Conversion Crazed

My Car Dealership Treats Me Like a Prince

Another long post, mainly because I’m sitting here on my overcrowded Delta flight back home for Thanksgiving after having endured yet another bout of abuse thanks to the TSA and Delta Airlines and it has got me thinking of a good customer experience I continually have.

My car dealership service center treats me like a Prince! Notice I didn’t say King, more of this in a bit. I have a Toyota Truck and I have an extended warranty that would be void if I went anywhere else to get my car serviced so that forces me to be there but honesty I think I will continue to pay the much higher rates to have the kind of service I get there.  When you are getting your car worked on often time the quality of the service is directly relational to the people who work on your car so let me tell you about K.C., he is the customer coordinator that has been assigned to me. First off I know when I call he is the one I will talk to. What make K.C. great at what he does is that he keeps it real, no fluff.  He’s honest, efficient (meaning he respects my time), and he is very communicative about my car and what they are doing to it. The other thing that sets him apart is his demeanor with customers. It changes with each customer, and at my last service I had a chance to watch him interact with several customers. I’m a fairly kick-back person with people I trust so with me he is casual but I noticed that when he spoke to another long time customer, a businessman who would fit the bank executive stereotype perfectly, he changed his demeanor instantly to make that person comfortable. With me it’s “Hey, Brian” and some bullshitting, but with this other customer it was “Hello Mr. so-and-so” His conversation was very perfunctory and devoid of slang or superfluous talk. The banker-type customer was very satisfied with the conversation and walked away content. His talent is evidenced in the waiting room where the dealership posts thank you letters from customers. While there are 8-10 other customer coordinators almost all the many letters mention K.C. by name. Another driving reminder that a companies brand value and reputation is often represented by customer service and it’s important to have the right person in the right role.

Now back to not being treated as a King. A friend and I were talking about our getting our cars worked on, Dave bought a new Lexus from a dealership in the bay area. He explained that all he has to is drive up to his dealership and they come out to the car, he signs the paperwork, and they had him keys to a loaner, regardless of how long they will have the car. If they keep it longer that they quoted him earlier the dealership often throws in perks like a free oil change. He truly is treated like a King. My dealership treats me fairly, my customer service experience is good, they automatically fix things under warranty or recall, but instead of free loaners they offer shuttle services and they don’t give me free oil changes.

But here’s the deal, could Toyota treat me like Lexus? Yes, but they couldn’t afford it and what’s more I don’t expect any of those perks… I bought a Toyota not a luxury car for 3x the price. They have done something that is often difficult for a lot of companies to master: how much customer satisfaction can you afford? My Toyota experience highlights to me the importance of understanding that balance between perfect customer experience at a high cost and a good customer experience at an affordable, sustainable, and scalable rate.

In contrast to this principle is my experience recently ordering an Apple laptop. I have high expectations of Apple and it’s products. They have positioned themselves in a premium place and I expected premium service. However, let’s just say my experience has been very disappointing. I might write about this later.

In general, I think most companies could focus their efforts on the small yet meaningful customer interactions that are complimentary to the customer’s expectations of the brand/product and be a whole lot more profitable and have higher customer satisfaction.

Question for y’all, what the most pleasantly surprising customer experience you have had. Not the best but the most surprising. Were you treated like a prince when you were expecting to be treated as a pauper?

Leave your Print

Does anyone find it strange that the government chose to use the campaign “Leave your Print” as the campaign to educate people about voting electronically? I mean wasn’t one of the big concerns that “Average Joe American” had about voting electronically was that there was less of a sense of anonymity?

I mean if you’re worried about the government keeping track of what you’re doing and how you’re voting I can’t think of a worse way to communicate the program than a fingerprint and a tag line that has a double meaning of "have influence" as well as "we have your print and we are tracking you"

I just think the nation's voter education campaign shouldn't look like the latest neighborhood crime watch flier. Anyone think I'm seeing this wrong?

Differentiation and Elections

I’m going to spend some more time on elections. Another absolutely surprising thing to me is how candidates for public office advertise. Talk about your clutter! Every overpass corner or highly trafficked neighborhood is awash with posters and banners advertising candidates.

One big problem. they are all the same. Crosswalks awash with red, white, blue, banners, stars, flags, and large names. How any candidate stands out I’ll never know but I’m pretty sure the banners bunched together have no effect. Not only are you not standing out from the person you are running against but how can you stand out from the people who are not even in your race? You’re only hope is that you have a name that stands out, like Bond :). 

It makes me wonder with how much money is thrown at campaigns why no one trying to stand out. I hear the defense that this look and feel is what people come to expect is that true or is that what we have trained people to look for? When’s the last time you saw an ad that stood out? How about advertising some differentiations besides your party affiliation? Same on TV ads… what’s the last creative political ad you saw? Here’s mine: Here’s a good one: Ed Lamont can’t make a good cup of coffee…

My Election Day Coverage

I'm going to take a break from my usual subjects to write a bit about the Election. First off as an aside I could not be happier with the results, and that's all I will say about my political leanings.

Let me start off by saying I revel in my citizenship... revel in it! Just the thought of it makes me feel warm and tingly. I view my civic duties as honors and privileges. I've served proudly on three jury's and have never missed a chance to vote since I turned 18. Election Day sees me dressing up in my finest and heading off to the polls. This year was no exception and especially looked forward to voting electronically (first time for my precinct).

Overall things went really well but there were a few concerns that were apparent. Most have to do with how we approach our civic duty:

First off, God Bless our precinct volunteers! tireless men and women who give up many days a year to run our polling stations in an efficient and patriotic way. With how critical the electoral function is and the increased scrutiny of recent elections (not to mention very impatient voters) they do an amazing job. What concerns me is that almost all of them are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s+. Where are the young people participating in their government? A reality of our new form of voting was very apparent on Tuesday. Typically the elderly are less comfortable, and have a much lower adoption rate, of technological improvements. My precinct volunteers were very apparent in their frustration with the electronic voting systems and very uncomfortable with maintaining the machines, cards, etc. This caused things to be very sloppy leading me to my second issue.

I could have voted at least 10 times if I wanted to, hear that Lt. Governor Herbert? 10 times, at least!  This is because of three things, 1) the lack of precinct volunteers; there just were not enough “eyes on the till”. 2) I was not asked for ID, this is not a law so I wasn't required but America: we must change this! All I had to do was walk to 10 different precincts pretending to be someone on the list and I could have voted each time. 3) The electronic cards; I had an issue with mine before I started so they volunteers cleared it and I was able to vote. This had me thinking what if I voted and then went to the table and said mine was having issues, they clear it and voila I can vote again. The voter information slogan changes from "leave your print" to "vote early, vote often".

RANT ON, Lastly I need to spend a minute ranting about the first screen (electronic) or first question (paper) that has been on every ballot I have ever cast. “If you would like to vote for a particular party in all elections, choose you party” You can then select one of the 7+ parties and be done voting. This is called Single Transferable Voting or Choice Voting. Are you Serious!!! What kind of question is that? If you have ever done that just freaking stay home. Don’t vote. Seriously, don’t vote, your vote shouldn’t count. Let me be clear I’m not saying people shouldn’t vote for all candidates that are of the same party if you believe in the candidates but just issuing a blanket vote is like saying I don’t care. You should be doing your homework if you are going to vote democrat, republican, etc. you should make sure every candidate deserves your vote. Blanket voting is an ignorant, unpatriotic, unwise, and lazy way to participate in our republic. America: we must strike this from the ballot, RANT OFF.

In all these cases I can think of one thing that will solve this easily. More people getting involved in the process. I was absolutely flabbergasted (almost rear ended the person in front of me) to hear a woman on our local news say she couldn’t vote because “the line to vote was an hour long and she had things to do.” WTF! How trite do you have to hold your citizenship that you cannot spend 1 in line waiting to influence your country, community, and family for the better but you can spend 15-20 min. complaining to a reporter about how you don’t have any time to cote. Disgusting! Wake up people! Your vote is your power to influence your democracy, your community, and your families future. Picture is of a line to vote in Afghanistan average wait was 6-8 hours because of high turnout.

Get involved! learn about your government, learn about your elected officials, participate during the year in your government (not just at election time), and most of all volunteer. I know for sure I will be working the polls next election.

Happy Thanksgiving!