered items would have an ETA. After purchase, the client should be able to log in and see what's been shipped, what the tracking number is as well as see what's on backorder.

The other thing I'd have in people's hub is a list of known camera issues that are being addressed and their priorities. You could make that available to camera owners only if you choose. Or let everyone know. Many of the complaint threads on this forum stem from the fact that people are concerned about something but there's no official place to see if it's being addressed.

That's it off the top of my head.
 
Thanks, guys. Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, "we are working on the ability for you to update your order online via RED.com which should eliminate a ton of the frustration some of you are feeling if you can make changes to your order from the comfort of your couch at 2am." That is definitely the direction we want to go - customers go online for status and changes. We'll get there! Soon, in fact ;)

BC
 
Hi Brent,

Yes I think an online way of checking on the status of your order would be great. This way we don't have to pester you everyday, 6 times a day with a phone call asking "has it shipped yet?" :)

Really the reason why I started this thread was just to better understand what was I to expect in the future. In my simple mind I expected the camera to be there within 8 days of RED getting the money. I understand there are delays and all, we just want to know about it and get a status if the item is not going to ship on time. :blush:
 
Dear Brent, Kelly and my new rep Dan,

Thank you for taking care of me. The last thing I wanted to do was air this stuff on a public forum, but I guess at the same time it's hard to clear things up if you are unaware of what happened - and clear things up they did. I now have a complete breakdown of my transactions and I was able to express mistakes in the order.

All I can say is they took action and made things right - thank you. This is what Red is all about.
 
Awesome, planetearth. We always take criticism as constructive. Glad we are on track with you.

BC
 
I have a feeling people hear about bad news, and good news goes unreported. I'm not much of a cheerleader by nature, but I gotta chime in and say my customer service from Red has been really excellent. Fast and responsive and accurate. Shipping was quick too. Just thought I'd let people know that there are probably a lot of flawless transactions that we're not hearing about. I'm glad people are open about their complaints and it will only help this company work out the kinks. I also think that within a year or so, whoever is left standing will see a really strong company come out of it.
 
Brent@RED said:
Thanks, Sean - and everybody else in this thread today!

BC
Click to expand...

Hello Brent and Travis,
If I wire full payment in Monday 3rd ( US time ) can I get the RED one 768 before 14th March 2008 ?

I have booked two booths @HKFILMART 2008 in HKG for RED D-films ASIA from 4K capture to 4K DI and Display as well.

http://www.hkfilmart.com/filmart/details.htm

I have been preparing our RED glory from RED One to anything in our RED map in ASIA.

Bang Wow Bang
+
Wow Holdings
HKG - CHINA / Thailand
 
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