Every time I took my car in for servicing, I remember walking away w/ at least a $1000 charge for something or the other. Getting the loaner car was a terrible experience. You had to walk into a shoddy little "Enterprise" office in one corner of the dealership and then fill out paperwork - all that so you drive off the lot in a Ford Escort.
There were several instances where we had some serious gaps in communication with the dealership. So much so that several times we would just succumb and pay just to move on with it.
At the end of the 3 years, my wife and I couldn't wait to get out of that relationship. And our intention of moving into a 5-series. Ha! Are you kidding? Not even once did we consider it.
What did we do instead?
We bought a Lexus GS300. Slightly used w/ about 21K miles on it. We bought it from a place we found on autotrader.com. At the advice of a few friends, I took the car to a Lexus dealership for an inspection. $92 later, we were told except for the fog lights everything else was in great condition. We closed the deal.
For the next three years, we took our Lexus to Park Place Lexus for our servicing needs. Our experience with Lexus was night and day when compared to our experience w/ BMW. You drive in, check in w/ your service rep, and a loaner Lexus (usually an RX300) was ready to go. All that was needed was a quick copy of my insurance and drivers license and off I went w/ a copy of today's Wall Street Journal and a mint.
Three years and never did I feel like I was paying for stuff that I didn't feel like I should be. Perhaps I was, but I still never felt it. And that perception was all that mattered for us.
In 2004 when we were expecting our first child, we upgraded into a Lexus GX470 lease for four years. And just a few months back returned that back and bought a Lexus GS350. We expect that we will probably be Lexus customers for life. We look forward to owning at least one Lexus at all times for a very long time to come.
I could be saying the same thing about BMW. But I am not. Even as we looked to buy our last vehicle, we narrowed the field down to two finalists: Lexus GS350 and a BMW 535i. And the new Classic BMW dealership seemed to have all the "niceties" that we have always admired about the Lexus service experience.
But the key question for us became the following: "Since we were planning on purchasing the car, which car would you like to be holding outside of its warranty?" The answer to us was a no-brainer: the Lexus. Ain't no way I want to be holding a BMW outside the warranty. I immediately start to think of the $1000s I spent on almost every trip to the BMW dealer. Would my experience be the same if I were to purchase a BMW now? Maybe not. But good luck to BMW in trying to convince me otherwise.
Besides we have grown to love Lexus in many many ways. We have fallen in love with the Lexus ride. All the amenities in the car. And the topper for us: the impeccable service.
How interesting that an element of the car manufacturer's brand would be service at a dealership? More and more car manufacturers have realized that now and you can see that in the continuous evolution of dealerships and service processes. You can have the best product, but if every three to five months you get a real bad experience somehow associated with that product ... well then.
On the other hand, with Lexus our experience was just perfect. And here we are in our 3rd consecutive Lexus. And there it is, another brand I love. The Lexus.
Wondering what all this has to do with Internet Marketing (IM)? Can you see what this may have to do with Marketing? If so, that's really what's important. IM in my opinion is built on the foundations of marketing principles. And if you are going to try to learn and practice solid IM principles, you are more likely to be successful if you build on a marketing foundation.
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1 comment:
Lexus is focused on the concept of the Customer Experience. This is something Southwest also does to great effect. It is often not the prime factor, but since many of the prime factors are equivalent it is often deciding factor.
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