A little over a year ago we made a few major decisions about Uniquely Geek and the direction that we felt was best for us and our customers. I thought it would be a nice idea to revisit that decision and bring everyone up to date on the effects it has had over the past year.
To recap, last year we landed on the choice to stay a small hands-on company. Consequently, that meant limiting our production to 100 tables a year, significantly less than our current demand. After we made that announcement the amount of feedback we received supporting our decision was incredible. We really can't thank you all enough!
As expected our lead times shot through the roof. This is the most troubling part to me and something I still lose sleep over. I never wanted or expected, our customers to have to wait nearly 20 months to receive a Uniquely Geek board game table. Unfortunately, I do not see a solution on the horizon. For now, our incredible table craftsmen have their heads down and are getting some incredible tables out the door.
In the office, we have been able to dedicate more time to improving our ordering and design processes, what we call “The Experience”. While we still have some work to do, we have made great strides in the order management side of the business. Justin our digital wizard has implemented some great changes to the website and we just launched a major revision to better explain all the modifications for our tables. This will help better inform our customers and showcase all the ways you can make your table unique to you.
Meanwhile, in the shop, we have been working on design improvements and some new ideas. We started offering a Modern Style trestle base to the Radcliffe and Legacy lines of tables. We also transitioned to a magnetic leaf removal system, replacing the leaf pushrod, and offered to retrofit any tables with the older system. Additionally, we have made some improvements to the rail attachment system and will be rolling that out very soon. We have begun designing “The Monarch” which will be the biggest and baddest custom board game table on the market. Though don’t expect to see one until 2023.
While tables will always be the cornerstone of our business, we have been able to release prototypes and release some smaller items. Just last month we launched our solid wood coaster sets with customizable cork inserts. Our next product is a wooden dice tower with customizable features including inlay monogramming and artwork. Soon after we will fully unveil our solid wood dice tray line.
In retrospect we know we made the right decision. We see what other companies are going through trying to grow too big, too fast and the hardships they are facing. Quality drops, customer service suffers, and stress levels rise. Not to mention that you always have to be selling just to pay the overhead. What happens when the orders slow down? We like the fact that we have little to no overhead and would be able to fill every outstanding order even if we never sold another item. You can not put a price tag on that type of security.
As always you have our promise that we will continue to evolve as a company and will do our best to produce the highest quality products and the ultimate customer experience.
-The UG Team