We're well aware that our customer care has made errors in several cases over the past months, with some of these stories appearing on Reddit, Discord and YouTube. Obviously, this is not the way we want users to experience our headsets. We believe we make the world's most advanced VR headsets, and we want to provide great service with those headsets.
That said, there isn't one single reason for these errors that have plagued our customer care, and so neither is there a single solution. Customer care is complex, dealing with customers with different use cases and setups, in different regions, on different setups, who all run into different issues and questions. Some of these are also related to their system, as PC gaming has dozens of variables, from CPUs to GPUs to drivers and operating systems.
At the same time, customer care is perhaps not that complicated. Answer the question asked by the customer and not something else. Quickly apply for a replacement, and make sure the replacement works. Make sure replacements are available. Proactively communicate when a shipment cannot be made in time (for whatever reason). Give clear time estimates. And so on.
A lot of these things did not happen. Internal processes were too slow, replacement headsets were not always available, there were no time estimates, no expectation management, and in many cases customers just weren't helped well.
At Pimax, we're a team, and the company made mistakes on several levels. So in the last month, as well as going forward, we're working hard to focus on five key areas.
1. Getting rid of our backlog of open tickets
Currently, our customer care is burdened by a lot of open tickets, and we have to balance solving open tickets as well as starting to address new tickets. This is an issue, and it affects our current response time for new tickets.
For this, we've already moved more people from several departments into customer care. These ten people are all long-term Pimax employees, experienced with our headsets and software, and with a short training on how to use our customer care software, are up to speed to answer more tickets.
But to get rid of our backlog, we are actually hoping for your help. We'll be recruiting several users to join our team over the Christmas holiday (and perhaps beyond) to help us get rid of these open tickets.
2. Optimizing processes
Customer care problems can be sorted into logistics, pre-sales, after-sales and technical support (hardware and software). Currently, every customer care employee does all of these things, handling ticket by ticket. This isn't optimal, so we're also assigning specialists for each area.
Meanwhile, we're also changing the way replacement headsets or shipments are applied internally, with a simplified system and faster approval rate — at the end of each day rather than case by case. This increases speed, meaning we can handle more tickets each day.
3. Improving staff training
We've taken a good look at how cases were handled and we can divide problems into two categories. One is how replacements and shipments are handled, the other how these are communicated.
Let's first talk about the last part. We should always be:
- Clear and specific. Add a time estimate for shipments and replacements, rather than "We will ship X".
- Any delay needs to be pro-actively mentioned.
The other part is how we solve things. Not all these protocols have changed, but to share it here:
Return window
- If a problem is reported within the 14 days, then Pimax will extend the try out time (and thus the ability for the user to return the headset) until the issue is solved and the user can properly test out the headset, and see if she or he likes it.
- If a new part needs to be shipped (e.g. New lenses), then the return window is reset to when the new parts have arrived.
- After 14 days, no refund is possible, unless made at Pimax's discretion. Any technical issues that fall inside the warranty are solved with a replacement headset.
Warranty
- Technical issues, if through no fault of the user:
- Pimax takes on the cost of shipping and issues a replacement.
- If a replacement headset isn't readily available, we'll provide a spare unit (Crystal or Crystal Light) for the meantime.
- We will get more headsets in stock allocated for quick swaps & repairs.
- Replacement may be a new, refurbished, or remanufactured Product.
- For repaired or replaced products and accessories, a 90-day warranty is provided (calculated from the time the user receives the repaired or replaced product. If the remaining time of the original warranty period exceeds 90 days, it will be calculated according to the original warranty period).
- If a technical issue is mentioned to Pimax within the warranty period, but because of debugging and trying to troubleshoot, it is dragged out of the warranty, then it will still be covered under warranty. (In other words, the warranty is frozen.)
- That said, the user needs to be helpful in trying to troubleshoot and find a solution before a replacement is made.
- The standard warranty for Pimax products is one year, unless local laws state otherwise. In this case, local law will apply.
- We will soon offer Extended Warranty for other regions.
Escalate
- Each email has an escalate option at the bottom. If users choose to escalate an issue, then supervisors will read these cases. More people are reading the escalated emails now (including Calvin Yau). We also summarize all escalated cases on a daily basis to analyze what should be improved.
Logistics
- If Pimax cannot achieve the promised shipping date, it will proactively communicate with the user.
4. Re-opening our US and EU hotline
The US hotline is open as of now, and answering calls and text messages between 09:00 AM to 17:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The number is 408 461 1259.
Our European hotline is opening soon as well.
5. More analysis
There's no way we can solve all issues at once, or make sure no problems occur in the future. Improving our customer care is a slow and tedious process, and multi-facetted. But we need to learn from past mistakes as well as any mistakes going forward (because there will still be come mistakes).
So we're having several meetings now:
- A daily morning meeting to analyze escalated cases. The full customer care department joins this and discusses what should have been done differently, and/or how to prevent this in the future.
- A daily evening meeting to handle cases where our customer care staff isn't sure how to proceed. Then either the department manager or collectively, the case can be discussed and settled.
We also have more customer care supervisors, including Robin Weng (founder of Pimax), Calvin Yau (Product Experience Manager) and myself. If there are still cases that are handled wrong and dragged on a long time, you can hold us personally responsible.
Moving forward
We understand the frustrations some of you have experienced. We're working hard behind the scenes to improve our service, but the results of this may not be obvious right away.
But people (and companies) do change. In the past, Pimax was critiqued for poor and unstable software, as well as unclear communication. We have increased the size of our software team, and so also the stability of Pimax Play — and we've also have done bi-weekly and monthly updates for over half a year now. Change is possible.
Of course, seeing is believing. We'll be sharing updates about our customer care every month, and we'll also be inviting people from the community and industry to have an inside look and open discussion about our progress and status.
