Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: What does Repeat Business mean?
What does "Repeat Business" mean?
"Repeat Business" has been listed as our profession’s #1 issue, but what does this phrase mean to you as a DE? What is your definition of "repeat business"? Why is it so important? And what fundamental changes to our profession are you willing to accept to bring about your idea of "repeat business"?
Is it selling a quality product that is unlike any other in SWG, and investing time with the customer to make sure they are happy- so that after successfully using their Combat Probot, they then return to you for a Harvest droid, or an Entertainer Droid, or a Stimpack Droid (or all three)? Or does "repeat business" just mean selling painfully cheap, mass-produced, identical crates over and over and over. Like all the other professions in SWG…you know, the ones we don’t want to play.
Want "repeat business"? Then sell quality droids to your customers. Customize for them. Answer their questions. Offer them choices. Be a good merchant rather than an empty vendor. When a customer successfully buys one droid… they usually end up buying five. When they need a new droid, they will come to you. When they meet another player who needs a new droid, they will recommend you. When they start a new character or profession, they will buy from you. While you are waiting for those things to happen, you can be doing the same thing with another customer, making sure they too have such a good buying experience that their "repeat business" is guaranteed.
"Repeat business" takes effort on the part of the merchant. A merchant who takes pride in their profession makes that effort, and gets the customers. I wonder if these DE’s who are missing customers, and are so desperate for business that they would gut their very profession, are in reality doing poorly because other DE’s are being better merchants and providing what the customers really need. If so, then it’s not the profession that’s broken at all.
We had that whole "We need combat droids to survive!" thing before, and fortunately cooler heads prevailed, and dedicated DE’s made sure the DEVs knew that what we really needed were increased profession-centric functions for our droids. That still hasn’t changed, and it still always means "repeat business" when new functions/features are added to the game.
Is the goal of all this cheap-consumable "repeat business" to increase the DE’s bank account? We already have consumable droids (Seekers and Arakyds). Since the beginning of SWG, I have only ever made a couple of small runs of Bounty Hunter Droids, and once I became established I stopped making them completely. They are exactly the kind of consumable droid I have no interest in making. They are not customizable in any way and are merely a factory "grind". They have no "personality" whatsoever and do not last.
For those DE’s wanting this sort of "repeat business", then craft and sell the existing Bounty Hunter Droids. There seems to be no end to the need for them, and so few DE’s who actually spend time crafting them....Hmmm... I wonder why? Then consider what it will be like when ALL our droids are cheap consumables. Just because you now sell a fully loaded Entertainer R3 droid for 50k doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to sell a crate of 10 of them for 500k- when each one only lasts a month. On the contrary, prices will plummet. Even a crate of 10 droids will not last as long as the one droid you can make now. Instead, you may be selling that crate of 10 for less credits than you can sell any one droid now.
I have posted another thread with my alternate ideas to mandatory droid decay, which is obviously the easiest way to "solve" one problem and yet introduces so many profession-crippling compromises.
Is mandatory droid decay really what everyone wants? Or "Repeat Business"? And what does "Repeat Business" mean to you?
First off, what it is. In my opinion repeat business is the idea that someone will *need* to come back to you at some point to continue at their current level. By this I mean, if another character, such as myself, plays the game for a year and a half without switching professions, there should be some reason for them to come back to you. Another way to look at it is anything that guarantees droids will still need to be purchased at some point. As it is, the only reason people buy droids is because no one thinks to sell their old one. There are easily enough droids on Tarquinas for everyone to be able to use any droid they need, then sell it off without anyone ever having to make another droid.
Why do we need some form of repeat business? Couple reasons. First off, without repeat sales people don't sell as many droids. Whether you sell droids because you enjoy selling droids or you sell droids because you want the profits, you still want to sell droids. Non-repeate business as defined above goes against that. Also, by bringing people into your store to get their droid fixed up/replaced, they have a chance to see anything new that may have come out. Most people don't keep up on droid changes, so this may be the only way they know about them.
Straker_Atrella wrote:
Oops one more point to make, you may be reading my other post and I didn't want you to miss it.
About the BH and Seeker Droids. I do make them, I make and sell a ton of them. Yet the profit on them is abysmally low, hardly worth the time. Yet I stock them so people may buy something else.
Why is the profit so low? Because undercutters who don't care about making even a medium profit have pushed them that low.
You can be the "backpack DE", making custom orders in every cantina in the galaxy, in which case "repeat business" means sitting down with a client who may or may not have bought from you before and hand crafting them a new droid to replace their old one.
You can be the "industrial DE", making factory runs of identical droids and putting them on vendors, in which case "repeat business" means people coming back and buying another of those droids off of your vendor, just like last time.
You can be a "consultant DE", stocking some droids on your vendors but taking time out to talk to your clients individually about their droid needs before advising them of the model you think is best for them and having them buy it off your vendor or hand crafting it for them, in which case "repeat business" means those people coming back for another consultation so you can determine if their needs or other circumstances have changed ("would you like to try a droid with all harvesting modules this time instead of an item storage module, since inventory limits have been increased?").
Or you can be a mixture of those or your own unique type of DE.
The point is that "repeat business" doesn't have to turn us into cookie-cutter crafters. Droid Engineering is unique because of the variety we have, not the lack of decay. Droid Engineers sell their expertise as much as they do droids. While some customers will return for cookie-cutter solutions many others will be willing to try something else - if you suggest it.
EnigmaBSc
Jenden wrote:
There are a couple issues with repeat business.
First off, what it is. In my opinion repeat business is the idea that someone will *need* to come back to you at some point to continue at their current level. By this I mean, if another character, such as myself, plays the game for a year and a half without switching professions, there should be some reason for them to come back to you.
Customers do return regularly to pick up droid accessories, and sometimes new droids. The “year and a half” time frame you suggest could possibly be the only saving grace to a decay system, although others are talking about replacing droids monthly!!!??
Another way to look at it is anything that guarantees droids will still need to be purchased at some point. As it is, the only reason people buy droids is because no one thinks to sell their old one. There are easily enough droids on Tarquinas for everyone to be able to use any droid they need, then sell it off without anyone ever having to make another droid.
This isn’t really anything to worry about as droids cannot be re-deeded. This makes selling old ones totally impractical, since the only way to do it is to continually carry them around in your datapad and hope you run into someone you can trade with soon… much too cumbersome. And most players don’t have the room to spare, since they usually fill all 5 slots with useful droids. J If droids ever become re-deedable, then we would have something to worry about on the bazaar. (So let’s not ask for re-deeding.)
Why do we need some form of repeat business? Couple reasons. First off, without repeat sales people don't sell as many droids. Whether you sell droids because you enjoy selling droids or you sell droids because you want the profits, you still want to sell droids. Non-repeate business as defined above goes against that. Also, by bringing people into your store to get their droid fixed up/replaced, they have a chance to see anything new that may have come out. Most people don't keep up on droid changes, so this may be the only way they know about them.
And I agree with your “bringing people into your store to get their droid fixed up” concept, as that means they can still keep their plastic pal, and just get a much-needed “overhaul” for it (see my “component decay” alternate idea to droid decay in the other thread)
Back when DE’s were the only ones who could customize droid colors, customers used to regularly /tell me with messages like “my lil’ buddy needs a new coat of paint”, and then make a trip to my shop for it. Who does that with anything else in the game? Droids are special to players and shouldn’t be reduced by us to the equivalency of buff food just so we can sell them by the crateful.
Straker_Atrella wrote:
Yoda, that is a great thread, with some good points, let me make some of my own.
You admit that you are not a DE to make money, you are a DE to make droids. The problem is that there are some of us that are in it for money AND droids. I support my DE, as well as my Combat character. For example I spent 3 million on rifles yesterday, and there is an Armor Attachment on the boards that is going for 20 million that I would love to have, but that would take far to much of my cash. A different crafter or combatent with hundreds of millions will get it. Cash matters to some of us.
I can’t deny the fact that many other players have multiple accounts with multiple characters that they play, but I also won’t base my chosen profession’s future on the needs of those other toons. I play one profession, one character, one account, and one game. I am in SWG for Droid Engineering, so yes, this profession is my top priority. No apologies.
Everything that you said about being a GOOD merchant and your vendor is 100% true. I do that. I operate 2 vendor locations, and each stocks 200+ droids, of all different types, Med, Combat, Harvestors, Space, Entertainer, you name it I have it. My droids are the best the server can make, nobody makes them better, in fact, on some stuff nobody makes them as good. I stock EVERYTHING that goes with droids as well, 1777 power 47 charge droid stims, customs kits, BH droids, everything. I even sell protocol chasis for shuttleports and recon kits cheap for tailors.
I advertise a lot, a lot, I get a ton of word of mouth traffic as well, plusI have an awesome relationship with my customers. Many people get free droids from friends or guildmates, so not everybody buys droids. Yet I probably pull about 70% of the people that actually buy droids, so I am obviously doing something right. The problem is that everybody else is doing "better."
Your perception that "everyone else is doing better" is, as you admit, based solely on credit income. And that is my fear for all Droid Engineers; that important decisions about the very core of our profession will be decided by those who are looking solely at credits.
They are NOT doing better as far as I'm concerned. If I thought they had it better, then I would become a weaponsmith or a chef, but I don’t. Droid Engineering is still the "better" profession to me because of it's very uniqueness. It isn’t about grinding out crates of stimpacks/armors/blasters daily. I get to actually craft and play like I'm really making something- something with permanence in this virtual galaxy, something that helps other players achieve their goals in the game and stays with them. And for myself, I don’t want to just harvest resources, shove them in a factory, then pile identical crates on a vendor…over and over...and the great thing about DE is that this profession doesn’t have to do that… so far, anyways. And I intend to encourage our fellow DE's to hold onto that as long as possible.
Many of us successfully play a single character on a single account and are doing just fine as a DE. Do I make as many credits per hour as another crafter? Not an issue as long as I make enough to keep crafting droids. That is what the profession is about. This has never been a profession for the credit-hungry. Anyone who has really played DE since SWG began knows that. (as opposed to the many holo-grinders who came and went) And to try and make us fit the credit-driven mold of those other mind-numbing crafting professions will lead to yet another “grind craft”.
For example, I spend about 40 hours a week dealing with droid stuff, and I make about 2 million a week (some more some less,) that works out to be about 50,000 cr an hour. Yes 50k credits an hour. Considering that on my combatent, I can make about 300k an hours, that is 1/6 of what combatents make. A top Armorsmith or Weaponsmith can make 20-50 MILLION a week, if not more, Chefs and Docs are about the same.
So what is the difference? 2 things really, their products are more needed, and their products wear out. They have customers who come back and buy the same thing over and over again. We do not.
Thank goodness! I want players to come back and buy droids…but because the droid has a new or improved feature to offer – not the same droid over and over again because it keeps going “poof” every month. I don’t want DE to become like the other crafting professions because of the exact repetitive “grind craft” you speak of. What would our game-play become?....
And as soon as our droids become “short-lived”, what makes you think you’ll be able to charge anywhere near what you can now for a droid that lasts long-term? You may not be able to sell a whole crateful of monthly-decaying droids for the price of a mouse droid today…
Sure I get the same people coming back to my shop, they may buy a crafting droid today, then a combat droid next week, then a Harvestor, but eventually they will have no more need for droids.
Yes droids are fun, I love droids. However, just because some DE's don't care about money doesn't mean that we should just forget about the DE's that do. We want to buy stuff too.
Straker_Atrella wrote:
Oops one more point to make, you may be reading my other post and I didn't want you to miss it.
About the BH and Seeker Droids. I do make them, I make and sell a ton of them. Yet the profit on them is abysmally low, hardly worth the time. Yet I stock them so people may buy something else.
Why is the profit so low? Because undercutters who don't care about making even a medium profit have pushed them that low.
Yes, good point. Droid consumables do NOT sell for very high prices and are boring to make. Now just think what our profession will be like whenall our droids are short-lived consumables being sold only by the crate-load.
There will always be folks using their “alts” to mass-produce what they and their buddies need to keep fighting, and selling the rest for cheap because they don’t care about the profession. Let’s not give them any more ammo.
Well put. I was never really sure the best way to describe it.Thanks.
EnigmaBSc wrote:.
You can be a "consultant DE", stocking some droids on your vendors but taking time out to talk to your clients individually about their droid needs before advising them of the model you think is best for them and having them buy it off your vendor or hand crafting it for them, in which case "repeat business" means those people coming back for another consultation so you can determine if their needs or other circumstances have changed ("would you like to try a droid with all harvesting modules this time instead of an item storage module, since inventory limits have been increased?").
That would be nice.
Rihtan wrote:
If I had my way the DE profession would be focused a lot more on the customization of droids. The mass-produced droids would never be the top of the line, Ok, but never the best. Once a droid was built then the opportunity would exist to customize it and tinker and truly make each droid unique. Sort of like what happens in the Star Wars universe.
I can't reply to this right now, but my reply to your post in my other thread about Decay Alternatives pretty much hits all these same points again.
AudioOrgana wrote:
Repeat business is very simple.
Joe buys a medical droid from me.
Joe's medical droid lasts forever.
Joe never has to come back unless he changes professions.
Repeat business is Joe having to come back once in awhile to buy another one.
It totally boggles my mind (and gives me aslightheadache) that we are talking about this. That there are DE's that simply don't understand how to function as a crafting profession in the long run our droids need some form of replacement. Droids last FOREVER. This is not the way a crafting profession is supposed to work. Role playing excuses are not enough to keep DE in the dark ages as it is when it comes to repeat sales.
Role play all you want - ifthey can't get past the sixty seconds it takes to tame/rename a droid, and "pretend" it's the same one - well, I guess they will have to get over it like I have to get over the fact that cloning centers are outlawed and that I can stand right next to Jabba the Hutt in his palace yet I can't blow a cap through his head. Game mechanics take precedence over roleplay, it's just a fact of MMO's.
AO