The following would guarantee my repeat business for servicing my Fairmont and Focus:
- Competence at what they do
- Showing a difference over non-dealer servicing - eg: "we noticed there was a TSB for you model so we applied for you at no charge"
- inspiring confidence that I won't find a problem with the car a few hours later
- Good customer service
- Appreciation of my business
The price to me is not critical - I would be willing to pay an extra $100-200 per service at a dealer vs Kmart / Ultra Tune /etc if I was getting all of the above.
My last service experience was a great example of one of Brisbane's major Ford dealerships getting about 0 out of 10 for all of the above.
- Booked my car in for a 9am job. Said what I thought the problem was.
- Was told it would be ready by 4pm
- Arrived back at 3pm
- Car still not moved from where I left it
- Service people hurriedly replaced the part that I mentioned
- Did not carry out any further investigations
- Had car back to me 45 mins after promised time
- Said they road tested and the problem was gone, but the odometer showed less than 1km more than when I dropped it off
- Car still has the same problem
I remember back in the mid 90s I owned a Camry V6 - the top of the range of the old narrow bodied model. Southside Toyota servicing was fairly expensive, but they were always on time, the courtesy bus was clean, they gave a full debrief on the service and what to look for next time, and they always presented the car back to me in great condition - cleaned inside and out delivered to the reception door with the aircon on. My typical experience at Ford is - "your cars out the back somewhere", "I think everything went OK - the guy who worked on it has gone home", and about 50% of the time there is a reason for the car to be back at the service centre soon after for follow up work.
My car has never been serviced / mechanically worked on by anyone other than a Ford dealer but the experience above, has pushed me towards getting future work done elsewhere. More significantly, stories of great service from brands such as Toyota, Mazda, Mini and others has me looking elsewhere for my next car, when I'd happily have another Focus and Falcon in my garage.
When I have friends being invited by their car dealer to track days and new model launches, while I can see this as a sales tactic and it will add a few $ to costs here and there, they are also the kind of things that would have me coming back for brand loyalty.
One of the key reasons I bought the Fairmont was for ease of servicing as one of the most popular cars in Australia. Ford service is the main reason my 2 Fords will probably be replaced by other brands in the next 12 months.
MK
07-07-2009, 05:40 PM
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