A little help: what is the customer perspective?

[GottleibDaimler]

I wasn't ..... I just asked how much! :lol:

Good!

If anyone ever wants to know how much something SHOULD be for a main dealer, just drop me a PM. I had a regular customer of ours whose front end had collapsed at Heathrow Airport while he was away.

MB of Heathrow wanted to charge him £550.00 for changing one spring! Talk about taking advantage of his distress! I told him he should knock them down or complain to head office.

 

[Andy.M]

He has taken some unessary flak, fair play to you sir, I like the cut of your jib!

 

[EmilysDad]

...
MB of Heathrow wanted to charge him £550.00 for changing one spring! ....

Christ! Was it solid gold?

And as we all know, springs should be done as a pair.

 

[The Pan Man]

Your attitude towards me stinks, for no reason. If you've got nothing constructive to say, post on another thread because I'm done responding to you, old man.

You have not made one sensible statement.

I don't think you are real. Why won't you say where you work? Remember you can' kid a kidder.

 

[The Pan Man]

OH Yes and I'm out of this thread before it turns nasty.

 

[exjag]

The phrase, 'If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen", springs to mind. Some MB 'customers' in this thread would do better to buy a Dacia or something and take an inter-personal skills course. No wonder you get nothing from dealerships with your caustic, combative, know-it-all attitudes. A bit of research before buying a Mercedes would have done some good. If you did that and still bought one why are you blaming the dealer?? You don't have the muscle to defeat the manufacturer, so vote with your wheels and go somewhere else. If you've already done that, what are you bleating about?

 

[drmw]

There are merits on both "sides", so no need to get emotional about it

I think GD did well to stand his ground - I don't agree with everything he said but could appreciate his argument(s)

 

[Gkinghorn]

So can I ask what you believe you have learned from this thread? What can you now apply in your dealership?


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[Neil H]

So can I ask what you believe you have learned from this thread? What can you now apply in your dealership?


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I hope they take your solid advice about totty on reception to heart..

 

[Benzworx]

What's your charge, out of interest?

A lot less than you lot charge

 

[Benzworx]

Good!

If anyone ever wants to know how much something SHOULD be for a main dealer, just drop me a PM. I had a regular customer of ours whose front end had collapsed at Heathrow Airport while he was away.

MB of Heathrow wanted to charge him £550.00 for changing one spring! Talk about taking advantage of his distress! I told him he should knock them down or complain to head office.

Perhaps you should have me up there for a week with you, i could
be of great value on customer service and good advice skills for improvement
plus i go to east midlands w/ends

 

[S.Speed]

A big part of my role as a Service Advisor for a Mercedes-Benz dealership is customer satisfaction. Customers who have been in for a routine service (i.e. oil and filter change, etc, as opposed to any repairs) each get sent an email survey asking "on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this dealership to family and friends?". I am then judged directly on the scores my customers give me.

So my question to you is, what sorts of things would you be thinking about when you answered that question? What would you expect of a Service Advisor, and the service in general, at a main dealer, when taking your car in for its annual service? What would they have to do to score a 9 or a 10? And what simple things could they do that would scupper their chances?

I'd be very interested in and grateful for your thoughts.

I didn't even bother to give even a 1 !!
I expected unreasonable things like the car being serviced when they promised it after I had bought it from them..
Twice I pointed out the air filters were filthy and the indicator LED lens had a hole in it, and twice it was NOT done..
Sooo I have a very lowly opinion of certain main dealerships..
No skin off my nose really because I shall never go there again !

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

The sticking point as always is price.

I would expect the expertise of an F1 technician for >£100ph and unfortunately my experience of dealer service fell well short of this, once bitten!!

I'm obviously a lost cause to the dealership but as I see it very little has changed since I last used them.

Pity really, there are the odd good dealership out there but it's not possible to travel to them for most of us and who can be bothered to find them with some many good indies about.

I like MB cars but they need to up the reliabilty to bring people back into the dealerships, if you felt that the car was bulletproof and the dealer good value for money this discussion wouldn't be necessary.

As an aside my 08 Ford Focus has had one item that needed attention other than standard servicing in 51K miles, that was a blowing injector that was reseated for £50, so MB up your game and all will be well.

 

[st4]

So can I ask what you believe you have learned from this thread? What can you now apply in your dealership?


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And what have you learned. IMHO it's good to hear it from the other side of the fence and why certain things, despite customers wants cannot and should not be free.

Whilst the customer thinks they are always right in truth they seldom are.

 

[Pinenut]

i think the OP has been courageous to seek the opinions of this forum!

however in my experience the one thing an MB dealer needs to adopt is a little humility. A humble approach which I get from two indies who look after my fleet - Mercedes and Honda.

Here's the problem this is what we recommend and why.....as someone once said KISS....keep it simple, stupid!

my 2 pence worth

 

[GottleibDaimler]

Perhaps you should have me up there for a week with you, i could
be of great value on customer service and good advice skills for improvement
plus i go to east midlands w/ends

That's funny, I spend a lot of my weekends in Essex as my family lives in Chelmsford. I might have to pop into you one Saturday morning!

 

[GottleibDaimler]

So can I ask what you believe you have learned from this thread? What can you now apply in your dealership?


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As I've said, a lot of the things mentioned are things I/we do as standard at the dealership where I work.

But there are a couple of things I'll be doing as of tomorrow. Firstly, I will fully explain each invoice to make sure the customer understands what it is they are paying for. Secondly I will call each customer before I go home to make sure they are happy with the service they have received -- at this point, they will have seen and driven the car, and had time to think about the customer service they got from me. Hopefully these two things should nip any potential problems in the bud.

Oh, and I'll be giving a £10.00 discount to every service customer, and noting this on the invoice as a loyalty discount, or new customer discount (whichever applies).