Minelab And Customer Communications

[Steve Herschbach]

This is just me following a random coffee inspired thought. It sure seems to me there is a disconnect between what customers expect by way of communications from Minelab and what Minelab perhaps thinks they are delivering by way of customer communications. The current example of course being the Gold Monster 1000 and customer and even dealer questions about what's up with the where and when.

Minelab overall probably thinks they do a pretty good job with communications. Lots of customers and dealers probably feel otherwise. Where is the disconnect?

Having rubbed shoulders with some Minelab folks for awhile I can offer this. They are a very engineering driven company. Literally a whole bunch of engineers, all engineering away doing engineer things. And truthfully, just a generally nice bunch of people, fascinating to chat with. Most of you would really enjoy having the opportunity to meet and talk with them, and I am quite lucky in that regard.

There is this however. How many of you know engineers? Have you spent a lot of time talking to engineers? They are not really famous for communication skills. They might think they are communicating, but they are speaking a different language. Their brains are often wired differently than "regular folks". Yeah, it is a cliche, but cliches are often based on a certain reality.

Think of Minelab as a large box full of engineers. Maybe really nice engineers, but engineers nonetheless. Then you might understand the communication thing.

It is not just Minelab either. Minelab comes off as Suzy Socialite compared to Tesoro for instance. The industry as a whole has been remarkably slow at embracing the internet for what are after all technology companies. Garrett probably has it figured out the most but even they have been weirdly silent on the AT Max since the initial intro blurb - no other sign of it on the website yet.

If this all seems far fetched consider this. I just Googled engineer communication skills and got 42,900,000 results! I love this quote from this article "According to Weisman, engineers take a 67% risk of damaging important relationships with people every time they speak." There are some good tips in that article for the companies.

[1515Art]

All the companies could improve, XP is just as bad... here we are 1/3 of the way through May and honestly I have little faith we will see the elipitical here in the US this month. No matter... as I'll be drooling all over myself when it does arrive and all will be wonderful.

[Steve Herschbach]

Indeed, where is that elliptical coil? Sadly it seems like a waste of time even asking XP, may as well just wait it out.

[Ringmoney]

Why blame engineers when it the job of PR and advertising?

[Steve Herschbach]

The post is not meant to be mean spirited. More tongue in cheek than anything... that is why it ends with a cartoon. It certainly is not a blame game on my part. It revolves more around the idea that companies have personalities as a whole rather than being about individuals or departments.

Trust me, as a nerd/introvert my sympathies are with the engineers!

[hawkeye]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

How many of you know engineers? Have you spent a lot of time talking to engineers? They are not really famous for communication skills. They might think they are communicating, but they are speaking a different language. Their brains are often wired differently than "regular folks".

Steve, my wife totally agrees with this statement.  Personally I can't see it, everything we talk about makes perfect sense to me.  

 

One of my favorites:

 

 

[Bada Bing]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

How many of you know engineers? Have you spent a lot of time talking to engineers? They are not really famous for communication skills.

They are famous for their drinking skills - the ones I know anyway ......... If I ever want to shut them up I just start talking about the fairer sex ......... the blank look is priceless.

Cheers

BB

[Glenn in CO]

Maybe the established detector industry will look more closely as how Nokta communicates to customers when introducing new products or resolving issues as they arise. But that maybe wishful thinking.

[Randy Lunn]

Where it really counts I have had fabulous service from Minelab and Fisher. When my GPZ froze up I had three days of technical support to try to solve the download software issue. It could not be solved, and they immediately sent me a new machine. First class in all respects. Last month the discrimination toggle switch on my GB2 stopped working. I called, and the it was fixed under warranty in a week (thank you Felix!).

When it comes to marketing, the marketing guys (not necessarily the engineers) can play some really nasty games like pre-announce a product to freeze the market and get pre-orders. This is how Intel won the microprocessor wars against Motorola even though Intel was late to market. However, sometimes delays happen because of manufacturing issues such as design tweaks or parts availability. Better late than wrong.

There is no excuse for lack of communication.

Hey Hawkeye - I love the Dilbert cartoon.

[Des D]

From my point of view, they weren't ever good or clear about their communication/s.

They're not that company anymore. They are part of a larger conglomerate. 

That outfit was established 1 July 1959 which means 'old fashioned values' i.e. keeping things close to their chest.

The 'engineers' are from the old part of the original company. They are employed on 'contracts' that can last the duration of a New Product invention. I know these guys and they are a great bunch of ordinary people. Brilliant, but ordinary.

They have Privacy clauses so they cannot speak about what they are doing.

The Marketing people have similar clauses so they cannot speak either until a New Product is ready for release.

They have made a few attempts in the past 24mths to tell us things they want us to know. Other than that, they stay sthum!

We had a Prime Minister for a few years who was not actually elected as Prime Minister and was hugely unpopular because in his three year tenure in that role avoided making 'Presidential Address' like the American President's do. The People wanted him to tell us what was going on but he resolutely stayed away from the cameras!

He was ousted.

Maybe 'Phase Tech' might chime in on this one?