SDC Handmade Blades

[SDC]

Having been through this, I wouldn't see how. The communication in question is the essence of what makes these blades special: the detailed discussion of the needs and ideas of the customer asking for a blade versus the deep knowledge and vast experience of a master blade builder himself.

It's not a "simple" matter of logistics, handling transactions and shipping.

This.

I created a problem for myself when I started this business. I developed a set of skills during this time, and they are not easy to find. It's a combination of my education background, along with my ever existing will to make things for myself. I didn't have this knowledge 3 years ago, and what I know now is not easily passed on. Getting help is still out of the question for now, but even if I could, there are just things I must do on my own. Communication is one of them.

 

[K.K]

if you already decided to have the priority line, then i would say suck out the rich and make the priority price really high so that the waiting line there will always be low and by that you can afford someone helping you with basic steps of production to produce more blade for the normal line. so then to more wealthy ones kinda pay for the normal people too. but if you have priority line and are not able to produce more batches by having more money to invest in better tools or another person, then i don't see the sense in it other then have a different organisation for you that feels maybe a bit unfair to some people on the way

*but all that said in total validation of your work! this is amazing for the scene of table tennis enthusiasts

 

[latej]

As you write, the motivation is not to maximize the monetization, but rather to solve the issue with the "expected time of delivery", essentially replace the "expected time", which is not working properly, with number in the line, which customers then can see and check, and calculate rough approximation of the "expected time" at the current moment. That I think is a good idea, it should solve the issue.

At the same time, in order to do this, you had to disclose that there in fact already is some form of prioritization. And that I think is a good think too, it's transparency.

Also, as you wrote, you intend to allocate 1 slot per batch (say 5) for prioritization, meaning basically that you limit or control the monetization, so that it doesn't grow out of proportion - it's like you give only 1/5 of the time which can be extra monetized and not more. You could have said, I give 5/5 for extra monetization, but you don't want to do and that is nice - the intention is not to maximize monetization.

So I agree with the intentions, but I'm not sure the technical solution with 2 lines will work properly. It think it will work properly if there is 1 line. If you have 2 lines, which do not correlate, it can happen that people will put the blade to the priority lines, and it may grow so much, that they will end up waiting longer than the normal line ;-). Similarly, if the 2 lines should work so that you put each blade on the "usual" line, and some subset of those will also be on the "priority" line, it can still happen, that there will be so many blades on priority line, that the blade actually will be not made in the priority slot... But perhaps I just didn't understand everything correctly... If not, then there needs to be only 1 line, which is based on both "time of order" and "extra money"... How to correlate time and money, hmm, I didn't think this through yet... Maybe you could say, 1 euro (some amount) per day, where the "time of order" is shifted to the past 1 day, as if it were ordered 1 day sooner ;-)... But here the "control" of the monetization (the 1/5 ratio) is not solved... Anyway, I basically write this as I think - so if I didn't understand the 2 lines properly, this paragraph is to be ignored ;-)

 

[SDC]

if you already decided to have the priority line, then i would say suck out the rich and make the priority price really high so that the waiting line there will always be low and by that you can afford someone helping you with basic steps of production to produce more blade for the normal line. so then to more wealthy ones kinda pay for the normal people too. but if you have priority line and are not able to produce more batches by having more money to invest in better tools or another person, then i don't see the sense in it other then have a different organisation for you that feels maybe a bit unfair to some people on the way

*but all that said in total validation of your work! this is amazing for the scene of table tennis enthusiasts

It's not like I want to "suck out the rich", but I understand what your saying and this is my line of thinking too. The price needs to be high enough to keep the line relatively short and justify the lower waiting time, but still fair to the product in question.

 

[SDC]

As you write, the motivation is not to maximize the monetization, but rather to solve the issue with the "expected time of delivery", essentially replace the "expected time", which is not working properly, with number in the line, which customers then can see and check, and calculate rough approximation of the "expected time" at the current moment. That I think is a good idea, it should solve the issue.

At the same time, in order to do this, you had to disclose that there in fact already is some form of prioritization. And that I think is a good think too, it's transparency.

Also, as you wrote, you intend to allocate 1 slot per batch (say 5) for prioritization, meaning basically that you limit or control the monetization, so that it doesn't grow out of proportion - it's like you give only 1/5 of the time which can be extra monetized and not more. You could have said, I give 5/5 for extra monetization, but you don't want to do and that is nice - the intention is not to maximize monetization.

So I agree with the intentions, but I'm not sure the technical solution with 2 lines will work properly. It think it will work properly if there is 1 line. If you have 2 lines, which do not correlate, it can happen that people will put the blade to the priority lines, and it may grow so much, that they will end up waiting longer than the normal line ;-). Similarly, if the 2 lines should work so that you put each blade on the "usual" line, and some subset of those will also be on the "priority" line, it can still happen, that there will be so many blades on priority line, that the blade actually will be not made in the priority slot... But perhaps I just didn't understand everything correctly... If not, then there needs to be only 1 line, which is based on both "time of order" and "extra money"... How to correlate time and money, hmm, I didn't think this through yet... Maybe you could say, 1 euro (some amount) per day, where the "time of order" is shifted to the past 1 day, as if it were ordered 1 day sooner ;-)... But here the "control" of the monetization (the 1/5 ratio) is not solved... Anyway, I basically write this as I think - so if I didn't understand the 2 lines properly, this paragraph is to be ignored ;-)

I think you understood correctly, but it will all depend on how much I charge for priority, then the priority line will handle itself.

Of course if I charge for example 10% more, then most customers will want priority, which makes it redundant. It's basically the same as raising my prices 10%.

If I charge 90% more then probably no one will want it, so why having it in the first place?

I think it needs to be something between 40-50%, not everyone will want it, and if it gets to the point where the line starts getting too big, then some customers will just choose the regular option because there is no extra benefit with this one.

 

[latej]

I think you understood correctly, but it will all depend on how much I charge for priority, then the priority line will handle itself.

Of course if I charge for example 10% more, then most customers will want priority, which makes it redundant. It's basically the same as raising my prices 10%.

If I charge 90% more then probably no one will want it, so why having it in the first place?

I think it needs to be something between 40-50%, not everyone will want it, and if it gets to the point where the line starts getting too big, then some customers will just choose the regular option because there is no extra benefit with this one.

Yes, maybe it will work, but it's hard to predict...

As I wrote, I actually think you should let us compete for your time with money, up to some limit, let's say up to 100% of the average price. Let's say the average is 100 Euro, then we can compete up to 100 Euro, buying time essentially. Yes, wealthier people have the advantage, but only up to that limit (100% of average, say 100 Euro). And it can also happen all will use it - which just means all your blade are now 100 Euro more expensive, but it still will be just - it is the reality of demand...

I'm so glad now my blade happened to be made in the unexpected opening slot ;-)

Edit: I meant like that - having 1 line, based on the "time of order", where I can boost (buy days of time of order, as if I ordered earlier), up to some limit. The line would adjust, I may boost by 50 EUR (buying some days), and skip some people. If those then boost, they may skip me back again... Up to that limit...

 

[Lazer]

You want to update Your customers right?

OK,, here is how I would do it.

- Assign everybody a number in consecutive order (already done as I understand)
- Put each customer on a mailing list.
- Each time a blade is ready to be sent mail to the list that number xxx is ready
- Remove the customer from the mailing list.

Now everyone customer can see the progress for them self’s. If they don’t like when the progress isn’t smooth don’t care about it. It is what it is…

- Assign a specific amount of time for replying to emails each day/other day or week and stick to it religiously.

- Create a special mail que for new orders, deal with them first
- Create another mail que for ongoing orders, deal with them second.
- Open a limited o mount of discussions simultaneously and finish one before starting another

- Answer emails by que and in the order they come in with a possibility to stay in a conversation with priority. This is so that discussion subrects does not end up at the end.

- Make sure that your customers understand.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Gerd]

Hey Sergio,

Working in organizational management I'd suggest to keep things as easy as possible. That said, I appreciate your openess and I believe the priority service can work out excellently.
If I were you, I'd keep one commission line and reserve every 1/x commissions for priority service.
Imagine it like this:
"Dear customer, here is ticket #238 (estimated waiting time 50 weeks) for you. Alternatively, you can reserve ticket #40 (estimated waiting time 8 weeks) for a premium of xx EUR.

You can play with the number of priority slots and with the premium, too, over time.

 

[SDC]

Yes, maybe it will work, but it's hard to predict...

As I wrote, I actually think you should let us compete for your time with money, up to some limit, let's say up to 100% of the average price. Let's say the average is 100 Euro, then we can compete up to 100 Euro, buying time essentially. Yes, wealthier people have the advantage, but only up to that limit (100% of average, say 100 Euro). And it can also happen all will use it - which just means all your blade are now 100 Euro more expensive, but it still will be just - it is the reality of demand...

I'm so glad now my blade happened to be made in the unexpected opening slot ;-)

Edit: I meant like that - having 1 line, based on the "time of order", where I can boost (buy days of time of order, as if I ordered earlier), up to some limit. The line would adjust, I may boost by 50 EUR (buying some days), and skip some people. If those then boost, they may skip me back again... Up to that limit...

Ok, it was I who misunderstood you the first time, but now I get it. It does sound the most efficient way in terms of monetization, but it's harder to implement and I would have to stay on top of things....

You want to update Your customers right?

OK,, here is how I would do it.

- Assign everybody a number in consecutive order (already done as I understand)
- Put each customer on a mailing list.
- Each time a blade is ready to be sent mail to the list that number xxx is ready
- Remove the customer from the mailing list.

Now everyone customer can see the progress for them self’s. If they don’t like when the progress isn’t smooth don’t care about it. It is what it is…

- Assign a specific amount of time for replying to emails each day/other day or week and stick to it religiously.

- Create a special mail que for new orders, deal with them first
- Create another mail que for ongoing orders, deal with them second.
- Open a limited o mount of discussions simultaneously and finish one before starting another

- Answer emails by que and in the order they come in with a possibility to stay in a conversation with priority. This is so that discussion subrects does not end up at the end.

- Make sure that your customers understand.

Cheers
L-zr

I always keep an open line of communication with customers whose orders I'm working on, I need to in case I have doubts, or just to keep them updated, that is not an issue. The problem is discussing ideas with all the others, many customers have a clear idea of what they want, but most times I have to give suggestions, explanations, try to understand their requests, etc... That's what takes a lot of time but there is nothing I can do about that, it's a part of the process. Then the customers who which to know when their turn is up, which is totally fair of course, but I need to constantly apologize for the delay. That's the part I'm trying to solve, which I think can be done with the number system. The rest of your suggestions are pretty good and I already do most of them.

 

[SDC]

Hey Sergio,

Working in organizational management I'd suggest to keep things as easy as possible. That said, I appreciate your openess and I believe the priority service can work out excellently.
If I were you, I'd keep one commission line and reserve every 1/x commissions for priority service.
Imagine it like this:
"Dear customer, here is ticket #238 (estimated waiting time 50 weeks) for you. Alternatively, you can reserve ticket #40 (estimated waiting time 8 weeks) for a premium of xx EUR.

You can play with the number of priority slots and with the premium, too, over time.

Yes, this sounds very good, simple and straight to the point 🙂.

 

[Haraold]

is it only the money or do you think about "priority" as you want to build "new" compositions for yourself and the needs of "special" customers" who want unuasual compositions or brainstorming ideas?
Sometimes you have those like me,who can´t prioritize the budget right and have to say no,even if i was given a Appointment from you (Sry I know Iam not that easy of a custommer,especially when you think about a "deal done".
I readily admit I am one of thosepeople,who honestly have not really a clue about compositions but want to try out new Stuff.
Sry in that regard Sergio,but i have only good things to say about your communication,altough i knew you had some tough circumstances in the last Year or so.
I hope you doing better,as i know Tough times and a baggage who all of us carry,but sometimes you have to take our time for yourself and have to prioritising your Self instead of beeing "readily and steadily available" but i get that you want transparency in your process.
Greetz from Germany,and hope you find a System that works for everybody and you get the outcome you want and deserve.

 

[Tyce]

One piece of unsolicited advice: you can't please everyone.
You gotta please a) yourself by making the system easy to work with and b) the customers you want to spend your effort on most.

For example, if you don't want to do extremely complicated handles (or just not under time pressure), then don't. Set your boundaries, and you'll be able to keep doing this, smiling, for years to come.

As far as pricing goes, 50% premium sounds reasonable. Up to the point where I'd personally say 100% would be fair to ask, too. If you want to get mathematical, and you reserve 1/5th of capacity for priority, you pay 4/5th extra.
But yeah. You can get 100 suggestions on this, in the end it's about you and the orders you want to make

 

[Manto76]

I think 50%-75% premium for priority ticketing sounds reasonable.

Also, I wonder if a meaningful percentage of your orders are essentially "the same" blade, just with personalised handle designs? In other words, if, say, 1/5 blades is basically a Viscaria, and another 1/5 is basically an Innerforce / W968, then it might help you to make it known that your production line works as follows:

Assume 5 blades per week:

1 Viscaria
1 Innerforce/Long 5/W968
2 Custom orders
1 "Premium/Priority" or another Custom if no Priority order applies

I imagine that could help you achieve greater efficiency on the Viscaria and Innerforce output, thus freeing up some time for the others.

Not sure if any of that is helpful?

Certainly on the pricing question, 50% (or higher) premium for priority ticketing wouldn't put me off. After all, I'm never going to get a custom blade from Butterfly, Stiga, or any of the other big brands, no matter how much extra I'm willing to pay.

 

[Gerd]

I guess most of us turn to Sergio not only to get a high quality blade (which is in many cases readily available at DHS, Butterfly, Nittaku and many other places) but to get a customized version of it. That said, I suggest to keep your current building process (and communication around it) as is.

If a standard quality blade's price point is maybe around 150€, then a customized version could easily sell at 200€.

So, if you, Sergio, want to keep your base price around 100€, then your priority premium could be 50€-100€. If you were to reserve every second commission for prio service plus a rather high premium, the prio commission waiting time should hopefully turn out to be rather short - which is a must to legitimately call it priority service.

I am curious how things will develop and what waiting time will eventually be given to mine own order.😀

 

[SDC]

is it only the money or do you think about "priority" as you want to build "new" compositions for yourself and the needs of "special" customers" who want unuasual compositions or brainstorming ideas?
Sometimes you have those like me,who can´t prioritize the budget right and have to say no,even if i was given a Appointment from you (Sry I know Iam not that easy of a custommer,especially when you think about a "deal done".
I readily admit I am one of thosepeople,who honestly have not really a clue about compositions but want to try out new Stuff.
Sry in that regard Sergio,but i have only good things to say about your communication,altough i knew you had some tough circumstances in the last Year or so.
I hope you doing better,as i know Tough times and a baggage who all of us carry,but sometimes you have to take our time for yourself and have to prioritising your Self instead of beeing "readily and steadily available" but i get that you want transparency in your process.
Greetz from Germany,and hope you find a System that works for everybody and you get the outcome you want and deserve.

It's not about the money or the compositions, I have enough ideas in my head already 😅. It's about giving the possibility to customers who have more financial resources, while making a little something more for me too. I'm only putting this out there because I know the interest exists. Thank you for the support, no problem on my end 🙂.

I think 50%-75% premium for priority ticketing sounds reasonable.

Also, I wonder if a meaningful percentage of your orders are essentially "the same" blade, just with personalised handle designs? In other words, if, say, 1/5 blades is basically a Viscaria, and another 1/5 is basically an Innerforce / W968, then it might help you to make it known that your production line works as follows:

Assume 5 blades per week:

1 Viscaria
1 Innerforce/Long 5/W968
2 Custom orders
1 "Premium/Priority" or another Custom if no Priority order applies

I imagine that could help you achieve greater efficiency on the Viscaria and Innerforce output, thus freeing up some time for the others.

Not sure if any of that is helpful?

Certainly on the pricing question, 50% (or higher) premium for priority ticketing wouldn't put me off. After all, I'm never going to get a custom blade from Butterfly, Stiga, or any of the other big brands, no matter how much extra I'm willing to pay.

The blades are only the same when a customer asks for two or more 😅. Here there are no corners I can cut, I need to start every composition from scratch because every build has its little nuances in terms weight, balance, feel, etc...

I guess most of us turn to Sergio not only to get a high quality blade (which is in many cases readily available at DHS, Butterfly, Nittaku and many other places) but to get a customized version of it. That said, I suggest to keep your current building process (and communication around it) as is.

If a standard quality blade's price point is maybe around 150€, then a customized version could easily sell at 200€.

So, if you, Sergio, want to keep your base price around 100€, then your priority premium could be 50€-100€. If you were to reserve every second commission for prio service plus a rather high premium, the prio commission waiting time should hopefully turn out to be rather short - which is a must to legitimately call it priority service.

I am curious how things will develop and what waiting time will eventually be given to mine own order.😀

Yes, I agree. I finally replied to your email btw.

 

[SDC]

One piece of unsolicited advice: you can't please everyone.
You gotta please a) yourself by making the system easy to work with and b) the customers you want to spend your effort on most.

For example, if you don't want to do extremely complicated handles (or just not under time pressure), then don't. Set your boundaries, and you'll be able to keep doing this, smiling, for years to come.

As far as pricing goes, 50% premium sounds reasonable. Up to the point where I'd personally say 100% would be fair to ask, too. If you want to get mathematical, and you reserve 1/5th of capacity for priority, you pay 4/5th extra.
But yeah. You can get 100 suggestions on this, in the end it's about you and the orders you want to make

You are right, and I only recently learnt this...

I do enjoy making complex handles, they are part of the appeal. I don't like to call myself an artist, it's not at all what I am, but sometimes I need inspiration, or at least to be "in the zone", to make certain handles. Many times I also need to draw them first and plan, that's also time consuming 😅.

Ok, there seems to be a consensus that at least 50% would be reasonable. I do like the mathematical approach, need to think about it a bit more and make a decision.

 

[SDC]

Thank you all for your contributions/suggestions.

The general consensus is that the number system will work and no one will be bothered by it. Every customer gets a notion of their position in the wait list by checking the progress weekly, and it saves me some time answering all the messages asking when they turn is gonna come.

As for the priority line, I have decided to start with a 60% premium, but this might take a couple of iterations to truly define the price. I will send this proposal to every customer waiting in line, and depending on the number of interested candidates I might need to adapt. If the line is still too big and it doesn't justify extra cost, then I will need to raise the fee. With one slot per batch, I would like to keep the priority waiting time to a maximum of 10 spots, which roughly translates to 10 weeks. I think this is still a nice time/price ratio, while not interfering much with the regular line.

This might take some time to fully implement because I need to hundreds of messages, but after this initial transition period I think it will run smoothly.

 

[Grumms]

Let's say someone orders now, non-priority line. What would be the delay ?

 

[Khimmi]

Hello, Sergio is a great person. He doesn't want more money. He wants more time. This proposal is to have more time. This extra time is needed to make the more complex handles. I don't think it will affect us buyers. Also, Sergio gives a lot of importance to transparency and responsibility. For that reason he has told us that he lacks time. And the proposal of two lists, one that requires more customization and another with the simplest handle. It's about having more time to do your job and your hobby well.
A hug.

 

[SDC]

Let's say someone orders now, non-priority line. What would be the delay ?

I have 139 names on the list, at a rate of 4 blades per week that would be about 35 weeks. However, that doesn't translate to 139 as some customers want more than one, so accounting for some delay, I would say the minimum waiting time is 40+ weeks.

I just want to reiterate here that the priority line does not interfere with the natural order of things. As I've said, at the moment I only accept these requests when a spots opens up, or I feel that the other blades in that batch are simple enough for me to add one more. Sometimes I misjudge how hard it will be and need to work a little harder, but that's on me. Having this option available to everyone will increase the number of candidates of course, that's why the price is a key factor to keep this number low and not disrupt the flow.