Would you pay extra to get what you think you deserve?
Should Wyze run little fund-me campaigns for what we want but they can’t justify?
Wyze naturally needs some kind business case or ROI expectation for adding new products and new features. Or just being of a certain customer-focus culture, and their unusual transparency and honesty around existential struggles.
But sometimes we owners are frustrated by the lack of a feature or a longstanding bug or an annoying quirk… that Wyze seems blind to or slow to deliver. Yet, we accept total stonewalling from our car makers! Once you bought your new car, notice how the brand has no interest in fixing the bugs unless they really really have to? Do they add the missing features you thought should be there? NO. The auto maker wants to deliver enough to make you consider buying their NEXT car from them, and they put all the improvements into future models. They might even save some innovations for subsequent years if next year’s model has enough buzz to sell it already!
So, if you bought 4 cameras, a thermostat, and headphones from Wyze, you are hooked into their ecosystem, and when new and enticing widgets arrive with the amazing price+value magic that Wyze delivers you may buy it with hope it has everything you want it to have.
It’s true, Wyze markets the amazing performance at breakthrough prices, and doesn’t include the big long list their product managers and engineers WANTED to include, but didn’t have the time, skill or rationale for. Do you expect the car salesman to tall you about what the other brands have this one doesn’t? What they repair frequently (and make the most cash doing so?)
Here is why (I make up) that Wyze products have “basic” gaps we only discover and beg for after we buy, and why Wyze might not deliver them very quickly. Pick “custom notification sounds” (a wish of mine):
- Wyze claimed it was under development many months ago. I believe it probably was!
- The feature is time-consuming and expensive to develop, test, debug, and polish
- a clear argument for “this will sell more cameras” is missing
- existing customers don’t abandon us (we buy more despite this gap)
- the press isn’t downgrading Wyze because of this gap (or even mentioning it!), so the gap is not a threat to growth… yet!
- getting us to pay or subscribe for what we thing should have been there in the first place is hard (I have to pay extra for a light in my trunk??)
- regulations (FCC, Commerce, UL etc) don’t require it
- AND Wyze has a “disruptive innovation” model: deliver the basics at disruptive prices and capture a new and un-served market (let the incumbents kill themselves by adding premium features at higher cost… I did buy multiple $30 cameras, and never bought any $100 cameras. I buy several $5 smart bulbs, ZERO $20 bulbs).
So, my point is Why should Wyze do anything that doesn’t generate 2x the revenue it costs to make?
BUT what if these after-market features DID make real money for Wyze or how can Wyze be compelled to add them in to our OLD product they already sold us?
- little "fund-me* campaigns that result in compelling revenue?
- an API that allows 3rd party development? (API Thread I lived this messy and hard and time consuming realm, and I am not sure Wyze should ever go there given their business model, but would be nice!)
- twitter storms that the press writes articles about?
- Or just love what are actually quite lucky to have! Lots of Wyze cameras and other widgets all with personality, quirks, and something wanting that makes me yearn to buy a future upgraded model. (I found instant gratification when I finally found this winner!)
Does this help anyone else besides me?
Jamie