Think of it in more simple terms

Previously: How much would you pay me if I sent you a good admissions representative?

You buy a new car. It’s a 1-2 hour experience, you get financed, you drive home. The only call you will probably get is from the guy that sold you the car asking, “Don’t you just love it?!” and looking for a referral. Makes sense.

Then you go to your first service call. You meet your service advisor, Brent, and he gets you set up for service. You go pick up your car, all seems well, and then it happens – Brent hits you with the quality customer service story. It sounds a little something like this – “Dave, in a couple of days you will be getting a call regarding MY SERVICE TO YOU. Anything less than a five (5) and I fail. So when you get it, remember 5s all over, O.K., Dave?” Then if you do business with Crevier here in Orange County, you get a mail reminder, and then another mail reminder, this one marked with the checkmarks already in the 5s, just in case you were voting impaired with the concept at the last presidential election. The call came, from J.D. Powers I assume, and off we went.

But you know what, no one ever asked me about my feelings about the sales process – never. And I thought that was odd.

So, off I went to Crevier and asked to speak with the General Manager. Lots of buffers getting to that guy, but finally I got to him, after every buffer made sure I had nothing to say that would have impacted them. We sat down, and he offered coffee and said, “How can I help you, Dave?” So I told him.

He listened, went on to tell me the merits of BMW, etc, etc. None of which had a thing to do with my question, “Why doesn’t anyone care about my sales experiences?” He went on to tell me then they assumed it was favorable or I would never have bought the car. Can’t argue with that logic. He was right.

But still, why didn’t anyone validate it the way they do with service?

After much back and forth, he told me “because they generally would not get good marks, and that would impact our relationship with BMW.” WOW!

Next time: What does this have to do with referral fees?