RE: Preferencial treatment

["Terrence Murphy" <terryjm@teleport.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-jettaglx@igtc.com [mailto:owner-jettaglx@igtc.com]On Behalf
> Of deecee@exit109.com
> Sent: Friday, October 09, 1998 7:33 PM
> To: 'jettaglx@igtc.com'
> Subject: Preferencial treatment
> 
> 
> Here is a topic that can lead to a good debate.

snip...

> Here is my answer. In my opinion the customers who purchase cars at my
> dealership should get preferential treatment over customers who live in
> town and purchased from other dealers. 

Hi Don,

I've been lurking on this list for a while now, and I 
always appreciate your perspective and input.  Although 
not the intent, the reasoning you use above can lead 
to bad behaviour on your and/or the dealer's part.  
I have driven nothing but VW's for over 12 years, so 
I've dealt with a variety of dealerships - both for 
purchases and service.  

Here's my relevent experience:
When I graduated from college I was looking to trade 
my aging '77 scirocco on a new VW Fox.  I knew my VWs 
and wanted the semi-rare 'Sport' model that had a sport 
5-speed instead of the normal (poorly spaced) 4-speed.  
I went to my local dealer, and told them what I wanted.  
They said "Oh, we can't get those, try a 4-speed".  I 
test drove it and didn't like it, could they get the 
5-speed.  They said, "we ran a computer check, there 
are none in the region, and we don't know when we'll 
get any in".  I decided to wait until I could test drive 
one.  Anyway, next day I'm in a town 40 miles away on 
business - stop by their local dealer - and they have a 
Fox 'Sport' sitting on the lot.  I test drive it, like 
it and buy it.  Of course, later that week, it develops 
a problem and needs service at my local dealer - and 
the service guy treated me rudely since I had bought 
it elsewhere.  That was NOT cool.  I was made to feel 
bad by a VW person for buying a VW product.  

Here's my advice:
Before you blame the customer for buying elsewhere, maybe 
you should look for logical reasons for people buying 
elsewhere (perhaps your dealer's sales force drove them 
away?), and treat all your customers as well as you can.  
I don't think you want to treat any customers poorly based 
on bad assumptions on your part, do you?  At least, give 
them the benefit of the doubt, or ask them (non-threatenly) 
why they bought elsewhere.  

Thanks for considering my point of view.

Terry Murphy
'96 Jetta GLX
'95 Passat GLX

P.S.  I always try to buy from the local dealer with 
the best service department.  Both to reward dealers 
with good service (voting with my dollars), and because 
I will ultimately spend more time there than in the 
showroom.