Here is a pic of my imaginary boat that I take to the lake every weekend. We are big into wakeboarding and I try to go wakeboarding about 3 to 4 times a week when my schedule permits. Its a blast except for the occassional injury. You oughta try it. Much better stress relief than picking at people on the internet.

<img src="http://gallery.rennlist.com/albums/albuo49/boat.sized.jpg" alt=" - " />

 

Those are really ugly wheels. On the Cayenne that is. Doesn't the Pontiac dealer have something nicer in stock?

 

p-seller,

Today, we gave Bluegrass Automotive service another try (Range Rover, not Porsche). As I detailed above, they had not previously known how to program the keys to adjust the seats. So, we called a week ago to schedule an appointment today to have this done, and also explained that the steering wheel tilt mechanism was not working. They replied that this was a common problem, and that they had just fixed one the day before.

My wife spent over an hour driving to Bluegrass, and two hours there before they explained that the tilt motor was broken, and no motors were available ("on backorder"). As a result, they could not program the keys either. They admitted to my wife that they had never checked to make sure they would have a motor in stock when scheduling her service visit.

So, another hour drive back home and an entire day wasted due to poor Bluegrass service. Your "service" operations, both at the Porsche and Range Rover dealerships, need a serious overhaul. I know that it's not your fault, but you will certainly suffer as a result in sales. I'm sure that you would agree that it's difficult to justify any future purchases from Bluegrass.

 

Ouch.... ever get the feeling that when it rains it pours....

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Torags:
<strong>GENTLEMEN... Gentleman, I think Bluegrass has been amply buried and P Seller tried his damnest to alleviate the bad memories and there is some value having large corps being concerned about class actions.

I have found the original thread very interesting - but most of the contributers are from KY. We're too deep to get any other areas of dealer service - good or bad.

I'm posting another topic.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Dealer Service

Perhaps you would post for readers that dont go this deep. But please drop the dueling pistols, Thanks</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I have been reading with interest P seller’s response and customer service lessons. I think that is where the problem is. As a Hotel Manager for a 5 star floating resort, that have 2000 guests and 800 employees working for me as we speak, I deal by nature with customer service issues all day long.
It is not P-Sellers fault or any P-sellers fault for that matter because the customer service skills are taught by the management and the company's philosophy is driven by the owner or shareholders. I think you are very sincere in your comments and you believe you are doing the right thing.

I would like to offer you another approach in customer service, as a trained qualified professional in luxury service I feel the need to point this out in hopes to spark you interest to re examine the service principals you are being taught.

In this day and age especially with the stiff competition that exists, the tight economy, the increased level of sophistication of the customers, the increased knowledge and availability of information through the Internet and other media, NOONE can afford to loose customers. Even more importantly noone can afford to distinguish customers and put them in "classes". From all your comments I only care to address one. The one that said about the customers who "bought from you". This view is so outdated that it is mind boggling to me! A customer any customer is a potential customer now and in the future. The personal relationship that you need to develop with your customers should be from your initial meeting even when you spend a ton of time with them and they buy nothing from you, or never will. Don't worry they WILL remember and they WILL tell other people about you, possibly they will return to find YOU.

It’s all about personal service and no service to anyone is wasted. Not to mention follow ups, not to mention taking personal responsibility to help anyone at your dealership and giving them the best possible experience even to the one who just came for a re-call. A customer does not need to be a jerk and loud to get service and attention. Everyone should be getting the same level or service and the same attention to detail. Proactivity, anticipation to their needs and a lot of things come my mind; I could go on and on, about service, bottom line is that personal and sincere service is all that counts.

I will give you an example of the above:
On hot days we offer cold towels to our guests as they come back to the gangway. It’s a nice touch appreciated by all. Next to us there was another ship, their guests online next to ours to get onboard looking at our guests getting a nice cold towel. You could see the envy and the desperation of some; it was a really hot Caribbean day. We kindly offered them towels as well. The initial thought was to relieve their anguish lining up under the sun. That resulted in a few of their guests thanking us for the kind gesture and from some the promise to... cruise with us in the future. That was two months ago. Last week I had a guest who wanted to see me. He introduced himself as one of these people on the line in St.Thomas from the other ship... Not bad for a cold towel ha?

One more thing about your service advisor who has seen the problem so many times... The word empathy should be high on everyone's mind when providing service. What is new to your customer it should be new to you as well, no matter how many times you have dealt with it. That is the only way to connect with your customer and show them that you CARE. Another key word in customer service,,, Caring...

Service is a very complicated matter that requires a lot of skill and patience to be performed correctly. One very powerfull statement that i teach to my staff is to ALWAYS BE the guest themselves. In other words always put themselves in the customers position and ask themselves a simple question. How would I feel if i was in their situation and what would I expect?

Please do not take this personally, its not my intend. If nothing else I wanted to offer another view in a field that is my daily bread and butter...

BTW similar "customer service" technics have driven me away from my dealer as well and to think that I actually bought my Porsche from them...

 

Very well said, Danny. Thank you for getting to the heart of the issue. As an employee, you have to care (and I agree that p-seller does, although he is desperately hanging onto some outdated concepts about customer service). Also, management does indeed set the tone. For example, all my nurses know that I call every outpatient surgical patient around 7 - 8 pm to check on them. We call it "tucking them in" for the night. It's leading by example.

It's a bit ironic when you receive better care after spending $2 at the dry cleaner than almost $200K at an automotive dealership. One good thing has come out of all this. I no longer have any desire to purchase another car, which should prove useful for my road to retirement.

 

Danny,
Great post. I am pulling that to use at my next team meeting, I hope you won't mind. I am in sales and I have never given a customer better or worse treatment based on commision dollars earned. Like you I deal with a lot of people every day and to "classify" them would be a long process and not a very productive one. I try to help even people that don't do business with my insurance company and it almost always comes back two or three fold in referrals.

No company or sales person is perfect but how it handles their mistakes is what seperates the good from the bad. The Japanese are great examples as they strive for perfection, not to just be acceptable but to be perfect, everytime.

 

Danny,

Excellent post - summed up everything I've been feeling about this thread and more - and expressed much more eloquentley than I could have come close to doing myself.

The conundrum Porsche faces is that the excellent service you describe is just what I and others here have encountered in Stuttgart. Enthusiasm and open arms regardless of age or model of car in question. They just seem completely unable to trickle that attitude down to importers and dealers in the US and UK. This is critical as their home market is such a small element of their business. The external markets are where the profits are made and the performance at the point at which "Porsche" meets the customer matters enormously.

Ownership and dealership independence are not excuses - it's a clear case of failure of management. How many great products have failed because of failures in sales and customer structures? Too many - the product alone is not enough, especially in an increasingly competitive market.

Take myself - I'm 34, run my own successful businesses, I'm on my fourth Porsche - all bought used, come from a family that has owned 6 New Porsches, the latest a 996 Turbo. I've bought other cars new, most recentley and Audi A4 Avant Quattro with everything on it and I'm getting close to the stage when I'm going to be able to afford a New Porsche.

You'd think that the three dealerships in Scotland would be falling over themselves to offer me a test drive (especially if they knew what a Cayenne supporter I've been here on Rennlist). Can I get them to return my call?? If I wasn't already used to such shoddy service I'd be speechless.

If I want a Cayenne or 997 I'll be buying it direct from Germany - the local dealership will have to do warranty service because it's a European warranty - they'll have to put up with my bitching as well if it's not done properly - they won't have earnt a penny from me other than service margin, but that will be entirely their own fault......

Think of it I'm 34, my father is 73 - his Turbo is probably the last New car he'll buy. How many Porsches might I buy in the next 39 years....??

 

Christian, aren't you supposed to be making camp somewhere around the Porsche Curves at Le Mans right now? I'm distracted from work listening to a Brittish announcer on Radio Le Mans broadcasting from La Sarthe.

Enjoyable and informative posts, everyone. Back on (off?) topic you go now ...

 

Nicely said Danny, if you don't mind I will use it as some quick training for my company as well.

John

 

Wanted to offer an update on Bluegrass Range Rover. My wife has continued to work with them, and they are reportedly on their way (70 miles) to pick up our car. They plan to replace the entire steering rack to fix the broken tilt mechanism, since tilt motors will not be available for some time. Apparently, they had to get special permission from Land Rover to do use this "sledgehammer-to-kill-a-mouse" approach.

We are very excited, and appreciative, to see them going the extra mile, and hope to give a positive update in the near future. Dawn of a new day, I hope.

 

Wow.........

This thread was resurrected from a bashing kick butt direction to something positive....

Great post Danny... Looks like Bluegrass is on parole........

 

Power of the web if you ask me. Glad to hear it. If they can fix the key fob/seat memory thing please let me know.

 

Thanks guys. Service is very close to my heart, its a matter that is so simple and yet so complicated and by no means an easy feat to be done with greatness. Feel free to use my post for you sessions, I too often find great examples from other people in service to share with my team members. Our Doc Anir pointed out nicely what a difference caring makes. I will offer you an example that happened to me lately. Last year I had a guest, she was a 60+ year old lady traveling by herself. We were doing a Panama Canal cruise and after the canal, my Front Office Manager arranged an appointment for her to see me as she was really upset about the canal day.
She came to my office and she was really upset to the point of crying. She said to me that the only reason she came onboard was to see the canal and the gates opening and closing. That was a dream she had since she was a child. She could not do that as our forward observation lounge was packed with people. She was pretty unreasonable in terms of her expectations, but while we were talking I kept thinking to myself the importance of this and how to make it better for her. I could have offered her compensation in good will, a nice bottle of wine, apologize, show empathy etc. That would have been a good standard of service by any means, at least I would have agnowledge her inconvenience and acted upon it.Please bear in mind that her complaint was not justified and her agruments were very unreasonable. However I felt that this was not enough. I instead offered her a...video tape of the Panama Canal which we were selling at our shops and showed the gates closing and opening. I also promised her that the next time she comes with me I will personally make sure she has the best seat in the house to see them. She left my office and that was that. I made sure that the rest of her cruise was comfortable and she left. A month ago my front office manager arranged an appointment with Mrs so and so that insisted on seeing only me. The name did not say much to me, despite my honest efforts I see and meet countless people and I cannot remember everyone. When she walked through the door I immediately recognized her, she came over and gave me a big hug and said to me, "you know I only came back because of you". Without knowing it at the time I had really touched her and showed her that I really did care which I genuinly did...
Week after week we see in our guests comments, the need for care.It is not uncommon for people to return back to us because of our staff onboard. Very many times people return to our ship because of our staff even if they have done the same itinerary over and over again. I wholeheartedly believe that great customer service comes hand in hand with revenue and sales. The customers must trust you to buy from you. The term "used car salesman" which is associated with bad service is simply because the salesman did not show sincerity about what they are selling. People are tired or sales technics and sales pitches. How many of us hate telemarketers. Why, one should ask themselves. The old mentality of sales technics are thrown out of the window on a daily basis. Being sincere with your customers, showing that you really care about their individual needs not what you want to sell them or what you want to see them buying is what sells nowdays. When the "salesman" provides you with this type of service then you usually have a customer for life. Why? because the world is full of "used car salesman" types that the customers nowdays feel that if they find one that they can trust this one is a keeper. No need to venture to the ugly world of oportunistic customer service that has hurt them in the past.

Think about it. We are here at Rennlist. Why? Because it is full of people that genuinly care about others, a great community. We feel safe to buy products from people who each other is recommending for the simple reason that we trust and believe the sincerity of the person who is giving the referral.

Funny enough talking about Porsche, when i was at the factory one of the salesmen there gave me a prime example of what customer service philosophy Porsche has taught him. Besides being super friendly and trying his hardest to give me the bizarre info I wanted, he also offered his view about the Cayenne model which shows what great attitude and recognition Porsche in Germany has about their customers. He said that " Porsche customers start young. The myth, appeal of the cars make them buy a used 924,944 which is the introduction to Porsche. Then because they get the bug so to speak they will probably move to a 944, 968,928 or a used 911. At some point and later in life most probably they will have a family and then the Cayenne will be suited for them, till their children grow up and then that owner will move to a hopefully new 911 or Boxster." Basically in his words he did not differentiate between a 924 owner or a 996TT owner. Both were PORSCHE owners and therefore deserved the best service.
Nice attitude ha? Hopefully some of the dealers will get with the program and change their views before its too late.

The age of the snobby Maitre D' is DEAD. If my Maitre D' was snobish simply I would have fired him <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Ya all have a great day as we say in Texas!

 

Danny,

I think you should be promoted from HWFMR 1st mate / team registrar to Team "Guru", or maybe "Wise Sage".