Customer Service At It's Finest

Started playing Brave Frontier lately as MPQ just doesn't hold my attention for long periods anymore. It's a great game and never had issues with it until last night when the server went down. Not only did they let people know through the News Section on the game itself, but also on Twitter and Facebook. They APOLOGIZED straight away and then posted this awhile ago.

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Now thats what you call PROPER customer service, and throwing in free stuff too? That's how it should be done.

Take heed D3 icon_e_smile.gif
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Comments

  • Bacon Pants
    Bacon Pants Posts: 1,012
    They need to print this out and put it on every visible surface in their office.
  • Just like every F2P in existence (except this one).
  • I play Simpsons: Tapped Out. They were having frame rate issues for a while; when they resolved them, they gave everybody 20 donuts (the premium currency) as an apology for the issues. They also have a nice "golden scratch-off" for $1 that gives 6-100 donuts (usually 9-20); I buy one every weekend as a combination tip/donut source.

    D3 could stand to learn something from other companies. Customers aren't owed these bonuses, necessarily, but they do make us feel a lot better about the game we're supporting.
  • Playing Devils advocate here but giving out x free stuff to everyone is for fools. If everyone gets something, no-one actually benefits competitively (which is why we play, right?). Usually FTP model games give away free currency to stimulate non-payers to purchase in the future, if for example they use the free currency to buy a pack and get a lucky pull.

    Good customer service in D3s case doesn't look like this, it looks like responding properly to people's tickets when they've lost out (often financially) to a specific issue such as a server crash on an event where they have wasted money on shielding.

    Giveaways are for the easily manipulated.
  • Playing Devils advocate here but giving out x free stuff to everyone is for fools. If everyone gets something, no-one actually benefits competitively (which is why we play, right?). Usually FTP model games give away free currency to stimulate non-payers to purchase in the future, if for example they use the free currency to buy a pack and get a lucky pull.

    Good customer service in D3s case doesn't look like this, it looks like responding properly to people's tickets when they've lost out (often financially) to a specific issue such as a server crash on an event where they have wasted money on shielding.

    Giveaways are for the easily manipulated.

    1- Everyone benefits icon_eek.gif What they are giving out in the game is the equivalent of a heroic token here, so you either get lucky or you don't.

    2- See number 1

    3- D3 don't respond properly or if they do, it could take days/weeks with them, as has been the case with many problems they have. I've experienced their customer service as has countless others and it's ****.

    4- That's how you keep people happy, they don't have too do it but they do unlike D3 who piss all over ppl and expect them to take it.

    5- There is no point 5.
  • Playing Devils advocate here but giving out x free stuff to everyone is for fools. If everyone gets something, no-one actually benefits competitively (which is why we play, right?).

    I don't think anyone has previously suggested that player compensation for dev screwups was linked to a desire for competitive advantage. That's a non sequitur.

    The reason that developers at games other than MPQ do this sort of thing is player retention. For online games, server instability is usually the most common problem. 100% uptime isn't really a reachable goal, but getting as close as reasonably possible should always be one of the primary development goals. When servers go down, players that wanted to spend their time playing the game are forced to find something else to do. Some percentage of that group decide to spend more time doing other things as a result, and playing the game less. Player compensation is a method for the developers to say, "Hey, even though your level of satisfaction was decreased by not being able to play on Tuesday morning from 3 AM to 4:30 AM, we hope that this doodad/currency/cute tiny kitty icon/whatever will increase your level of satisfaction to the point that you will feel more brand loyalty and maybe give us money. We have kids and college is expensive." Ok, not all of that is spelled out in every case, but it's *understood.*

    People dislike it when their game makes them unhappy. People like free stuff. Sometimes free stuff makes sadness go away, and makes happier players more willing to support developers with money.
  • Ben Grimm wrote:
    I play Simpsons: Tapped Out. They were having frame rate issues for a while; when they resolved them, they gave everybody 20 donuts (the premium currency) as an apology for the issues. They also have a nice "golden scratch-off" for $1 that gives 6-100 donuts (usually 9-20); I buy one every weekend as a combination tip/donut source.

    D3 could stand to learn something from other companies. Customers aren't owed these bonuses, necessarily, but they do make us feel a lot better about the game we're supporting.

    I remember being pleasantly surprised that they fixed the issue AND gave us the 20 donuts (12 donuts = $2). And this is coming from EA, voted the worst company in America.
  • i get the impression there's only 3 people working at the same desk for this game
  • ryu600RR wrote:
    i get the impression there's only 3 people working at the same desk for this game
    Best part? They don't communicate with each other.

    And when they do, it's through CS.
  • DirigiblePilot
    DirigiblePilot Posts: 392 Mover and Shaker
    What I mainly got from this was:
    "ZOMG im not teh only person who plays mpq and brave frontier"

    But yes, the BF staff has always been good about making up for errors, like Metal Keys for unexpected server downtime and stuff.
  • It's a great game icon_e_smile.gif Nice change of scenery from this when i need it. Now if i could only be good at it, it would be even better.
  • DirigiblePilot
    DirigiblePilot Posts: 392 Mover and Shaker
    It's a great game icon_e_smile.gif Nice change of scenery from this when i need it. Now if i could only be good at it, it would be even better.
    This your post #1501 icon_e_surprised.gif
    But how can you be bad at it? The strategy is "taptaptaptaptaptap" icon_lol.gif
    But hey, back on topic of the thread (sorta), I spent $15 on gems in that game, and felt it was actually worth it! The thrill of getting 5 new rare characters (only 3 of whom I could put to good use, but whatever) is far better than spending more money than that to have a tiny chance at a 3*. It just doesn't feel fun, or good, or rewarding. BY not only has compensation done right, but monetization as well.

  • 1- Everyone benefits icon_eek.gif What they are giving out in the game is the equivalent of a heroic token here, so you either get lucky or you don't.

    What I'm saying is that if you give everyone the same thing (or chance of the same thing) then no-one is actually getting any advantage out of it. It's might seem like a nice gesture, but that's because people are generally not rational about these things and don't understand that if everybody gets the same free thing then you've gained nothing, relative to everyone else. Instead, giveaways like that are used to spur people who don't normally buy into making a purchase with their 'free' currency. If they get lucky on their pull then chances are they'll spend again and the publisher gains a new paying customer.


    3- D3 don't respond properly or if they do, it could take days/weeks with them, as has been the case with many problems they have. I've experienced their customer service as has countless others and it's tinykitty.

    Yeah, that's what I'm saying. D3 don't need to do giveaways or grand compensation gestures to everyone. They need to focus on the basics of customer service - refunding people who have suffered financially as a result of in-game issues either by ticket or (less likely) proactive refunding of shield costs. They are TERRIBLE at dealing with basic, individual customer service issues. As someone who's been screwed out of a Lazy Thor and £ on wasted shields due to server issues, I know they suck at that stuff.


    4- That's how you keep people happy, they don't have too do it but they do unlike D3 who piss all over ppl and expect them to take it.

    Thats how you keep the masses happy, but for people who understand the mechanics of giveaways it really isn't anything to be particularly happy about. Give proper service to the affected customers, especially those who pay money into the game.

    My responses in blue above. Sorry if I hadn't made myself clear, but giveaways are not good customer service in objective terms - they merely illicit a brief positive and highly irrational emotional response.

    Man, I sound like Spock.

    Maybe not everyone is looking for competitive advantage? I guess I can see that. If so, please kindly stop scoring over 900 in PvP... it's getting annoying icon_e_wink.gif
  • Nice gesture. Makes me want to try out the game, which I guess is the purpose (as well as keeping current players happy).
  • Maybe not everyone is looking for competitive advantage? I guess I can see that. If so, please kindly stop scoring over 900 in PvP... it's getting annoying icon_e_wink.gif

    Not everyone places the same priority on competition that you seem to. I only really play PVP at all now because you pretty much have to, and consider PVE and even lightning rounds to be more the meat of the game.

    But, in a sense, you're actually wrong. To cite one of the clearest situations, ISO gives less of a competitive advantage to someone who has 5 141s already than it does looking to level up their first. Unless they're scaling rewards, they mean more to different people at different stages of the game. HP means less to someone who has 70 spots and doesn't need any covers than someone trying to open their 20th spot.
  • Emeryt wrote:
    ryu600RR wrote:
    i get the impression there's only 3 people working at the same desk for this game
    Best part? They don't communicate with each other.

    And when they do, it's through CS.

    Finally, some humor in this thread! And yeah, this sounds about right. icon_lol.gif
  • bloafx69
    bloafx69 Posts: 52 Match Maker
    Wait, customer service is a thing?
  • Ben Grimm wrote:
    Maybe not everyone is looking for competitive advantage? I guess I can see that. If so, please kindly stop scoring over 900 in PvP... it's getting annoying icon_e_wink.gif

    Not everyone places the same priority on competition that you seem to. I only really play PVP at all now because you pretty much have to, and consider PVE and even lightning rounds to be more the meat of the game.

    But, in a sense, you're actually wrong. To cite one of the clearest situations, ISO gives less of a competitive advantage to someone who has 5 141s already than it does looking to level up their first. Unless they're scaling rewards, they mean more to different people at different stages of the game. HP means less to someone who has 70 spots and doesn't need any covers than someone trying to open their 20th spot.

    I appreciate that, but I see it like chips in a (non cash) poker game. If the 'house' gave out 100 chips for free to everyone at a random point in the game then sure, those 100 chips would mean less to the guys with 10000 chips than they would to those with 500 chips - but essentially everyone has been given (pretty much) the same in-game advantage so no-one really gets anything. Now one guy might get lucky with his 100 chips and turn it into 500 chips, and another might get nothing for theirs - but they've both had the same opportunity.

    Bottom line, is that I'm saying that from a market analysts point of view (err, me) the giveaway stuff in the OP seems like a nice gesture but no-one is really benefiting much and the net result will probably be more people suckered into spending additional amounts. I've played A LOT of these type of games and in most instances giveaways result in a negative impact on the wider game, even if it gives a temporary good vibe to some players.

    Wouldn't you rather they just focused on compensating the real victims rather than blanket bombing promotions?
  • My responses in blue above. Sorry if I hadn't made myself clear, but giveaways are not good customer service in objective terms - they merely illicit a brief positive and highly irrational emotional response.

    Man, I sound like Spock.

    Maybe not everyone is looking for competitive advantage? I guess I can see that. If so, please kindly stop scoring over 900 in PvP... it's getting annoying icon_e_wink.gif

    You seem stuck on some sort of "rational vs. emotional" analysis that 1) doesn't apply here, and 2) even if it did, you're doing it wrong...or at least, very irrationally. Spock would not approve.

    First of all, yes, in cases where an individual player was put in a less-optimal circumstance due to technical or dev malfunction, that individual player should be reimbursed to the extent reasonable, possible, and identifiable. Examples include players that did not get the covers they should have gotten at the end of an event. From multiple reports, MPQ CS is ridiculously terrible at this.

    Second--and this is the case most of us are talking about--where technical or dev malfunctions result in large numbers of players being put in less-optimal circumstances in the same or similar way, such that dealing with the issue on an individual basis would be excessively time-consuming for a CS department that is useless to begin with, mass compensation is preferable. Examples include periods of server instability that affect many players at once, or mid-event point adjustments that produced a markedly uneven playing field in the last iteration of Heroic Oscorp.

    In the second case, if the *only* thing you care about is "competitive advantage," you can use that as an excuse to do nothing instead. After all, if it would be hard to perfectly identify each affected individual, and any reasonable solution is bound to be either overinclusive or underinclusive (or both), that's a great reason to say, "Eh, suck it up, we ain't doin' tinykitty." icon_rolleyes.gif

    (Emotional reactions are *not* inherently irrational. In some cases, they can be disproportionate or poor guides to optimal behavior, but emotional responses actually do follow an internal logic--the entire fields of marketing and entertainment rely on this point--even though that logic is not perfectly transferable from one person to another. "Giveaways are not good customer service in objective terms" is a ridiculous statement that has zero foundation in reality. Also, you meant "elicit.")
  • Trying to school someone on behavioural economics who does it / lectures on it for a living is not really that useful, cheers. Fair enough on the typo - the product of a rough upbringing icon_e_wink.gif

    Maybe I'm not communicating this effectively. I actually agree with nearly all your comments Vairelome.

    Where my point of contention is lies around the replacement of individual compensation with blanket compensation. Someone who has spent 600hp on shields during an event should not get the same compensation as someone who spend 75hp or 0hp but companies often use blanket compensation as a way around providing fair and proportionate compensation because 'hey' people see free stuff and they like it. Behavioural economics 101. Then you overlay that positive emoition from the majority of people to the most negatively impacted people because of crowd theory - and they adjust to the community 'norm' of taking it as a good thing.

    Yes, emotional responses are not always illogical because your emotional needs are often more important than your rational needs... but it doesn't make it right in my books.