So what about Nord customer service? Experiences?

[Schorsch]

Hi all,

let’s not discuss the same topic in different threads. I suggest to stay with the original thread about the problem that occurred, and which went into the same direction that this one here: https://www.norduserforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=26980 to avoid redundancies

[Gambold]

Coupla things:

--Clavia is a Swedish company so you can't expect the same kind of customer service culture that we get in the States. I'm not saying you should...business in the States tend to have a "customer is always right" attitude and will often bend over backwards to accommodate complaints. We can get spoiled with this...just like when you go through the checkout counters in France and the cashier isn't all smiley and chatty like they are here...it's just a different culture.

--Clavia's business model is built on distributors. They don't directly deal with retail customers. They MAY deal with you if you are an institution and placing a large order, but even then I would guess they would farm you off to a local music distributor. So calling them and expecting them to have staff to deal with your board's issues is the wrong approach...you need to work with whoever sold you the board.

--It's true that of all the keyboard manufacturers, Clavia is the least likely to get back to you about anything. My guess is they have a very small office staff, most of whom probably have a shaky command of English, and they just don't have the time or training to work with the general public. Their website has no "about us," you have no idea who runs the company, there is no name or contact info for customer service, there is no phone number and the email is a form for "tech support" that likely gets forwarded to your local distributor - if it's regarded at all.

--This forum used to have a very good person who acted as a liaison to Nord, and handled or advised on a lot of problems like yours. While he insisted he was not officially engaged by them, they nonetheless promoted him on their website and on their Facebook page. He was intensely useful and then one day he left - and didn't give us a reason, which of course makes one speculate that it wasn't a happy parting. Clavia has never replaced this person, which gives you an indication of their own priorities. If he was still here, I'm sure he'd troubleshoot with you and then tell you to work with your distributor.

[Gambold]

Nord has always been evasive about this forum too. While at the top of the page it says it is "unofficial," the CEO his own self calls it official and implies that they monitor it (from https://insounder.org/nord-boss-morten- ... eally-want):

To what extent can users influence technologies or have new thoughts? Do you also take customers' suggestions and comments into account during the development process?

"Yes, we do, absolutely. There's the official Nord user forum that has over 30,000 members. There is a Facebook group that has 120,000 members. We of course cannot monitor or read every comment about every topic, but we do know what's being talked about."

[verbalakrobat]

Nord has always been evasive about this forum too. While at the top of the page it says it is "unofficial," the CEO his own self calls it official and implies that they monitor it (from https://insounder.org/nord-boss-morten- ... eally-want):

To what extent can users influence technologies or have new thoughts? Do you also take customers' suggestions and comments into account during the development process?

"Yes, we do, absolutely. There's the official Nord user forum that has over 30,000 members. There is a Facebook group that has 120,000 members. We of course cannot monitor or read every comment about every topic, but we do know what's being talked about."

Thanks for pointing me to that interview, Gambold!

Cheers
Andi

[Rusty Mike]

Nord has always been evasive about this forum too. While at the top of the page it says it is "unofficial," the CEO his own self calls it official and implies that they monitor it (from https://insounder.org/nord-boss-morten- ... eally-want):

To what extent can users influence technologies or have new thoughts? Do you also take customers' suggestions and comments into account during the development process?

"Yes, we do, absolutely. There's the official Nord user forum that has over 30,000 members. There is a Facebook group that has 120,000 members. We of course cannot monitor or read every comment about every topic, but we do know what's being talked about."

Nice interview with some cool insights. Thanks for pointing it out.

The key takeaway for me is that they intend to stay true to who they are. That implies that you’re unlikely to see a workstation, arranger, sequencer, etc. from them. They have a successful niche in the keyboard market and are happy there.

And despite what he says about “official”, I consider this forum unofficial until Nord are direct contributors to the conversations AND actually fund it. It’s better the way it is right now, as I would not want this community to be manufacturer sponsored because then it just becomes a platform for product hype. That’s not what we are about here; we are a community of like-minded musicians who support each other. That said, it would be nice to get a representative from Nord to contribute from time to time.

One more thought about this. Yes, I agree that Nord could do a better job with their customer-facing practices; it would be nice to see some more direct, timely and poignant responses to our inquiries and requests. The interview implies that they are basically a house of engineers, who stereotypically focus on achieving technical successes and are less focused on direct customer interaction (I say that with love, btw. I have worked with countless IT Engineers and Architects throughout my career). That said, however, I’m happy to let them focus on what they do best.

[Rusty Mike]

And despite what he says about “official”, I consider this forum unofficial until Nord are direct contributors to the conversations AND actually fund it. It’s better the way it is right now, as I would not want this community to be manufacturer sponsored because then it just becomes a platform for product hype. That’s not what we are about here; we are a community of like-minded musicians who support each other. That said, it would be nice to get a representative from Nord to contribute from time to time.

I believe the reason why he refers to this forum as the “official” Nord forum is not because it is a forum created, managed, or authorized by Nord, but because it is the only truly relevant forum for Nord instruments in the world and the largest with the highest density of knowledge about Nord instruments. This effectively makes it a kind of “official forum” and is the result of the way this community has developed and how we discuss and exchange information, opinions, etc. So it's something that Nord rightly and obviously values so much that they refer to it as ‘official’ without saying that it's “their” forum.

And I agree that this forum should remain independent and not be under the control of any company.

[florence]

If I remember well NUF was referenced on Nord website in the past but looks like it is no more the case.

[Gambold]

>I consider this forum unofficial until Nord are direct contributors to the conversations AND actually fund it. <

Oh, I'm sure there have been and are a few incognito posters here who work for Nord.

And as for funding - I'll throw a dart and posit that Pablo Mastodon left for that very reason. I don't think they were paying him much, if anything. And he did a lot of work for them here.