Site/Company feedback Requested

[DragonByte Technologies]

As part of our ongoing effort to make DBTech as user friendly as possible, I would like to invite you all to leave your feedback, which i will try to respond to.

Things like:

Is there anything we could do to get you to purchase more from us.
Is there anything that puts you off buying from us.
How easy is it for you to find the information you want.
How easy is it for you to buy the products you want.
How clear are the prices
How clear are the discounts available
What do you think of our prices
What do you think of our discount structure
Do we do a good job of keeping you guys up to date
Do we send too many or too few update emails (at the moment we send 1 per week)
Are we making products that you want to purchase.
Is there anything we do particularly well or badly?

Feel free to answer any of these questions or tell us anything else at all you think we would like to know.

A big thanks to everyone who answers. By giving us feedback you will help us to grow, and make DBTech as ideal as possible for you, as well as allowing us to grow and keep making and updating great products.

Thanks,
Dragonbyte Tech Team

 

[Trekkan]

I gotta goto a meeting at work right now, but... I have some suggestions/input. I know... you're just DYING to hear them from me...

 

[Trekkan]

I'm going to highlight things I personally see, all negative or otherwise IMO in need of work. This is because this is a suggestions thread asking for input. I just wanted to say that so no one reading this thinks this is meant to be a negative post, it's not. =)

How easy is it for you to find the information you want.
This isn't really difficult, but is a bit hard to find. Mostly because if I'm looking for product info, I'm not expecting to click a "purchase" link first. I expect to see a "Products" link, from which I can choose a product to view, then if I'm interested in cost/purchasing, a link on that products page to buy the item.

I think that the initial view on the current "purchase" page, has way too much info/images are too large. Once you start scrolling you quickly become lost in a sea of images. They are good images, but should be probably about 3x2 inches max with the text that is currently on them, to the right of the image. Right now, I feel the images dominate what I'm thinking about when I view that page, not your actual products/features. Once you click the "More information" link, I think that page is pretty good and otherwise doesn't need too much changing. Although I would probably throw in a little color and font increase in the headings

How clear are the prices
I'd put spaces between the slashes on the prices to clean up the reading of it a little more (if you leave them on the images). Also, it should be more clear as to what each of these prices means.

Shopping Cart
When clicking the "add to cart" button on the page, there's no indication that your item was added to the cart. Since the cart itself is scrolled off of just about any screen in relation to where the "add to cart" button is, it's easy to click it more than once, assuming it didn't go through, then you have to remove the item from the cart.

How clear are the discounts available
They are clear, AFTER you meet the criteria for them, not before.

What do you think of our prices
Prices are mostly good, sometimes I think they are a bit on the high side however. BUT... I've been here since the start and I know your support is what makes the difference, although newer customers might not understand that at the beginning.

What do you think of our discount structure
Discounts are good, no complaints there and I really like the loyalty program. =)

Do we do a good job of keeping you guys up to date
You do a good job here, but as I've subscribed to your announcements forum, I get an email everytime someone replies to your posts. So... sometimes I miss things now when I assume it's just a reply from someone and not something I subscribed to the forum for, hearing what DBT has to say. I'd like to see this forum locked for replies or something.... I dunno the best solution, but... something different than it is now.

Do we send too many or too few update emails (at the moment we send 1 per week)
I'm good with the 1 per week, but don't expect it either. If you have nothing to really update us with, don't send it out (not that you have).

Are we making products that you want to purchase.
Yes, but I still want a guild management mod written.

Is there anything we do particularly well or badly?
Customer support is key to me, you do that very well and it's one of the primary reasons I'm a DBT customer and will continue to be one. Besides that, the quality of the products is really good as well.

One of the things that I have to admit has concerned me (of late) is that with all of the products coming out, the release cycles for things. Well, let me better explain. I think your release cycles are fine. But when you release a new product, I think it should be on full dev for 30-60 days after it's gold release. The reason for this is, if you look a products like vbShout and vbActivity, they are VERY feature rich and robust mods. But if you look at newer mods like vbShop, it's clear to see that it's suffered from other new releases taking priority over it. In the past, the customer suggestions have fueled the development the day of release. While I understand not all features can get added right out the gate, that there are many features that your customers feel are "core" features for things (user PMs on gift, purchase history, ability to remove a gift someone buys you, etc). I think most of these things could of been added within 2 weeks of time. Obviously I don't know everything and what's going on, these are an outsiders point of view. That being said, most people are on the outside and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Ultimately, you guys kick ass, I'm proud to be a DBT customer and I hope this reply is what you were looking for. =)

 

[Cosmic]

How easy is it for you to find the information you want.
This isn't really difficult, but is a bit hard to find. Mostly because if I'm looking for product info, I'm not expecting to click a "purchase" link first. I expect to see a "Products" link, from which I can choose a product to view, then if I'm interested in cost/purchasing, a link on that products page to buy the item.

I think that the initial view on the current "purchase" page, has way too much info/images are too large. Once you start scrolling you quickly become lost in a sea of images. They are good images, but should be probably about 3x2 inches max with the text that is currently on them, to the right of the image. Right now, I feel the images dominate what I'm thinking about when I view that page, not your actual products/features. Once you click the "More information" link, I think that page is pretty good and otherwise doesn't need too much changing. Although I would probably throw in a little color and font increase in the headings

Sounds good. Will look at ways to present the information in a more clear/concise fashion and make it more obvious where to find it.

How clear are the prices
I'd put spaces between the slashes on the prices to clean up the reading of it a little more (if you leave them on the images). Also, it should be more clear as to what each of these prices means.

As above =)

Shopping Cart
When clicking the "add to cart" button on the page, there's no indication that your item was added to the cart. Since the cart itself is scrolled off of just about any screen in relation to where the "add to cart" button is, it's easy to click it more than once, assuming it didn't go through, then you have to remove the item from the cart.

Will look at getting some confirmation

How clear are the discounts available
They are clear, AFTER you meet the criteria for them, not before.

Will look at more prominently displaying them to everyone

What do you think of our prices
Prices are mostly good, sometimes I think they are a bit on the high side however. BUT... I've been here since the start and I know your support is what makes the difference, although newer customers might not understand that at the beginning.

Will look at ways to make it clearer to new customers what they get for their money =)



What do you think of our discount structure
Discounts are good, no complaints there and I really like the loyalty program. =)

Good to hear ^.^

Do we do a good job of keeping you guys up to date
You do a good job here, but as I've subscribed to your announcements forum, I get an email everytime someone replies to your posts. So... sometimes I miss things now when I assume it's just a reply from someone and not something I subscribed to the forum for, hearing what DBT has to say. I'd like to see this forum locked for replies or something.... I dunno the best solution, but... something different than it is now.

Will look at making a forum/place for commenting on news posts so the notification stays clear of that kinda thing.

Do we send too many or too few update emails (at the moment we send 1 per week)
I'm good with the 1 per week, but don't expect it either. If you have nothing to really update us with, don't send it out (not that you have).

Usually the problem is the opposite - we have cool stuff to say on monday xD. Good that 1 a week is working for you.

Are we making products that you want to purchase.
Yes, but I still want a guild management mod written.

xD

Is there anything we do particularly well or badly?
Customer support is key to me, you do that very well and it's one of the primary reasons I'm a DBT customer and will continue to be one. Besides that, the quality of the products is really good as well.

One of the things that I have to admit has concerned me (of late) is that with all of the products coming out, the release cycles for things. Well, let me better explain. I think your release cycles are fine. But when you release a new product, I think it should be on full dev for 30-60 days after it's gold release. The reason for this is, if you look a products like vbShout and vbActivity, they are VERY feature rich and robust mods. But if you look at newer mods like vbShop, it's clear to see that it's suffered from other new releases taking priority over it. In the past, the customer suggestions have fueled the development the day of release. While I understand not all features can get added right out the gate, that there are many features that your customers feel are "core" features for things (user PMs on gift, purchase history, ability to remove a gift someone buys you, etc). I think most of these things could of been added within 2 weeks of time. Obviously I don't know everything and what's going on, these are an outsiders point of view. That being said, most people are on the outside and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Usually I try to give each product 7-10 days after release for updates, then another week of updates within a month (after feedback has been gathered etc). vBShop was a bit of an anomaly because it was squeezed in at the request of you guys to fill a gap in demand. Usually we're better at that sort of thing (and it's one of the reasons I try to keep a schedule) but vBShop was pushed into a space that didn't really exist xD. Will definetely be aiming to ensure products get at least 2 weeks of attention within 6 weeks of being released though. (To put it in perspective, vBShop had 4 days) A 30-60 day period would be unsustainable, and after about 2 weeks the updates would be minor ones. Obviously the 2 weeks will be 2 weeks of *DEV* Time, not neccesarily chronological time.

Ultimately, you guys kick ass, I'm proud to be a DBT customer and I hope this reply is what you were looking for. =)

Cheers =D

 

[Mokonzi]

I've mentioned a number of things in the past to you via PM here and at vb.org. One question I'd like to comment on here is:

Is there anything we do particularly well or badly?

I think you do great in spotting needs and demand, and then developing them actively into (to copy a phrase Trekkan used) feature rich products.

I love the way that the mods integrate, and that they are very controllable in the end product. For example, a number I'm using allow you some degree of choice in whether they are integrated into certain menus are not.

My two main concerns are as follows though.

(1) You aren't overly keen on developing integration into other products. I don't mean things like import scripts, etc, but into compatability particularly. A number of things might not work, but the common answer tends to be along these lines (shortened with some poetic license ), "That's not us, it's the other mod, and don't want to fix it". I know of a number of other developers who are paid, and some who aren't, who go to great lengths to fix compatability issues. At the end of the day, it's not viable to actually produce comparable mods yourselves of everything, so integration with other features, or at least compatability so they don't break each other, is key to not only customer satisfaction, but also increasing end sales.

(2) Bug fixing/Show stoppers. While there may be a need to keep on actively developing mods so as to continue to fund the company and it's future, and by extension keep the existing ones going, I think the balance is a bit off center. I know of a number of fixes that have taken a back seat while I've been here that prevent me or other users being able to use them fully, or even at all. Especially is this the case in Lite versions. This isn't sound financially. I spend several weeks perusing the site and your mods before I registered here, and a bit of time after that getting familiar with the layout of it and the mods before I posted. How many others do similar, but never buy or become active because they see bugs left unfixed to allow for new development, or show stopper issues being left unresolved (By show stopper I don't mean bugs, but either a key feature missing, or an integration/compatability issue). Customers and users need to gain a trust that not only is DBTech here and actively developing and suppporting, but will also be here tomorrow doing the same.

I'll give you a hypothetical situation. I've bought a product. Let's say Triple Triad. For some reason it doesn't work with a major long term mod I've had on my site, one that has been part of my site for a year or two. Having bought it, I expect that such bugs be fixed. But it doesn't to allow for the development of another product, one which I may not need, or want. Even though there might be a Lite version of it, it holds no interest to me, or doesn't currently. The bug not being fixed is going to make me look very carefully at the decision as to whether I include your new product/products into my site into the future.

In that setting, not fixing issues is false economy, because it will cost more in the future.

A suggestion might be to have the developers work on bug fixes over a couple of days in the week (or proportional to the active time they can spend on development), and then post a clear way of fixing them to the users, if viable, and if not, roll out the updates once every couple of weeks with a compilation of those fixes.

Such a clear cut procedure would give me, and others, a lot more confidence in DBTech, to add to the already existing confidence we have.

I want to put this in a clear setting: I love DBTech products, I just want to see DBTech go the distance.

 

[Cosmic]

In reference to number 1) the only time we won't fix a compatability issue is when we can't. Using the example which has come up a few times of the YAAS system. The flaw is that they have coded their mod in such a way that it stops our mod being able to use certain resources. There is absolutely nothing we can do with our mod to fix that. In that case (and in others) we provided the code people need to edit into the YAAS mod to fix the error.

Compatability isn't always just a case of making a small fix - a lot of vb mods are horribly coded, and they flat out break other mods because the coders don't understand the correct way to do things - working around that just isn't possible. Where compatability is a matter of a small fix or change, we absolutely do it. Where its a case of the other mod breaking things, we can't.

re: Integration - we aim to integrate our mods with all other applicable mods, however in terms of the development process it goes like this:

1)Fix any bugs 2)add requested features 3)add integration with DBT products 4)add integration with 3rd party products.

as a result it sometimes takes a while for it to be done.


Regarding your second point about bugs:

First i will quote our policy on them from the T&C:

Support Response Times
This details what our aims are in terms of response time. It is very rare that we would miss this, but it is possible in the case of complex bugs or unforseen circumstances:

Major Bugs/Security Risks: Fixed within 24 hours. A major bug would be one which affects the ability of your forum to function, or stops the product from functioning.

Medium Level Bugs: Fixed within 7 days. A medium level bug would be Individual features not performing as they should.

Low level issues: Fixed within 30 days. A low level issue would be something aesthetic (a line being a few pixels out) or a feature having a small flaw in its operation (activity bars only count 99% instead of 100) or a non-integral feature not performing as it should (a backup feature having issues with certain server configurations)

We must reiterate that while paying customers get priority support you are not paying for support. Support will be offered for users of our free mods and Lite mods as well, but this is done as and when the agents have time. They do not follow the above response time guidelines.

In addition to this, many bugs simply *cannot* be fixed until we have access to somones board - as we are unable to replicate them, which causes issues. Lite products are done on a "when possible" basis. Our coders have limited time, and priority over that time goes to our paying customers for obvious reasons.

As far as features go: everyones definition of a key feature is different, and the truth is that if we stopped to add everything someone requested, we'd have about 2 mods out =P. Scheduling is a neccesary evil - without it, nothing gets done. Sometimes it means that a persons favourite mod, or requested feature, doesn't make it in to the current version - while i'd love to be able to drop everything to make sure everyones requests got added, it's just not physically possible to do.

As far as the balance goes, at the moment our aims for development cycles go like this:

1) When product is released, 1 block is taken to add new features. Within the next 6 weeks, another block is taken to add new features.
2) 3 times a year there will be a 6 week update block where core features are updated
3) As and when required blocks can be inserted once immediate schedule is complete to account for high-volume requests.

How long 1 block is depends on the coder. To give you an idea of the balance, Fillip H. will have released about 10 mods in 12 months by next spring. thats 52 weeks. 36 of those weeks will have been updating. Thats considerably more than half. Personally I feel that this is a more than acceptable balance. The problem is that some people see their mod won't be updated for another 2 months or so and take it to assume it's because we don't care, or we're busy trying to make new stuff etc - It's not. It's just that, as before, schedules are a neccesary evil.

Bear in mind as well that not all products are done by the same coder - and only the original coder will be updating them. Coders work at different rates.

Hope that clears up why things are the way they are, and why it wouldn't be possible for us to change them really.


TL;DR version:
1) We can't fix other mods when they are breaking things due to bad coding.
2)we already spend about 2 thirds of the year doing updates. It's not possible for us to do more and still stay in business.

Cosmic

 

[Mokonzi]

I appreciate you taking the time to explain your procedure, it's good to see you've got a set plan for your developments system, and I like the fact that only the original coder deals with coding. I guess there is no other way to get around the challenges of not only coding fixes, but also actively developing.

Thanks again for getting back to the post.

 

[Cosmic]

I appreciate you taking the time to explain your procedure, it's good to see you've got a set plan for your developments system, and I like the fact that only the original coder deals with coding. I guess there is no other way to get around the challenges of not only coding fixes, but also actively developing.

Thanks again for getting back to the post.

Not a problem at all, thanks for the feedback =)

I understand how people who don't see the inner workings can see/feel certain ways, and i've got no problem explaining our procedures ^.^

Cosmic

 

[Deceptor]

Just to note I'm reading through the suggestions and making improvements to those outlined directly about our site, one them is the header which I'll be resolving very soon. For now you can see a change in the purchase cart which will follow you on the page now: http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/vbecommerce.php?do=purchase

 

[Edrondol]

Other than the OMFGPOSTBIT!!!!!! I have no issues with anything on your site.

 

[Deceptor]

Well the postbit is showing off all our product features unfortunately The header has slightly been compacted, we've grouped purchase/members area/testimonials/lite downloads into one menu called Products, clicking that will open a menu to the 4 aforementioned areas.

 

[Trekkan]

I really like the consolidation on the navbar, nice choices on the wording, etc. I'd suggest putting a down arrow icon thing next to it so people know it's a menu though.

The cart slider thing is pretty nice too, always good to have it on the same screen. Well done on the changes!!