New plans for love

[wilson]

During our daily end of day management meeting I raised the issue of Forum for discussion. To cut a long story short the consensus was that this was not something we wanted to instigate at this point but rather when we are more established and have more time and resources to manage the discussion threads.

What kept the discussion going was the discussion is that on the one hand we at Shifu Lem provide services (both chargeable and non chargeable) that are designed to resolve issues and assist. On the other however the point which is justly being made that member may see us mearly as a service provider and look for independent advice and guidance from experienced members.

The decision was made that we will start a Forum as a blog with links to Shifu Lem and that could develop as an independent site with its own dynamics and act as a body doing due diligence on our activities

[wilson]

Dear Willy
The base cost of a credit is US$4
 
We have various packages which are essentially volume advance purchase discounts which reduce the price of the credit.
 
We will have to look into how we present this information better on the website

[Willy The Londoner]

Dear Willy
The base cost of a credit is US$4
 
We have various packages which are essentially volume advance purchase discounts which reduce the price of the credit.
 
We will have to look into how we present this information better on the website

That pricing looks reasonable.

Willy

[wilson]

Just to keep everyone informed that after months of toil and sweat we have finally officially launched Shifu Lem today at 09 minutes to 0900 China time.
 
We have incorporate the changes suggested here apart from two 1. The Forum and 2, measurements in imperial measures
 
We considered establishing a Forum but decided that given the current level of our development this is nice to have but not crucial. More importantly is the isolation people feel when looking online. Our service are designed to cover this aspect. H9owever we do recognise that human nature will prefer an independent forum and we will start an Shifu Lem blog and if the demand is there it will take off
 
We do recognise the importance of information but it was not possible to incorporate imperial measurements onto our system. We will do this in the next phase of development which is already in the design stage
 
The uploading of profiles have been slower than anticipated as each lady has to be checked and crossed checked by our staff. currently we have just under 200 loaded and by the end of the month we will have 500. By the end of the year we will have 2.500 and this figure will take some management as there will be departures and additions of profiles to maintain existing levels let alone additions for growth.
 
We have already been commissioned as Matchmaker services which is an encouraging development at this stage and we had our first webcam 10 days ago with the gentleman planning to visit next month. Perhaps this will lead to our first testimonial.
 
We will have 3 more announcements of service which you may find interesting and we will make them over the course of the next week or so.
 
Finally in this rather lengthy note, a personal word of thanks to all of you for your comments and criticism - it made us stronger and better!!!

[JimB]

Wilson,
I truly hope it is what you said it will be.  if it is, I am sure it will be a success.  Good luck.  How much does it cost for the ladies to join?  My wifes friend is a Dr. in Wuhan.  I do not know if she is interested or not, but would like to tell her.  I know my wife would love for her to find someone from the states. lol

[wilson]

Dear Jim

If your wife's sister is interested please ask her to contact Huang Zhaohui at zhaohuihuang@shifulem.com - she covers Wuhan and she will take care of her. You might be interested to know that there is a problem with Agencies in Wuhan as ladies have been complaining against sharp practices and they are now under investigations. Your wife and her friend will know all about this.
 
Thank you for your good wishes

[JimB]

No, my wife was from an agency in Beijing.  They have nothing to do with agencies in Wuhan.  I am a bit surprised that you are not going to Beijing.  Unless you feel that it is too much to take on right now and your efforts and money are better spent developing other areas first.  That I can understand.  From a business model it makes sense.  But, the Market Garden agency is ripe for a takeover.  A lot of dissatisfied customers, not following up on their women,  women getting married and them not knowing about it,  underhanded practices, wholesale lying to both parties.
If i were thinking of going into business for myself that is an agency I would target.

Just a thought.

Jim

[wilson]

Dear Jim
We will be in Beijing but we have to make sure we do it well. Personally I am not in favour of taking over an Agency as they have have all sorts of unresolved issues and payables which we would only get to know too late. For us we would always start from scratch or a new venture if we are setting up our Agency that way we know what we have has been verified and the agency is cleanWe all know how difficult it is to determine the personality of your lady in a different language and different customs. So we have introduced a ccompatibility test which when used in conjunction with the other criteria you have gives you a good choice(s) to explore if you can develop a true connection.
 
We know the limitations of these tests and this should not be the only criteria but one of the signposts on your journey to find your life partner.
 
Yes it is a marketing tool for us and you can check it out at
http://www.shifulem.com/match.php

[Willy The Londoner]

I better have a look at the gallery to check if any of my former vistors have changed there names.   Do not want to retrace my steps - so to speak.

Willy

[phil]

Wilson, I like your concept......it seems like a big task lies before your group. I hope you can make it work because the competition will be good for everyone.

Assign a Quality Control Director, or task one of your Customer Support Team to conduct random "Quality Control Interviews" with selected women from the agencies. Perform occasional message verification by phone or in person. Not everyone is going to do the Web Cam option and agencies can still churn away $4 messages unnoticed (on their ladies behalf).

About your site...I would like to offer some input on the layout and how you're doing things. Please don't take offense none is meant. If you were my client (I'm not asking you to be) these are the things I would suggest you change.

1. The home page header has waaaaay too much wasted space. The header layout is unrealistic and you're forcing the audience to scroll to see anything. Even on subsequent pages the header region is still far too large. You're page should fit within in a screen at common resolutions if at all possible. I mocked up a page for you to look at: Page with short header

2. Pricing is hard to find, If potential customers can't find the pricing easily they will leave...it sends the wrong message. I had to drill down 2-3 times to see the pricing. Nobody expects this to be a free service so don't hide the price structure.  

3. Home page fluff...people are coming to the site to find a Chinese wife. Do you provide what they are looking? What will it cost them? If you answer those two questions immediately you should substantially cut down the bounce rate of your site and more people will stay to browse. Your company name, Your logo, The philosophy statement, value statements, etc are all incidental, yes they are very important in the grand scheme of things but...you really want to get to the heart of this immediately. I personally would begin showing the women on the home page. Discuss Mission and Integrity on the "About Us" page  

4. Let people browse profiles for free, present some "Loss Leaders" in the form of Discounted Memberships, Free Credit Giveaways, First Message Free, etc..(they have to register to get those deals)...welcome customers into your system. Don't nag them to sign up in the first minute, you will run a lot of business off that way.It was not very inviting (or clever) to have the womans profile overtaken by a nag screen almost immediately. Let them browse for free and give them a reason to sign up. Give them a reason to keep coming back. Why do car dealerships let customers drive new cars home, because after they've driven the new car for a while there is no way they'll go back. The sale has already been made.  

5. Feature your strong points, what sets your service apart from all the other sites out there ... Embed a video of a sample webcam session on the home page, show clients (with their permission) engaged in a webcam session. Illustrate this honest difference point and you should win people over.

Good Luck with the project!

[JimB]

I personally like every one of Phils ideas Wilson.  You should have your team look very closely at it.

[Willy The Londoner]

I better have a look at the gallery to check if any of my former vistors have changed there names.   Do not want to retrace my steps - so to speak.

Willy

Perhaps viagra has addled my brain but I cannot get into the site to make any searches or view the ladies.  I cannot even finds a place to sign up with my name etc.

Is it just me that has problems?   Maybe I will give it a miss after all. with over 1000 women listed with Zhuhai agencies on Chnlove there are probably enough for me.

Willy

[wilson]

Dear Phil

Thank you very much for your excellent advice. First of all I would like to offer you our Matchmaker service for 3 months and 10 free credits to Shifu Lem. If and when you register please send me a mail and I will add it in your account.

All our relationship staff are quality control personnel. They are responsible and accountable for the activity and quality. As shareholders they have a proprietarily interest in the soundness of our service. More specifically every relationship that develops is checked for churning/ scamming etc.

There is an issue that the industry has a high incidence of keyboard Romeos which can be up to 80%. Agencies feel that can treat the men with impunity. We do not subscribe to this and feel that every exchange of letter should be treated with seriousness and respect.

Actually if a couple have serious intentions, we feel, they will want to see each other hear the other’s voice and mannerisms, if they do not avail themselves of the webcam option there will always be a question mark as to the intentions. But I do concede for whatever reason an individual may not want webcam

You raise some very interesting points which we have been discussing and we will definitely address all of them. We are looking at them now and over the next week or so there will be action and we will keep you in the loop.Dear Willy

All our ladies are individually verified by our staff in China and this takes a little time. We are loading ladies from Guangzhou and then Dalian followed by Chengdu in the next priority listing.

The pipeline is full but we need to stick to our principals of what we promised. We are certain if we stick by our principals we will be rewarded by loyal clients – if we have client satisfaction we will have profit.Dear Abigbutt

The agency in Changsha is not Changsha Love Bridge.  Please be assured we check each of the ladies as their profiles are being uploaded.

Please also look at the reply to Phil’s comments as some of the issues about scams/churning are addressed there.

Ladies from other parts of China are currently being uploaded but this is a time consuming job as they are checked so we do this relatively slowly to keep quality control.

[Willy The Londoner]

Dear Willy

All our ladies are individually verified by our staff in China and this takes a little time. We are loading ladies from Guangzhou and then Dalian followed by Chengdu in the next priority listing.

The pipeline is full but we need to stick to our principals of what we promised. We are certain if we stick by our principals we will be rewarded by loyal clients – if we have client satisfaction we will have profit.

so there is no way in yet to see any ladies at the moment - regardless of where they are from.  That was what i was querying.  So how do your staff check then out.  Is it individually by going to interview each one or is it just to make sure that their payment has cleared!!

I know that I am synical but surely you are on here just acting as PR for the company you started.

It may be a long wait before you are up and running so thank God that there are another 1000 women on the Zhuhai Chnlove agency lists.

Willy

[wilson]

Dear Willy

Currently visitors in China will not be able to view the full version of our site. Only men with existing accounts can access all the features. If you would like to, do send me an email on admin@shifulem.com with your desired login name and I will create an account for you.