What do you really buy?

Yesterday on my way to work, in a heavy down pour my windshield wipers went out. Yup they just stopped working, I think my Dad would call this a "oh shit" moment. Well I got to Jen's work and had to switch cars with her. She waited until it stopped raining and quickly drove to pick up Dominic from school then over to the Hyundai Dealership. In fact this Dealership is where we bought the car about 6 years ago, meaning the warranty had just expired in April but due to the fact that is was a Pre-existing condition (happened back in October) they honored the warranty.

Now here is my beef with the most stupid service department in the world. Here my wife comes in with two kids in tow with an emergency problem, it is an emergency because A) you need windshield wipers and B) IT IS RAINING OUT SIDE!!!

Pretty sure this would constitute a unsafe environment, now lets be clear here Jen...Two young kids...Rain...4pm in the afternoon....No windshield wipers, clear? Oh and it they can't work on it until the next day.....Glad we are on the same page.

So Jen asks the all important question...Ready...."Do you guys have a loaner till tomorrow?"

Now I thought of this earlier and I said "Self, there is no way they would let a customer stranded without transportation on a warranty issue that happens in an emergency situation".....Well after she asked 5 times about what is she going to do and them shrugging their shoulders she called her dad to come and pick her up.

They had an unbelievable opportunity to take care of a customer, lock someone in for a long time based on service alone and they shit down their leg. Here is the kicker (in fact I have a couple) first, when one of your clients is in trouble and another person waiting for their car to be fixed offers her a ride, note to self we need to get better. Second, when to rent a car for twenty-four hours costs $25 bucks, you have to ask yourself are we willing to let $25 dollars stand in the way of making our long time customer happy?

So here is my math just so everyone out there doesn't think I am crazy or over reacting, if I buy a new car every 5 years for the next 45 years (yes I will be 80 at the time) and I average $20,000 per car that would be $200,000 I would spend. Ok this is being fun, now if I spend on average $1500 per year in service (this might be a low estimate between oil changes, transmissions, tires...You get the point) that would be an extra $67,500 I would spend just in service. This is not to mention that we would always buy two cars in the family so lets double this which would mean we will spend $535,000 over our life time in cars and service....But for $25 bucks (which actually it wouldn't cost them anything but throwing a dealer plate on the back of a lot car for 24 hours) they couldn't go a little above and beyond for my stranded wife with two kids in tow at 4pm in the evening needing a little help for a defective part on one of their cars.....$25 bucks....Or half a million in potential business

god I love capitalism.....

At 6:05 PM,  Anonymous said...

You have learned capitalism well Grasshopper. People like Sam Walton made billions knowing that customer service was everything. Just think, if you ever own your own business or work in a job with customer contact, you'll never make the same mistake. I know you already knew customers come first. It only cost $25 to reinforce the princple.

 

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