Paizo's focus: Product or Customer Service?


Paizo General Discussion

Silver Crusade

If Jason ever shows up on this thread to tell us the company's focus, what do you the fans say that Paizo is focused on? Product, Process, Customer Service, or Marketing? I think there is a fifth factor.
:)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

fifth factor: All of the above?


I have yet to be disappointed in any product, or customer service.. as far as marketing goes, my bank balance seems to think that they are doing just fine in that area too.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

So Product/Process/Customer Service are all product, and honestly the marketing feels thin or absent because the product speaks for itself. Or the marketing is really really clever.

Still if you force me to use yours, I would say Product, Customer Service, Process, Marketing in that order.

The product, from content, design, consistency, and creativity is just second to none in the industry right now. Every product is good, most products are great. Without a great product the rest just doesn't matter.

The customer service, is phenomenal, that includes any time I've interacted with actual customerservice@paizo.com (via the forums, email or phone.) Or their direct involvement with customers in the form of cons, blog, play tests, or just chatting with us here in the forms. I love the threads going on right now in most of the AP forums where the Devs jump in and chat about where certain things were going, what inspired them, or even calling out exemplary fan suggestions. I think CC has one awesome thread about the main villain that is like that.

All of this shows me that the Paizo folk 1) love their jobs 2) love their product 3) love their community. The company culture makes their customer satisfaction a priority, but lets face it, its a gaming company made of gamers, they are as much customers as employees, so it is easy to engage and be passionate.

Process, this seems like a small island of activity between the Product and the Customer service that is so blurry as to be shrouded in eerie mists, and possible filled with monsters. So I can't really comment.

As for Marketing, I'm not naive enough to really not see the marketing, but what is the marketing, aside from the page at the back of many products that highlights what is coming. It really comes in two forms, overt and subtle. Things like the store blog, the weekly emails and the occasional sale are overt, they highlight products with clever marketing copy. While they do glom onto the thrilling hyperbole of good marketing copy, they never oversell or lie, but it also isn't something that seems the focus of attention. It spot lights the product, but it is the product in the spot light.

The more covert marketing I described above, the main blog, and the play tests. These are forms of marketing, they get us engaged into products through previews and user feedback. (maybe this is the process I couldn't articulate above.) GenCon, Paizo Con, and even to an extent PFS are all marketing, they are all channels through which they build customer enthusiasm and groundswell for the product. Yet they don't come off as marketing, because they all give us value while looting our wallets :)

So there you go gushing analysis, paizo is awesome...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Paizo is a small company... but it's also one of the largest in the tabletop RPG Industry.

We're big enough to have multiple foci, just as we have multiple floors in our building. :P

Paizo Employee Senior Software Developer

6 people marked this as a favorite.

I thought "downstairs" was a fairy tale told to scare minions. It's a real place?!


Now I am wondering if paizo has any material components?


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Gary Teter wrote:
I thought "downstairs" was a fairy tale told to scare minions. It's a real place?!

>| LOOK

You have just entered the Warehouse. It is very cold from the winter weather outside and lack of power.
It is also pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a Sutter.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
SLAaDOS wrote:
Gary Teter wrote:
I thought "downstairs" was a fairy tale told to scare minions. It's a real place?!

>| LOOK

You have just entered the Warehouse. It is very cold from the winter weather outside and lack of power.
It is also pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a Sutter.

Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese, a bean, a french fry, or a cracker with peanut butter... you are very UNLIKELY to be eaten by a Sutter. Of all the people in Paizo, Sutter's probably got the most eccentric and limiting food preferences.

Bulmahn, on the other hand, does like his meat rare...


At least nothing downstairs eats robots.

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chris Lambertz wrote:
At least nothing downstairs eats robots.

That's what Gary told you so that you would stay and make the Shiny PDFs. :P


All i know is getting a christmas card said alot to me about this company. Little things like that make a difference. The sense of community here is second to none and the customer service AND products are top notch.

Stay the course of awesome paizo.

Paizo Employee Director of Sales

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm sure that Bulmahn will agree with me when I say that Paizo's Customer Service FAR, FAR outweighs it's products in general awesomeness.

...and our products are exceedingly awesome.

I say this with absolutely no bias whatsoever.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Design

1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
Bulmahn, on the other hand, does like his meat rare...

Medium rare... actually. Charred but bloody.

Jason

Paizo Employee Director of Game Design

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Cosmo wrote:

I'm sure that Bulmahn will agree with me when I say that Paizo's Customer Service FAR, FAR outweighs it's products in general awesomeness.

...and our products are exceedingly awesome.

I say this with absolutely no bias whatsoever.

You.. bias? That seems.. well, actually totally plausible.

Jason


James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese

There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

There's no such thing as too much cheese. Else we wouldn't be playing 3.5/PF.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Drejk wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

Silver Crusade

thunderspirit wrote:
Drejk wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

you can't be Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake, right?

Dark Archive

JoeCargo wrote:

All i know is getting a christmas card said alot to me about this company. Little things like that make a difference. The sense of community here is second to none and the customer service AND products are top notch.

Stay the course of awesome paizo.

Second this strongly. It's those little things like the card or personal responses that make all the difference. Keep it up an the future is gold.

--michael

Silver Crusade

GM Elton wrote:
thunderspirit wrote:
Drejk wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

you can't be Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake, right?

Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake...check; Plus the pizza...check; Aaaannnnddd ice cream, pudding, cream cakes, cream cheese, even...worst of all...milk chocolate. Seriously, anyone realize how milk is in EVERYTHING? If it's not drowning in cheese, it's got milk mixed in with it.

What's really hard? When you didn't start out lactose intolerant, but your body developed it after years of absolutely adoring all that stuff. Torture....it truly is.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
zohaletha wrote:
GM Elton wrote:
thunderspirit wrote:
Drejk wrote:
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

you can't be Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake, right?

Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake...check; Plus the pizza...check; Aaaannnnddd ice cream, pudding, cream cakes, cream cheese, even...worst of all...milk chocolate. Seriously, anyone realize how milk is in EVERYTHING? If it's not drowning in cheese, it's got milk mixed in with it.

What's really hard? When you didn't start out lactose intolerant, but your body developed it after years of absolutely adoring all that stuff. Torture....it truly is.

QFT.

I didn't develop it until late in my teens, when I was already a cottage cheese fan (basically chunks of pure milk sugar). And just try being a teenager who can't have pizza...

Silver Crusade

zohaletha wrote:
GM Elton wrote:
thunderspirit wrote:
Drejk wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

you can't be Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake, right?

Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake...check; Plus the pizza...check; Aaaannnnddd ice cream, pudding, cream cakes, cream cheese, even...worst of all...milk chocolate. Seriously, anyone realize how milk is in EVERYTHING? If it's not drowning in cheese, it's got milk mixed in with it.

What's really hard? When you didn't start out lactose intolerant, but your body developed it after years of absolutely adoring all that stuff. Torture....it truly is.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. You can't be lactose intolerant to CHEESECAKE, right?

Silver Crusade

GM Elton wrote:
zohaletha wrote:
GM Elton wrote:
thunderspirit wrote:
Drejk wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Unless you're a cheese pizza without too much cheese
There is no such thing as too much cheese on pizza.

There is when you're lactose-intolerant.

Sincerely, Lactose Intolerant.

you can't be Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake, right?

Lactose Intolerant to cheesecake...check; Plus the pizza...check; Aaaannnnddd ice cream, pudding, cream cakes, cream cheese, even...worst of all...milk chocolate. Seriously, anyone realize how milk is in EVERYTHING? If it's not drowning in cheese, it's got milk mixed in with it.

What's really hard? When you didn't start out lactose intolerant, but your body developed it after years of absolutely adoring all that stuff. Torture....it truly is.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. You can't be lactose intolerant to CHEESECAKE, right?

Ahhh, sorry. Missed the reference. Weelll, I still find Red Sonja difficult to digest. ^_~

Community / Forums / Paizo / General Discussion / Paizo's focus: Product or Customer Service? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.