Have you seen the amazing displays that can be created with RGB based technologies an wondered how you can do the same thing for your display but just don't know where to start?
Building elements (MegaTrees, House Outlines, Arches, etc) using RGB technologies can be complex and people often have many questions about the numerous aspects of designing, purchasing and building those elements. Getting answers to those questions is important and it is also important that the answers to those questions be specific to the project you would be building, since so much of RGB is completely custom to meet the unique design requirements each person has for their project or element. In nearly all cases, it is necessary to know the full details of a project in order to properly provide details about the correct lights, power, software and other aspects of the project. So, this generally leaves people with three options:
- Personal Time Investment
- PRO's
- Usually at no cost (assuming a dollar value isn't applied to your personal time).
- You'll typically know what is best for YOUR project.
- You'll have a larger breath of skills after completing your research.
- You'll find troubleshooting easier in the future.
- CON's
- It can take weeks or months to "come up to speed" to the point where there is a comfort level sufficient to make a purchase.
- Some customers may not have the necessary skills across a broad spectrum to fully design and build their project (electrical, design, PC, etc).
- You'll need to sift through a huge amount of information that may not be relevant to your design or project.
- Advice on forums can be sometimes provided by people with more enthusiasm than skills as often, the more experienced people often tire of answer the same "basic" questions over and over.
- HolidayCoro subscribes to the "Personal Time Investment" option and we do this through, hands down, the most technical information of any holiday lighting vendor on the internet. You can find that information, free of charge, on our blog, knowledge base or in our over 300 YouTube videos. The vast majority of questions can be answered with the preceding information and those of the many free discussion forums on the internet.
- "Free" Vendor Assistance
- PRO's
- Typically there is no charge for the service.
- Answers to questions quickly.
- CON's
- Often the advice will be vendor hardware centric, so it might not always include "best of breed" hardware or software for your specific design.
- This advice may be limited or less than ideal or funnelled into a "standard" solution that isn't best for your specific design.
- Since it still costs vendors to provide this service for "free", hardware costs are generally higher - from 20 to 80% more for the base hardware.
- Often less skilled sales people are employed to provide solutions as experienced engineers are too expensive to utilize.
- HolidayCoro believes in focusing on low prices on reliable hardware and that customers should only pay for the services they actually need. As such, we do not "factor in" a higher cost for design requirements for customers that do not need these services.
- Packaged, Ready to Run Elements
- PRO's
- For selected elements, this can be a good way to get a completed, ready to run solution. Solutions from from selected hardware that is designed to work together all the way to 100% assembled products, with our without sequences. Examples of our Ready2Run products can be found here.
- CON's
- A packaged solution might not be a perfect fit for your requirements or display and could result in a less than an ideal solution. Typically, even modifying a package slightly results in many changes in the hardware and thus it is no longer a "package".
- Packages may be more expensive than purchasing individual items from different vendors or during pre-season sales.
- When ready to run solutions work, they are great but when they don't work, it can be frustrating without the background knowledge about how they work. Good vendor support is important here to move you past any hurtles you might encounter.
- We offer a variety of packaged solutions but only recommend them for customers that feel that these solutions meet their requirements.
- "Paid" Vendor Assistance
- PRO's
- Advice is targeted to your specific project and needs.
- Vendor doesn't feel pressure to provide "something" due to time constraints as the time has been compensated and is typically provided by higher level support staff with more experience.
- Most often customers end up spending less as a result of getting the right hardware the first time and end up with better and more rewarding result.
- Answers to questions quickly.
- CON's
- Services are not provided "free".
- HolidayCoro also subscribes to the "Paid Vendor Assistance" option for customers that want clear, concise, quick and detailed answers to their questions. To provide these answers from people that have been in the Holiday Lighting arena for years, costs money. So to strike a balance, we provide paid services in two major ways - either as an open-ended discussion or design assistance on a specific project - see below for these options.
|
