How we can help Emerald???
 

There's a current thread on Rainsong's closing up shop https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=677343 in which some have posited flaws in the company that may have led to their demise. I thought an interesting thread would be to suggest changes to Emerald Guitars that might benefit customers and therefore Emerald's bottom line and longtime sustainability. I'm not sure if anybody in Donegal reads our posts, but you never know. I'll say that Emerald has done a whole lot of things that are very conducive to a positive customer experience from producing a very solid product to the Build-a-Guitar interface to the recently initiated Ambassador program. I'll get things started:

After guitars are ordered, they seem to drop off the map until they either show up on your doorstep (yes, that happened to me once) or on your computer screen. I'd suggest that Emerald develop a database that's accessible to the customer. This database would include all of the production and shipping steps along the path to delivery. Production/shipment/delivery steps would be checked off by Emerald staff with the date that step was completed. Before you say that would be too labor intensive, keep in mind that it would be off-set by the current time spent by sales staff chasing down where a customer's instrument in the production schedule and then responding to those customers who request information to the perennial question, "Where's my guitar?"

How many people really pester Kevin and Davy K about where their guitar is in the build process or in transit? Is this a solution in search of a problem? Like every business decision, it is a cost-benefit thing. Sounds almost like reinventing the UPS parcel tracking system combined with inventory control but on a small scale.

I hearken back to designing some custom internal software to computerize a calculation often done at my first engineering job, just as the PC age dawned. While developing the menu driven program, one of the senior engineers came back with the comment, "We should start with the desired answer and work back to what is needed to meet the criteria". Sounds simple enough. Normally you list the items going forward starting at the source and ending at the final point, tracing the entire path. You iterated on the final steps by changing one line in the list or adding a line at the end even if that was not where the component would end up. Upon some investigation and thought, we quickly realized that this simple idea required about 4X the programming effort, greatly raising the necessary budget and lengthening the payback period (ROI). I still sometimes use that same program today almost 40 years later.

I checked back on my last order. Here's the email sequence I received:

5/18/23 - order confirmation
5/31/23 - molding starts
6/12/23 - paint and polish done, heading for setup
6/28/23 - ready to ship

That's an automated update every two weeks or so, which was plenty for me - and way more info than I'd received for any of the previous 3, all of which were also custom orders.

I don't know how many customers pester Kevin and Davy K. As to whether it's a solution in search of a problem I would say "No." Emerald has shown us that they're very intent on improving the customer buying experience, and I truly believe that the aforementioned database would do just that. I don't work for Emerald Guitars and nobody asked me to initiate this thread so I can't possibly know if it would be well-received or received at all for that matter. However, this is a guitar forum, and we share ideas. As I said before, I have no idea if my idea solves a problem or whether it would be initiated. After the demise of Rainsong, I'd like to do what I can to keep Emerald Guitars going strong...

I've never received that. I ordered an amicus from stock during the 25% sale and received no advance notice. One day I was standing in my driveway after going swimming, the USPS truck pulled into my driveway and delivered my Amicus. The other irony is that I'd paid extra for UPS delivery but got that refunded...

As I mentioned, it was the first time out of four custom orders that I'd received such communication. I've no idea what the current protocol is for stock orders. Your recent Amicus experience was clearly anomalous.

The way to keep a company running, assuming that it is otherwise being run well, is to contribute to their revenue stream.

Therefore, the simple answer to the OP's question is not to add cost to the process by adding questionable features (i.e. those that may or may not add to the customer experience) but instead is to continue buying product. Here, we generate GAS by egging each other on and that seems to result in repeat repeat repeat ... customers (i.e. the same people buying again and again). How many here own just one Emerald? ;)

That, to me, is probably the best thing AGF can do for Emerald.

Tony

It would be really great if there were a few locations around the US where interested folks could demo Emerald instruments...

From the outside, it looks like Emerald continues to build on their strengths, expanding their customer base.

As a former business owner, it seemed there was a regular flow of people into our studio with the "helpful thoughts" of what would make our business better. Without exception, those thoughts were things that would make their individual interaction better, but not make the business run more efficient of profitable... or, they were trying to sell us something. ;)

If anyone wants to do what they can to keep Emerald Guitars going strong (and they seem to be doing fine with that), the answer is easy: buy more Emerald guitars. :up:

Since buying that first Emerald, I am up to 4 now. Each buying experience has been good; only one time did I contact them to see where my guitar was in production, because I thought I might add a veneer (not change) to a custom order. The guitar was already in production, so that was not possible. They let me know when it is ready to ship, I wait... and check tracking about a thousand times... using UPS's bandwidth, not Emerald's.

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I recall a few years ago when people were proposing that Emerald should set up some "Sales Areas" in the US, where people could go to see an Emerald guitar. Big expense, rent/other overhead, and payroll out of Emerald's pockets with no guaranteed return. Where would you put these Sales Centers? Two locations in the US would mean that 95% of the population would still have to travel to see one. Emerald has done fine without that.

And now we have the Ambassador program. I think this is a good peer-to-peer program, as any Emerald owners I've come in contact with have been enthusiastic... but how a guitar owner interacts with another potential guitar owner can color the perception of the "Emerald experience."

Randy, it was not my intent to squelch dialogue and sorry if it came across that way.

As Captain Jim said rather eloquently, there are any number of "helpful" suggestions given to business owners that add work but do not contribute to the bottom line, ie: survival of the business. I gave one personal example. It is not clear to me that Emerald actually needs much help. I do my part by buying the guitars, posting here on AGF in this room to answer questions, and signing up to be an Ambassador (which has resulted in one extra sale for them, apart from my friends and acquaintances that have seen and purchased Emerald guitars). They expanded the factory significantly last year and are now poised to become the preeminent builder of carbon fiber guitars in the world. I now own the second-to-last APSE ever built and it has a serial number of about 205xx. So in their entire company run, Rainsong built less than 21,000 guitars.

I have spent a career in the business of "fixing" businesses.

Sometimes there is a flaw in the company or sometimes the circumstances and a good business with good products fails.

In the end, it all comes down to whether they provide value and customers want to pay for it.

I've been unimpressed with all the non-wood guitars I've see, heard and tried. I suspect these guitars are not nearly desirable enough to have them really be in demand (compared to the costs etc)

They seem like a special thing that very few people actually want (and the numbers seem to bear that out)

With Emerald's Ambassador Program there are....

Not to mention the two "sharing threads" here in the CF room...

Rainsong's nearly 30 years of existing, Emerald's sale rate, and the flourishing posts in this specialized sub-forum attest that the desirability of carbon fiber guitars is enough to sustain a few companies. I guess we won't know for sure for another few decades, but there are also near-constant new entries into the specialized product field.

I have two Emeralds, built almost exactly 2 years apart, in mid-2021, and mid-2023. Their serial numbers are 2400 apart - 6705 and 9105. That would suggest that Emerald was cranking out 20 or more instruments a week in that period, which the shipping videos would substantiate.

I’m not sure how you define ‘very few’. I know this is nowhere near Martin or Taylor levels, but for a boutique builder, making mostly custom instruments, that seems pretty respectable to me.

I’m happy to be one of the ‘very few’, rather than part of the herd - and I should gently remind you that, back in 2018, when I was exploring buying my first X20, you were actively pursuing an X20 Opus :)