Leica and their communication skills

[parigby]

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I think we all got a little excited upon reading the post from one of our members reproducing the e-mail from Leica telling approved bodies that 1.092 was to be launched the following day by e-mail notification to registered users of the M8 and by it's appearance on the official web sites, but please don't tell anyone untill after 12,00 noon on the day in question.

 

Like many l scoured the official sites shortly after 12,00 noon and downloaded the update. Thank you Leica.

 

What puzzles me is, as a registered M8 owner, l've not had the e-mail from Leica, nor have l heard a peep out of them. Am l alone, or are there others of you out there being ignored by Leica. I thought they were going to notifyl us by e-mail of the firmware update !

 

Following on from that, if they can't be bothered to note that l am a registered user, what hope have l of receiving the two free filters.

 

Someone posted somewhere on here that Leica do have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot sometimes ..... l'm surprised they have any feet to aim at.

 

regards .... philip

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[Guest guy_mancuso]

Philip that information that was sent to the forum member was intended for a dealer and the dealer forwarded that on. It was advance notice from Leica to there dealers on what they will be doing on March 6th. That information should have not left the dealers store. The same info was posted on March 6th on Leica's website along with the update. This has everything to do with leica and it's dealers. Dealers are really not supposed to give out that info , which this guy did to a forum member which he posted and the forum member should not be blamed in anyway. This is the fault of the dealer and not leica or members.

[stunsworth]

If you're signed up to receive the Leica newsletter you should have received one today stating that the new firmware was available.

[parigby]

Guy,

 

So what you are saying is that there was never an intention to communicate directly with registered users at all, other than by the Leica Newsletter and the OB's. What Leica intended to do was post the update on their websites, tell people in the newsletter and leave it at that.

 

Steve,

 

Thanks for the info. Strange thing is, since l registered the M8, l've stopped getting the newsletters !

 

Think it's time for an e-mail, pleading to be recognised again.

 

 

philip

[jquimby]

while i am not here to defend leica, and also since i don't have a 'digital' horse in this race, take this with a large grain of salt...

 

i would assume they are doing all they can to keep their heads above water right now. They are trying which is encouraging (a few official posts, new firmware, free filters to overcome the weak ir filter, etc) but they are a small company. Could they have done somethings better, sure. Every company could.

 

I think a good, or rather, fair benchmark would be: is there progress being made, are they moving in the right direction to really making the M8 an all round true M, and finally are they learning from there mistakes, correcting them and not duplicating them...

 

If they are, what more can you reasonably ask of them? We all wish everything was spot on the first time around but welcome to life. I know that doesn't really address your concerns about communication but hopefully by raising the issuehere they will add this to the list of areas to work on. Next time around hopefully they can be more proactive

 

 

again take it with a large grain of salt

-joe

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Guy,

 

So what you are saying is that there was never an intention to communicate directly with registered users at all, other than by the Leica Newsletter and the OB's. What Leica intended to do was post the update on their websites, tell people in the newsletter and leave it at that.

 

Steve,

 

Thanks for the info. Strange thing is, since l registered the M8, l've stopped getting the newsletters !

 

Think it's time for an e-mail, pleading to be recognised again.

 

 

philip

 

Basically that is correct , I know I know. What can i say but what would be nice is everyone that has a M8 be in a database with e-mail and send out a group mailing but I don't think anything like this exists. It also was announced at PMA also and even DP review has that upgrade on there site. They probbly thought PMA news was enough but not sure. i would love to see a group e-mail. that would be very nice to have set up

[ken_tanaka]

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For what it's worth to this thread, I did receive a "Leica Newsletter" email today (March 8) that covered the M8 topics as well as other affairs. It did not, however, appear to be sent to me as a registered M8 owner (which I am) but rather as more of a marketing piece sent to the public newsletter's subscribers.

 

Leica always seems to remember my address when they have something new to sell to me. But I've never heard from them otherwise. Here, also for what it's worth, is perhaps an explanation of why Leica in particular seems to have such a crappy customer support communication style. I believe that they are still operating from the somewhat dated belief that most of their customers deal principally with local camera shops. Consequently, they seem to direct much of their support-oriented correspondence to their dealers rather than to their registered customers. I'm sure it's much more economical but not very effective. Their marketing correspondence and activities, by contrast, seems to be directed straight to customers perhaps with the idea of driving them to those dealers (ex: "Leica Days" events).

[Guest sirvine]

Guy, I agree but group email is a dangerous game, especially in Europe where personal information and privacy is regulated more heavily. Even in the US, the anti-SPAM laws are enacted in almost every state. Of course, the anti-SPAM laws don't actually stop spammers and are impossible for any rational person who understands technology to interpret, but that's all the more reason to be afraid of mass emailing customers.

 

I guess it seems reasonable to me that Leica would expect customers to find the firmware online. In my experience, Leica does more than most OEMs to reach out and say hello and keep customers in the loop. Can you imagine Epson's customer relations, or Canon's?

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Sol you have a great point and that i did not think about that one. But if we register online our camera ( needs to be there) than would it be considered spam by the regulations. I would think your asking to be informed and it would not. I could be wrong here

[george +]

I am getting more positive about this thing. There is definite progress and hope for more ahead.

 

The fact seems to be that they are just not geared to these temporary volume increases.

 

But the camera works great - for most purposes - and is being worked on; and we get results. What else could we ask for?

[Guest sirvine]

Sol you have a great point and that i did not think about that one. But if we register online our camera ( needs to be there) than would it be considered spam by the regulations. I would think your asking to be informed and it would not. I could be wrong here

 

Unfortunately, the answer is...probably yes. Anyway, it seems the best way to stay in touch with Leica is to register for the e-newsletter.

[ken_tanaka]

I guess it seems reasonable to me that Leica would expect customers to find the firmware online. In my experience, Leica does more than most OEMs to reach out and say hello and keep customers in the loop. Can you imagine Epson's customer relations, or Canon's?

 

I agree that this seems reasonable. It's certainly the tac taken by Canon and Nikon.

 

But Leica has, to a degree, set itself up to such little criticisms. When the fashion house Hermes owned a majority interest Leica's marketing campaigns were styled to woo customers to their pricey gear by emphasizing peoples' desires to be recognized as individuals. They even began decorating the damn M cameras with materials ranging from wool plaid to buffalo ear skins (their "Ala Carte" program, still in place) to appeal to prospective customers' egos.

 

Yet when it comes to servicing those same "individuals" with their chintz-covered Ms they are treated as individually as barnyard chickens at feeding time.

 

Personally, I am not complaining. I can find the feed. But Leica can't play it both ways without expecting to get bruised shins.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

LOL that is too funny Ken.

[footnoteblog]

I work in Internet Marketing at a very large Fortune 500 company, and let me just say, it's hard to send out a simple one-off newsletter.

 

Why? If you're an international company, there are very specific regulations (i.e., spam), language trans-creation (which is different the translation), graphics (if it's HTML), QA, database administration, etc. ... the list goes on and on. Probably, Leica is a very small organization, and they can only do so much. It requires teams of people to get an international website up and maintained, let alone direct marketing campaigns, customer service and other parts of the business.

 

It's not easy; but I guarantee you they're doing something.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Thanks Jack, well said . There is a lot going on in the background that we just don't realize it seems.

[Iron Flatline]

I've used digital SLRs from Canon for six years, and have never gotten an e-mail from the re. firmware upgrades. I used to rely on DP Review to make me aware of firmware upgrades, but they aren't covering Leica cameras as thoroughly as the other brands.

[j. borger]

I've used digital SLRs from Canon for six years, and have never gotten an e-mail from the re. firmware upgrades.

Exactly ... the expectations some people seem to have from a small company like Leica are unrealistic ...

[parigby]

Exactly ... the expectations some people seem to have from a small company like Leica are unrealistic ...

 

 

You might have a point, if it were not for the fact that Leica through it's agents and servants does project itself as being different from the rest of the camera industry. Hence the customer expectations.

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[Venkman]

In addition to Jack's comments: You simply are not permitted to send a message to all registered M8 owners in a form of mass communication, because Leica did unfortunately not collect the permission to do so.

 

European anti spam laws are harsh - and lawsuits for unsolicited emails has become a new sport among lawyers. Double opt in is the current "safe" way to register an address.

 

Another problem in Leica's internet communication is clearly the lack of possibilities on the website. The site is clearly a marketing focussed site, hard to put "news" up there, because every "news" item would eliminate an marketing item

 

Popup would work, but then again there are blockers common for those, and a layer ad would most likely annoy people. So whatever Leica does, there's a downside for it.

 

IMO - so far they are doing fine.

 

P.S. every time I visit that site, there's a new language version up - THAT I know is really hard work, so I take that's where (human) are resources spent at the moment.