Had about 30min phone call and it was surprisingly a really open communication about the various topics.
Seems they know finally about the importance of the "voice of customers" and the consequences for their brand (I am also running an agency about brand management - www.brandflow.com for those interested). I was also having a conversation with the CEO of Devialet via twitter and addressed some points there (they were very well aware of that in the phone call).
So after a nice introduction, they are sorry about starting the communication process via the e-mail to customers about the new expert line & upgrades and leaving customers with no information so long (well that part so far sounds familiar ;-) ) but they encountered some unexpected issues out of their control, hence things got delayed.
Well, the new website / microsite with all the details should be up by Monday 25th - latest by 27th (I can understand now why - getting to that later on).
But I try to summarize a few topics:
+ General customer support / changing Devialet communication philosophy
They are aware that it's important to have an open communication, dialogue with customers - so there will be a new website area (somewhat close to a forum / Q&A / discussion area) relased where customers issues / discussions along with direct Devialet response
+ Ongoing Development
I pointed out that it seems in recent months and even more they are solely focusing on Phantom products and leaving out the Expert users / products.
When I got told that there has been a lot of effort put into new developments, innovations also on Expert line products I replied that this is a good things to hear - but in the end it's important to keep the valuable customer base informed about that - and not keeping these things behind closed doors and nobody knows what's going on.
They are willing to change this and keeping customers informed on a regularly basis what is happening inside Devialet.
+ AIR 3.0
They are well aware of this painful topic for such a long time - and they stressed out that they have steadily incorporated feedback and improved things - but also never communicated about that to the public (which seems to me one of the biggest faults in communication so far - because that alone was the reason for customers to drop Devialet products).
So there will be an official introduction of the AIR 3.0 Beta software for Mac and Windows within July - explaining in detail what are the changes made to finally solve this issue - and also all users are invited to actively communicate / exchange feedback directly on the website area as mentioned above. So we get finally a direct response of people in charge of that from Devialet and can all together push things ahead with our feedback.
I was reassured several times that this is one of their top priorities to solve for everyone.
+ New Expert Line / Upgrades / Streamer board
As mentioned above further details on the products as well as pricing will be available next week on the new website area.
I was astonished to get a very honest feedback on the current status. They are internally still trying / deciding if it's possible to provide a streaming board along with the update. But so far there is hardly any hardware available that meets the hight expectations / vision of Devialet - so most likely people can send the Devialet for the upgrad - and beginning of 2017 when the hardware and software development based upon it is ready - it will be an easy "plugin" process customers can do on their own or the done by dealer if desired.
+ Spark compatibility / iOS App
They are working on that of course too - but sadly to hear there won't be any release obviously this year. This is because there is such a huge shift going on in the whole software framework and they are aware when releasing something it has to meet the certain high standard known by current major market players.
+ New Firmware
I mentioned the expectations of so many customers about a new firmware around High End 2016 in Munich - but seems there is no "big software update" close ahead. But seemed to be bit unsure about that topic - so let's see what happens about that in July. Do think there will be a firmware update, but could be that this is just a "small step" just fixing some minor bugs and he was refering to a "major one" which should be around end of Q3.
I will stay connected with him as well as the CEO - and try to push things in favour of customers and the brand / products, which are no matter the disappointing things happening so far great and promising.
Seems they know finally about the importance of the "voice of customers" and the consequences for their brand (I am also running an agency about brand management - www.brandflow.com for those interested). I was also having a conversation with the CEO of Devialet via twitter and addressed some points there (they were very well aware of that in the phone call).
So after a nice introduction, they are sorry about starting the communication process via the e-mail to customers about the new expert line & upgrades and leaving customers with no information so long (well that part so far sounds familiar ;-) ) but they encountered some unexpected issues out of their control, hence things got delayed.
Well, the new website / microsite with all the details should be up by Monday 25th - latest by 27th (I can understand now why - getting to that later on).
But I try to summarize a few topics:
+ General customer support / changing Devialet communication philosophy
They are aware that it's important to have an open communication, dialogue with customers - so there will be a new website area (somewhat close to a forum / Q&A / discussion area) relased where customers issues / discussions along with direct Devialet response
+ Ongoing Development
I pointed out that it seems in recent months and even more they are solely focusing on Phantom products and leaving out the Expert users / products.
When I got told that there has been a lot of effort put into new developments, innovations also on Expert line products I replied that this is a good things to hear - but in the end it's important to keep the valuable customer base informed about that - and not keeping these things behind closed doors and nobody knows what's going on.
They are willing to change this and keeping customers informed on a regularly basis what is happening inside Devialet.
+ AIR 3.0
They are well aware of this painful topic for such a long time - and they stressed out that they have steadily incorporated feedback and improved things - but also never communicated about that to the public (which seems to me one of the biggest faults in communication so far - because that alone was the reason for customers to drop Devialet products).
So there will be an official introduction of the AIR 3.0 Beta software for Mac and Windows within July - explaining in detail what are the changes made to finally solve this issue - and also all users are invited to actively communicate / exchange feedback directly on the website area as mentioned above. So we get finally a direct response of people in charge of that from Devialet and can all together push things ahead with our feedback.
I was reassured several times that this is one of their top priorities to solve for everyone.
+ New Expert Line / Upgrades / Streamer board
As mentioned above further details on the products as well as pricing will be available next week on the new website area.
I was astonished to get a very honest feedback on the current status. They are internally still trying / deciding if it's possible to provide a streaming board along with the update. But so far there is hardly any hardware available that meets the hight expectations / vision of Devialet - so most likely people can send the Devialet for the upgrad - and beginning of 2017 when the hardware and software development based upon it is ready - it will be an easy "plugin" process customers can do on their own or the done by dealer if desired.
+ Spark compatibility / iOS App
They are working on that of course too - but sadly to hear there won't be any release obviously this year. This is because there is such a huge shift going on in the whole software framework and they are aware when releasing something it has to meet the certain high standard known by current major market players.
+ New Firmware
I mentioned the expectations of so many customers about a new firmware around High End 2016 in Munich - but seems there is no "big software update" close ahead. But seemed to be bit unsure about that topic - so let's see what happens about that in July. Do think there will be a firmware update, but could be that this is just a "small step" just fixing some minor bugs and he was refering to a "major one" which should be around end of Q3.
I will stay connected with him as well as the CEO - and try to push things in favour of customers and the brand / products, which are no matter the disappointing things happening so far great and promising.
