New Vendor Feedback Program: Tell Vendors How You Really Feel

[LA Guy]

We’re pleased to announce the start of a new program on Styleforum. This program is designed to get feedback from our members to help retailers and brands learn what we like and dislike about their products and services. Only sponsors whose goals are aligned with the interests of members of the Styleforum community will be invited to participate in the program and to engage with our members. We want to bring Styleforum members and sponsors together in a venue where our members can share honest feedback with brands.

Here is how this will work:

• Members who are interested in participating will fill out a brief questionnaire.
• When a business owner or manufacturer wants to solicit feedback from members, interested members who completed the questionnaire will be selected (some at random, some based on questionnaire responses) and contacted. Participation is voluntary, of course.
• Selected members will gain access to a private forum in which they'll communicate directly with the company, and may be supplied with a product to test. Participants will be expected to leave honest feedback – honest, constructive criticism is appreciated.

There are several benefits to participation. Participants may get access to products for testing purposes, may be otherwise compensated, and will have the ability to give direct feedback to the very people who can make a difference in a product and services.

How can you get "in", you ask? There are a few criteria. You must be:

• An active member of the community, with at least 10 posts
• Accessible, articulate, and trustworthy (offering reasonably prompt responses, and communicating your opinions effectively and with good detail)
• Able to commit to testing a product appropriately and leaving a review within 15 days of receiving the product.

Please note that none of your answers will automatically qualify or disqualify you from participation – we are looking to get an idea of your background so we can pair members with appropriate opportunities. This information will be used for selection purposes only and will not be shared with any third parties.

Please click here to fill out the questionnaire.

Fok.

 

[Gus]

It will be interesting to hear about the quality of the feedback and how the venders end up using it.

 

[SpooPoker]

I have a question - how would this apply to vendors such as myself, who offer a service as opposed to a product?

 

[blazingazn]



I have a question - how would this apply to vendors such as myself, who offer a service as opposed to a product?

This means you'll be giving me free stuff to try out for you!

 

[SpooPoker]



This means you'll be giving me free stuff to try out for you!

Sure thing - you can start with these :

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I love data. I am wondering if user data will be made public (without user names, just general stuff) out of sheer curiosity.

 

[LA Guy]



I have a question - how would this apply to vendors such as myself, who offer a service as opposed to a product?

Hey Spoo, if you are interested in the program, you can PM me or email, or just call. The quality of your service, the navigability and user perceptions of your website, and the bottlenecks to participation in your program, among other things, can all be explored in a safe space.

I love data. I am wondering if user data will be made public (without user names, just general stuff) out of sheer curiosity.

User data will never be shared in any way, shape, or form. We have a very strong stance on user privacy. The questionnaires are only so that we can choose appropriate participants for specific groups. The results of studies are released only at the discretion of participating vendors. Hope that answers your questions.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Maybe User Data was a wrong way to put it, just things like statistics.

 

[LA Guy]



Maybe User Data was a wrong way to put it, just things like statistics.

Not this data, no. We have run other surveys, and we do occasionally mention some of the results, though it's usually only in passing, in the context of another conversation. If you want to catch those, you should probably follow me.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Thanks.

 

[blazingazn]



Sure thing - you can start with these :

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I'm down for that.

Hope it accentuates my muffin top!

 

[EBugatti]

With all due respect, I would seriously consider revising your survey questions before your go live with it (although it might be too late). You needlessly break down ages into categories that really make no sense (how does the 44 - 49 group differ materially from 50 - 54? I'm sure the overlap is tremendous). You really want to segment the under 100K folks to within 20K but then group all the 100K+ together? REally? I would make the categories under 50, 50 - 99, 100- 149, 150 - 199, 200+ at a minimum. Your retailer list needs work, as does your brand list. Significant omissions in both. No Bergdorf Goodman? No T&A? No Gucci? To name a few.

Finally, your questions at the bottom are simplistic and don't really address the issues of SF buyers. To ask whether you like a garment tailored for the perfect fit is not useful, for instance. Most SFers might just say yes. The operating questions might be do you patronize a mall tailor/dry cleaner for alterations or do you prefer a dedicated, well-known tailor? Consider revising.

Good luck!

 

[papa kot]

With all due respect, I would seriously consider revising your survey questions before your go live with it (although it might be too late). You needlessly break down ages into categories that really make no sense (how does the 44 - 49 group differ materially from 50 - 54? I'm sure the overlap is tremendous). You really want to segment the under 100K folks to within 20K but then group all the 100K+ together? REally? I would make the categories under 50, 50 - 99, 100- 149, 150 - 199, 200+ at a minimum. Your retailer list needs work, as does your brand list. Significant omissions in both. No Bergdorf Goodman? No T&A? No Gucci? To name a few.
Finally, your questions at the bottom are simplistic and don't really address the issues of SF buyers. To ask whether you like a garment tailored for the perfect fit is not useful, for instance. Most SFers might just say yes. The operating questions might be do you patronize a mall tailor/dry cleaner for alterations or do you prefer a dedicated, well-known tailor? Consider revising.
Good luck!

+1

In addition to what has been stated above, I'd start with a survey that aims toward the vendors that have been discussed on the forum. For example, there are numerous discussions about Alden, Brooks Brothers, Allen Edmonds. Why not start there?

Finally, if it were up to me, I would not do this survey. Small vendors can get honest feedback by watching the threads. Large vendors probably have Facebook presence that they can leverage for public opinion feedback.

 

[rs232]

^Agree, Fok. Just thinking aloud, you have a forum where people complain and praise service providers, manufacturers, and vendors. Discussion is open for all to view and participate in. If I want to tell everyone how AEs have low insteps or Dormeuil's great, it's easy, and others can offer their opinions on the matter. One of the greatest assets to this dialogue, in which some vendors participate, is collaborative transparency. People get the impression of ingenuous good faith on the part of vendors in a willingness to publicly acknowledge flaws and accept advice on how they might improve.

Reading your post, and the survey (which I'm not entirely convinced effectively divides market segments enough), it seems this is simply a focus/testing group of sorts, facilitated online. In a nutshell, market research. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but all you've got going for you is visibility for your post among menswear aficionados, and a small professional network of vendors and manufacturers to pitch your focus groups to. There are plenty of other companies that are already doing market research out there, and it's not clear how your approach is any more compelling than theirs except for accessibility for small vendors.

My two cents. Good luck.

 

[LA Guy]

Thanks for the feedback. We will refine the survey in the future.

The main benefit of this program to vendors is that they will be able to have a "safe space" in which to ask questions and receive honest feedback. Their are also incentives for participants.

Styleforum is particularly attractive to vendors, from small vendors to international brands, because it is a large and engaged community with a broad audience, and most of our members have actively sought out information about style/fashion and/or actively participate in discussions about men's fashion/style. We are the largest community of our kind online, and I think that you guys ought to be proud of the impact that you can make.