Which equipment manufacturers listen to their customers?

[Nico]

Most companies know that it is on the forums that they will get the quickest access to grass root level feedback.
Any co that ignores this is doomed to die.
Nico

[mossman]

Ocean Rodeo has great costumer care and warrenty

[kitesurfbali]

I can tell you that Ozone listen to us, dealer-rider!
Bye Jankie

[Armin Harich]

Which companies listen to their customers for product improvement?

In german we say translated: The worm has to taste the fish and not the angler. If we would not carefully listen to our customers, we would shrink.

Which companies have feedback forums and FAQ sections.

We have Foilzone.com for any Flysurfer special questions, but as we also want offer the right product to every kiter we listen carefully to all feedback even in Kiteforum.com and also at all testivalls.
Me as a Designer are 1 Month a year out for terstifalls and collect a lot of feedback there. I just have been last week in Egypt the new 2008 inflatables and boards from all other brands that was in the Magazine test too.
Our Manual is 59 Pages already, to answer all possible questions we have been collection the lest years. We also have "How to Do" Videos at our Page and free DVD and will release soon more in combination with our Teamriders.

Do they have an archive of info on last years products?

Yes, we archive all our infos at our Webpage sice 2000 when we started. Check http://www.flysurfer.de

Do they bring a weak product back for a second season?

We take 2 Years time to develop a new product. We learned that it only makes sense to release a product when it is really finished. As we sell a model 24 month this is even more important. If you have a look for a product after the hype is away, you will see how good the product in reality is.
But the Problem is that marketing is so important and existing and perfectly working products get out of focus of the customers after the first hype. That is a big reason for the fast and only short tested product releases.

Do they pass off all customer service to the less knowledgeable retailer?

If the retailer / forums can´t help our customers, they contact us directly and get helped. For very special Questions I also spent my time to answer him. We have also a formular for special questions at our page.

Bye, Armin

[Me!]

I dont know about customers (sure they do). From my own experience i can say Slingshot really hears its riderss.

[tkettlepoint]

Eclispe has the best i have ever seen for listening too the people that fly their gear. Dimitri and Chris are alway on here answering questions and asking what can they change. Their slogan "MADE BY RIDERS FOR RIDERS" says it all..... People asked for one pump they did it... people asked for a kite that will jump higher then ever before the thruster does it...


just my 2 cents
Terrie

[Larse]

Eclipse really listens to us. On their own forum, they have a thread "what's next" or something like that. They also do polls on different things. This year they let the us users decide, if they should go with a stopperball or their EZ-lock. Also one-pump was on for voting. And the outcome of the polls was used for the 2008 kites. Chris and Dimitri didn't want one-pump, but the users did, so they made the kites with one-pump.

And both Chris and Dimitri are very nice guys, who just wants the costumer to be happy. And they personal go a great length to keep the costumers happy.

So they get a from me...

[mickeyd]

I dont know about customers (sure they do). From my own experience i can say Slingshot really hears its riderss.

Me,

Would you mind sharing what that experience was...

M

[Kirk123]

I've had a very positive experience with Windwing.

[schmoe]

We learned that it only makes sense to release a product when it is really finished.

Amen.

I think a lot of companies are listening, they are just not so public about it. Get a lot of the feedback through channels that are not transparent like the WWW.