Have a read below this email from a customer and tell us....
Is this a case of expectations being too high.

At first it reads like bad news... Then it ends on a different note..
What do you say to a message like this....

-------------------------------
From: Shaun

Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2011 4:29 PM

To: info@365drills.com

Subject: Trade pack





Hello,
A short while ago I bought the trade pack of you for £49.99. And I have have used the 6mm and 8mm bits in 4 bathrooms. Slightly disappointed. The first cuts were brilliant. Then when using them (with the sponge and plenty of water!) but on hardest of porcelain tiles the ends of the cutting surface went blunt. Also I need a new Anti-Slip Drill Plate (the holes gone oval). Which I can’t find separately on your website. I hope you can help me with this problem. Do you do a trade account? I am looking in the future to buy more items of you as I do think this is the best cutters I have used in my bathroom Installations. I install between 20 and 30 bathrooms a year.
Speak soon

Shaun
=======================

This is what we sent back.

Actually Shaun (you might be suprised to learn!) that works out fantastic value for money as we bill these kits to last “just one project” in fact on the

back of the packs we dumb down the lifespan and claims.


If you look at the packaging you will see above the bar code “This little kit will give excellent results for about one project”



So its a testiment to the hardness of the cores you have that for £49.99 they have lasted FOUR bathroom projects not just one. Even the fact that the guide plate is worn out is proof this kit is providing you with exceptional value for money.



But to get back to your main question.... The answer is YES we have some superb deals on the site for the small cores.


For £99 you get FIVE packs of cores (thats 20 cores) working out at about £5 each.
Not too shabby.

And each pack contains the guide plate too.




Have a read on the ORDER section and see if the megadeal suits you.





Five packs for £99 thats super value and you get lots of guide plates too. £5 a drill.





Also our main deal the bathroom fitters kit that you initially bought and has lasted
for FOUR bathroom projects works out at £7 a drill when bought at £49.99
You just cant buy good drills for those prices especially the larger cores.

If you even look at the project cost then its cost you £12.50 per bathroom to drill even the
most hardest of porcelain. In short we believe you are getting good value.

But of course no drill bit lasts forever. They all wear out. So I think that if you expect one
bathroom and get four then its probably a good product.

Hope that makes sense.

Richard

================================================== ====

So is this a case of a customer wanting too much. Or does he just not want to buy drills.
Maybe in a way its quite a positive email? Starts off with a moan then ends up contridicting
himself.

I have 48 holes to bore through hard porcelain tomorrow Richard so pressure on every bit I have tomorrow !!!!!
I kid you not but my grinder will be in action too, lol.

Dont forget Brian holds plenty of stock if you run out in Ireland!



He runs Accura - thats if you dont want to wait for delivery from 365Drills

That sounds like he wanted to moan then switched half way through it, 4 jobs out of one pack, you can't complain at that, surely ?

I made my own guide plate from mdf. Have a bunch of holes I regularly cut, in it, and just use that. In fact, if I lay the tile flat and put my guide plate on it, I can fill the hole with water, and my bits last even longer.

If that customer is a member of this forum and he reads this thread he will no doubt recognise his e-mail and will see that you are discussing a private correspondance he sent you on an open forum and inviting other members to have a bitch about his e-mail. Refering to him as a joke in the title is one sure way of insuring your business has lost a potential repeat customer. Maybe you should display some professionalism and descression and keep private matters just that, private.

Originally Posted by quackfly

If that customer is a member of this forum and he reads this thread he will no doubt recognise his e-mail and will see that you are discussing a private correspondance he sent you on an open forum and inviting other members to have a bitch about his e-mail. Refering to him as a joke in the title is one sure way of insuring your business has lost a potential repeat customer. Maybe you should display some professionalism and descression and keep private matters just that, private.

Oh dear Richard....... looks like youve been reprimanded



Quackfly, I think Richard has more than enough common sense (and repeat business) to not worry about this so called customer. In my experience I steer well clear of any repeat customers like that.

A product that exceeds the manufacturers claims and the customer still whinges ??? Oh give me a break !

We are a very open company and often post up comments and feedbacks be it compliments or complaints etc to gain feedback. Provided the majority of the identity is concealed its not "wrong" [in our opinion] to publish the essence of corrispondence providing there are no direct links to the person making the comment.

In this instance we felt it right to publish negative comments about our product. It could be argued that in itself is a poor decission, after all why would a company want to publicise bad feedback etc. When we put our products out there we want genunine feedback. In this instance it was to identify why a customer had a higher expectation of life expectancy for the diamond cores and yet decided at the end of his email that the product was in fact a good product.

Posting topics up like this can be a useful tool to find the real feedback and gain insight. Proper input (real feedback) from our customers is one of the reasons why we sponsor the forum. Its also the reason we leave posts up that have negative comments about us too! We dont want to censor free thinking. It would be easy to have negatives deleted but we dont. Your point is valid that anything that directly identifies the author would not be fair. Hopefully this post has the balance of the essence of the email (its contents) but with the identifying markers removed.

Customer expectations? Is this a joke. What do people want from diamond tile drills

Above is the strap line (title) and it was meant / written so the reader would want to read more. Bit like a newspaper headline.
Its also a question, written to get a reaction and written to get a response.

As sponsor of the forum it's threads like this from 365 drills that reminds us of the value of the product that they supply and keeps their name in the shop window.
I for one was fortunate to receive a set of these drills for winning the JOTM competition and found them to be a terrific product.
Whether the E mail was real or made up it's a good read and when dealing with all types of customers in our trade there is place here to share our experiences.
I like the comment from Bolter with the thicker MDF hole and filling it with water!

The point i was making Richard was this, the customer in question, if he read the thread would recognise that it was him you were discussing. To be fair to the guy he did say he liked your product and he would be buying again. Keeping his identity confidential isn't the issue, he would know. I just think its not the best practice to openly hold your customers up to ridicule and if it was me I would feel you had betrayed my trust and would take my business (and money) elsewhere and who can afford that?

Originally Posted by quackfly

The point i was making Richard was this, the customer in question, if he read the thread would recognise that it was him you were discussing. To be fair to the guy he did say he liked your product and he would be buying again. Keeping his identity confidential isn't the issue, he would know. I just think its not the best practice to openly hold your customers up to ridicule and if it was me I would feel you had betrayed my trust and would take my business (and money) elsewhere and who can afford that?

Too be honest sometimes its worth not having that customer.

My suggestion would be that we agree to disagree on the issue of posting customer comments from emails or any other source up onto a public forum. Obviously we have posted these and comments from customers onto public forums so I think readers can take it we do not have a problem doing so. But I respect your point of view that you disagree with this.

Did we hold him up to ridicule? Well we certainly didnt hold him up for riducule. But we posted up his comments for review and having re-read the item a couple of times I cant find any trace of saracasm or negative comment from us, in fact I think the tone reads balanced.

Maybe this was the most emotive part:

"So is this a case of a customer wanting too much. Or does he just not want to buy drills.
Maybe in a way its quite a positive email? Starts off with a moan then ends up contridicting
himself. "

Again have to say we agree to disagree on the practice of posting feedback for comment. But will take your comment on board and will make sure that when we do post up customer related content that we check ourselves to ensure the tone is correct as well as the actual words.