Stéphane's dashboard

Stéphane replied on September 23, 2009 13:15 to the question "Why is the price for the poken increased?" in Poken:

The Poken Pulse is available for sale on a number of partner websites. in Europe it retails for €29.99

Stéphane replied on September 23, 2009 10:20 to the question "Why is the price for the poken increased?" in Poken:

Dear Ton,

Thank-you for your question.

The Suggested Retail Price for a Poken Spark (the original model) is still 15 Euros. That has not changed!

You may be reffering to a change in pricing of the 12-packs online. Indeed, since the introduction of the Poken Pulse the introductory web price for a 12-pack of Poken Spark has reverted back to 150 Euros, which is 12.5 Euros per unit.

Best Regards,

Stéphane

Stéphane replied on September 01, 2009 15:42 to the question "How did you come up with the Poken?" in Poken:

Hi Alexa! Great question- I'm sorry it's taken me a bit of time to answer, life at Poken is crazy these days.

The idea for Poken came to me when I went back to studying for a year. I was in a class with 90 peers, and by the end of the year we were all friends, and potential business contacts. As everyone was leaving the school to take on new jobs, I realised the only way to stay in touch with them was still pen-and-paper, as it was just too tedious to search for each of my 90 peers on every network I use (Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn, MSN, etc.). I just realised something was missing- something that would let me "connect" to them here-and-now, without needing to think about what networks they are on. That's where Poken came from- capturing a moment, and exchange, so you can do something with it later.

As the team was growing, we did do a lot of brainstorming about the shape- it was very much an iterative process. We didn't use any established methodology, just feeling our way around many ideas, prorotyping and re-prototyping, and using our senses!

I would say the main elements that contributed to the idea behind Poken were really coincidental- but taking it from a simple "idea" to a finished product has been a tremendous amount of work, and a lot of fun.

I hope this short answer helps you a bit-

Cheers!
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on April 13, 2009 18:51 to the problem "Design Concerns" in Poken:

Dear Eric,

Thank-you for expressing your concern. We hope to find a suitable solution to your concern.

We have not received any complaints regarding the designs. The artwork we use has been submitted by a number of artists, and we've found them to be generally well received. Some designs are more popular than others, which I believe comes down to personal taste.

You may be referring to one of the poken designs inspired by a popular artist- we've tried not to cast judgement on what our fans like, and stay open to all tastes. In doing so, we hope to be able to better cater to the whole consumer base.

Many people have adopted poken as a collectible, so our approach has been to send out designs in a random fashion, with collections changing on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. As such, some designs may be available as relatively limited editions, while others are more common. As you may have noticed, there is already an "after-market" for pokens on the likes of eBay, where true enthusiasts trade their wares.

We will treat your comment & suggestion as one extra input in our process improvement funnel, and try to see if we can better cater to your specific needs.

Peace Out,

Stéphane

Stéphane replied on March 29, 2009 13:53 to the question "Broken Poken" in Poken:

Dear Ton,
The best is to send them back to us for investigation, and we will send you back some new ones as replacement. You should not need to take the loss. We need to work on making sure all the product out there are fault-free!
cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on March 22, 2009 09:02 to the problem "No way to contact 'Do You Poken', contact info all wrong" in Poken:

Dear Isabelle,

We are sorry you feel it is difficult to contact us. I am not sure where the problem may come from: We receive many calls every day directed at the phone numbers available on our website, and we also respond to dozens if not hundreds of emails sent to info@doyoupoken.com.

In any case, as you can see, you can contact us and get a very quick response through GetSatisfaction as well.

We've made every effort to be as close as possible to our customers, and hope that through these different means of communication you can voice your concerns, share positive experiences, and ask questions any time night & day.

Best Regards,

Stéphane Doutriaux
Founder & CEO
Poken

Stéphane replied on March 17, 2009 08:18 to the question "Who is Aymen van Breght?" in Poken:

Dear Ton,
I am very sorry about this, there must be a misunderstanding. Can you please write me directly to discuss?
We are all committed to the highest standards of decency and respect.
Thanks,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on March 17, 2009 00:58 to the idea "Out of Pokens in America -Oh My!" in Poken:

Dear Nancy,
Thank-you for your kind message! We're sorry- America is out of pokens indeed. The response has been tremendous. We have taken urgent action- the Swiss are on the case! We hope for only a very short delay until you can get your hands on one.
Cheers!
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on March 15, 2009 14:55 to the problem "Can't find Poken on Firebox.com" in Poken:

Hi Stacy,
Here's the link I get from searching for "poken":
http://www.firebox.com/firebox/search...

Can it me different because I'm doing it from Europe?
Weird.. I hope this solves your issue.
Cheers
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on March 15, 2009 14:03 to the problem "Can't find Poken on Firebox.com" in Poken:

Hi Stacy,
That's strange! Could it have been a temporary bug? I've just searched on www.firebox.com and they do show pokens in stock. Is there a different site for the U.S and the U.K.?
I hope the problem solves itself, if not please let us know!
Cheers
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 10, 2009 23:19 to the question "What about "custom fees" ?" in Poken:

Dear David,

Thank-you for posting your question, I am sure it will benefit many other people to receive an answer here on this blog.

I am not sure what country you ordered from. As we ship from Switzerland, it is possible that your local customs may charge a customs fee when importing a good into your country. We try to do our best to offer the pokens at a very affordable price, and we include as many of the fees as we can to make the ordering process simple: Shipping fees, processing fees, etc. However, since the customs fees are entirely dependant on your country of residence, we cannot take those into account at the shipping point, since the Swiss Post doesn't have anything to do with them.

We hope you'll understand that we do everything in our power to simplify the process for you, but we cannot predict what the local import conditions are for each country.

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 06, 2009 02:16 to the idea "Professional poking" in Poken:

Hi Peter, Ton. Laurens,

Here is how I answered another post on roughly the same subject:

When a company innovates and comes out with a product with obvious market traction, like the Poken, there are bound to be competitors interested in entering the same space. While we currently enjoy a so-called "First Mover Advantage", we know very well that in the future others will try to copy us.

As you can imagine, we're doing our best to answer users' requests and needs. We've received a number of requests for a more "businessy" poken, from those people who are too shy to "go for it" and walk around with a 3-eyed-green-monster hanging off their necktie. ;) I can fully understand why in some instances they may want to look a bit more traditional. It's a rare luxury for a CEO (like me) to be able to happily dangle monsters & geishas off his keychain in business meetings!

I just urge you and others with your request to be a little patient. There are so many Pokens out there already (to our surprise and great pleasure!) that it will be worth your wait to bear with us! In the meantime, we've found the Panda to be a favorite amongst more low-key individuals, or simply using the poken hand-naked.

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 06, 2009 02:06 to the idea "Eise is coming, please fight back! :)" in Poken:

Hi Martijn,

When a company innovates and comes out with a product with obvious market traction, like the Poken, there are bound to be competitors interested in entering the same space. While we currently enjoy a so-called "First Mover Advantage", we know very well that in the future others will try to copy us.

As you can imagine, we're doing our best to answer users' requests and needs. We've received a number of requests for a more "businessy" poken, from those people who are too shy to "go for it" and walk around with a 3-eyed-green-monster hanging off their necktie. ;) I can fully understand why in some instances they may want to look a bit more traditional. It's a rare luxury for a CEO (like me) to be able to happily dangle monsters & geishas off his keychain in business meetings!

I just urge you and others with your request to be a little patient. There are so many Pokens out there already (to our surprise and great pleasure!) that it will be worth your wait to bear with us! In the meantime, we've found the Panda to be a favorite amongst more low-key individuals, or simply using the poken hand-naked.

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 06, 2009 01:55 to the idea "Printed company logo on a poken" in Poken:

Hi Martijn,

Thank-you very much for the suggestion! We love hearing from users what they'd like to see us deliver to them in the future.

We'll think about this, and maybe surprise you in the near future! Keep posted!

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 05, 2009 13:22 to the question "Poken new models" in Poken:

Hi David,

Once you've shown your commercial knack and sold some packs, and are at least part of the way to becoming a Poken Fanatic (3000 points) we'll offer you the opportunity to become a Poken Promoter at which stage you'll have access to our marketing materials on Wuala.

This is our way of "filtering" through the people that are serious about building a business, and those that aren't. It's proven pretty effective!

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 05, 2009 10:58 to the question "Poken new models" in Poken:

Hi David,
You can contact the Benelux team at Benelux_Affiliate@doyoupoken.com .
They'll be able to help you set up a website!

We put links on our website to the shops that have the best sales results. A bit of a chicken-and-egg thing you may say, but it's important for us that shops find a way to make noise about Poken my other means than references from our site.

Good luck, i hope you are able to build a prosperous business!

Cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 04, 2009 20:09 to the question "Poken new models" in Poken:

Hi Harold,
If you're in Benelux, the best is to contact our Benelux team- they can definitely support you.
If you have a webshop, getting different/new models is an exciting part of differentiating yourself from the others!
Cheers!
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 04, 2009 15:40 to the question "Poken new models" in Poken:

Hi there!

It's a great question. The 12-packs that are sold on our website contain a mystery mix... the content of which changes quite often. You're likely to get a selection of new models when you order the pack.

If there are specific styles you're keen on buying, then you'll have to purchase them from one of the many webshops that sell pokens by the unit.

We do it this way to keep a bit of suspense... that's the Poken Spirit!

cheers,
Stéphane

Stéphane replied on February 01, 2009 20:19 to the problem "No friends to import? Not true!" in Poken:

Hi Anne-Marie,

Whenever this comment has surfaced in the past, it has been that the user was not launching the Poken website by double-clicking the "Start_Poken.html" file that is on their poken. It's a common misunderstanding that just plugging your poken into your computer uploads the contacts- you need to double-click the file mentioned above in order to sync your newly pokened friends onto your account.

I hope this solves your issue- if not, please let us know and we'll look deeper!

Stéphane

Stéphane replied on January 25, 2009 15:23 to the idea "Professional poking" in Poken:

Hi Laurens,

Thanks for your comment. We have been receiving a lot of requests about this. We did expect a market to develop in the business arena, and as you can imagine our engineers are busy busy... doing something ....
:)

Cheers, and stay tuned!

Stéphane