How do YOU perceive communication in SL?

THIS SURVEY IS CLOSED!! (28/08/2007)

Dear Second Life user,

For my Master thesis as Business Administration student at the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands), I am conducting a study on users of Second Life. For this, I have designed a short survey (max. 5 minutes) about a recent interaction that you have had as a (potential) customer within Second Life.

However, in order to get results for my research, I need you, as a Second Life user, to help me! To make it more interesting, there will be a lucky draw in which three participants will win a €20 or US $25 worth Amazon voucher! You will remain completely anonymous and your responses will not be used for any other purpose.

I would sincerely appreciate it, if you could take 5 min and help with my research. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can e-mail me at [email]289469wj@student.eur.nl[/email].

To participate, simply click on the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=pO93n7BX7ouFcgE3muJX6g_3d_3d

Thank you very much!

Kind Regards,
Alexa Aya

funny thing is, that`s advertising gambling with lucky numbers

gl

i'm sorry, but really don't understand it do you mean the 'luck draw'?

lol - Alicia, don't pick on her, she's only got 2 posts.

Alexa - she was making a joke about the gambling uproar that we've been going through. I took your survey, and I don't think it even took 5 minutes. Good luck with your thesis.

sry but was indeed a bad joke

oh ...

thank you for filling in the survey, i appreciate every help...!

Was actually a well-done survey. Very professional, I felt. Good luck to you!

thanks, I did my best

I took the survey. I hope the numbers (all of ours) turn out to someone's liking.

In 3+ years of SecondLife, I don't think I've ever actually talked with an owner or sales rep during the process of shopping.

Granted I prefer 'making' over 'buying', but usually I find what I can't make easily enough and purchase it without interacting with the seller.

I've only actually met someone I'm purchasing from "in person" twice in all the time I've been in SL. Other than that, all communications with shopkeepers have been strictly by IM, and I've been in SL for over two years now and done a lot of shopping. I got partway through the survey and when it seemed it was only about in-person experiences I abandoned it.

I've never used voice at all for any kind of purchase. It's too new and initiating a voice session with someone I don't know seems intrusive.

I haven't had to interact with a maker very often, but when i have my experiences were mainly good. Most Makers in second life seem to care very much about their reputation and like to help if there is any problem with their products.

I filled in the survey, and as my example used an encounter i had with a maker of the security system i chose for my skybox. Due to various limitations imposed by renting my land on which the skybox floats, and the group i was running, the system didn't work as expected or outlined in the help notes issued by the maker. I messaged her and she sent a representative to help me. He came as soon as was practical due to different timezones, explained the problem, and fixed it, helping me quickly and efficiently. I was very happy with the outcome. The representative stated that if he couldn't get it to work, i would get a full refund.

I make things and sell them too, and would do the same if a customer had any difficulty with my products. Customer service is a major influence on the success or failure of any business.

On the negative side, i tried to set up an arrangement with a maker on some land i was managing. I wanted to suggest he set up a vendor on the land to sell his products, which would be useful to the people visiting the land. I messaged him several times, and sent him notecards in case his IMs were capped. After about 8 attempts i gave up. He lost a lot of sales due to his ignoring my messages, and i resolved not to buy any of his products in the future, nor recommend him to others, which i would have done before he ignored me. He had received a lot of sales from us before this, but no more. My guess is, that he had made a good product and pretty much only came inworld to take the money he makes and cash out.

imogen.

I filled out the survey and used an example that was positive, but Imogen just reminded me of one -- I'd actually forgotten it because it was some months ago -- that was not so positive.

Late last year my partner and I bought a pre-fab house, a fairly large and complex one. When we tried to set it up there some kind of mishap and the prims of the main piece de-linked. It took about two weeks of repeated IMs to get the maker to respond. When he finally did, he came to our land and helped reassemble the piece and got it all assembled.

But not too much later we encountered a problem with a scripted part of the house, and this time the IMs were all for naught. We never heard from him again. Like Imogen said about the one she had a problem with, we came to the conclusion that he was only in-world every once in a while, long enough to cash out revenues.

So, he has our money for that one house, but we'll never buy from him again (and he makes a lot more than houses) nor will we recommend him to others.

I understand highly successful merchants can be kept busy with customer needs, but to remain completely unresponsive over a period of weeks is not really justifiable. And it show really bad business sense, not thinking beyond that initial sale to the possibility of repeat business or word-of-mouth advertising.

Hello everybody,

First of all, thanks a lot for filling in the survey! It will be still open for another week, so more respondents are welcome

Besides, it's good to hear your responses, it is definitely interesting to hear more in detail about your experiences. I will keep them in mind when analyzing the results!

Cheers!

Alexa

New product testing...I get free copies of one of the CI katana to help the creator test new versions of it. At one point I was getting a new version every day when he was doing a lot of work on it. He also showed me a lot of neat tricks and gave me free copies of personal toys he'd been working on that aren't for sale anywhere. Cuz of his dedication I'll be buying the final version even tho I got the free ones to test.

Next is ZHAO-II...even tho it's free anyway the creator let people test copies before it went official. Very cool!

And a few vendors have given me free clothing to model...they take a few snaps of me for their display and for 5 minutes of my time I get a free outfit and usually end up shopping there...which they see and give me more free stuff. ^^

Aimee: I'm sorry, but I'm not giving out 100 Linden Dollars.

Respondents however can win a 20 euro or 25 USD Amazon voucher!

Oh whups, did I respond to the wrong survey thread? LOL

Edit: Yah, I responded to the wrong thread. ^^ Shoulda responded to this one:

/118/f0/204812/1.html

Dearly Darling,

Nicely done. Glad I could help.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Well, you could of course also fill in this one, since you're here anyways ...

Thank you , appreciate every response!

Hi Alexa,

I'm rather new to SL, but I found the survey very interesting. What exactly are you researching?

Btw, takes a lot less than 5 min to fill out

Hi Fransz,

Thank you for filling out the survey. My research is about how users in SL perceive interaction. I believe that due to the 3D environment, interaction is better through SL than other communication channels such as regular chat. Whenever I talk to somebody in SL I feel as if I'm close to that other person, especially when having longer conversations, which I have not experienced before. Hope this makes it clearer to you!

Alexa

The survey is closed! Thanks to everybody who has filled in the survey and helped me with my research! Moreover, extra thanks to the ones that have responded in detail on the forums or on the comment field of the survey. These comments are very helpful and will certainly be kept in mind during the analysis.

As I promised, three participants can win a 20 euro or 25 US dollar Amazon voucher. They will receive an e-mail latest September 9th 2007.

Alexa