Leisurely Customer Service

[Mike]

I don't consider myself the fastest-paced guy . . . as I write this I'm still in my jammies, sitting on the couch with the fireplace blazing. However, even I am sometimes amazed by the glacial pace of service at places of business.

 

Yesterday I took my Subaru in for the simplest of warranty service--the retractable cargo cover had developed a tear and the replacement had arrived. The timeline for my 7:50 a.m. appointment went something like this:

 

7:35--Arrived for my appointment (yeah, I'm always early); promptly greeted by porter.

 

7:35-7:40--The service writer is doing something at his computer, then greets me at 7:40; it takes him about 5 minutes to write up the service order. Not lightning fast, but not too bad. "I'll have one of our techs pop that in as soon as one gets here." Huh? I thought the service hours started at 7:30.

 

7:45 - 8:15--I wander the dealership, check out the new cars, grab a coffee, decide I'll watch some TV and return to the waiting room.

 

8:20--See the service tech walk by the waiting room with the box containing my new cargo cover.

 

8:30--Tech walks past in the opposite direction, old cargo cover in hand.

 

8:45--Cheerful cashier appears in waiting room, calls my name and tells me that my car is ready.

 

8:50--Paperwork is finished, I grab my keys and go outside. Surprise--my car has been washed! Only, they don't dry it, because, according to the card hanging on my mirror, they use the fabulous "wet drying" method of washing . . . my car will dry spot-free. Uh-huh. I dry it off with the towel in my car.

 

Now, this wasn't a high-stress occasion. My life's been a bit complicated lately and it was actually nice to have an hour to myself. But, I really have to wonder how a business could be so inefficient and remain in business. I understand the need to process paperwork, but the beginning-to-end process took 75 minutes. Even lopping off the 15 minutes from my early arrival, it was an hour-long process to do two minutes' work (the shade is easily removed and replaced by sliding it to one side).

 

Even if you weren't focused on customer service, wouldn't it behoove a business owner to use his employees more efficiently? The place wasn't exactly overrun with customers.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

The content of your post ought to be forwarded to the general manager (and/or owner) of the dealership. It's diplomatic, factual, and enlightening, and I bet they'd be glad to hear from you.

[ltljohn]

7:45 - 8:15--I wander the dealership, check out the new cars, grab a coffee, decide I'll watch some TV and return to the waiting room.

 

A reason for the wait?

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

A reason for the wait?

 

If I'm annoyed by snail-like customer service, it will factor into my decision to buy a car from them in the future...

[hANNAbONE]

+1 oN mITCH'S reply...

[tallman]

Mike,

I'm pretty sure they recognized you and decided it was payback time.

 

JK

All in all, not bad experience based on what I've seen.

They had the part, they did the job, they made an attempt to clean your vehicle (how dirty was it?) and they had coffee (no biggie to me, I don't use it).

They have to submit a warrantee claim so they probably have a time reference to follow.

Did they seem to be booked to the max that day?

 

Maybe they held a Cargo Cover Tech Day and had several techs replace and remove it for practice?

Best wishes.

[VinnyR11]

Mike,

I'm pretty sure they recognized you and decided it was payback time.

 

JK

All in all, not bad experience based on what I've seen.

They had the part, they did the job, they made an attempt to clean your vehicle (how dirty was it?) and they had coffee (no biggie to me, I don't use it).

They have to submit a warrantee claim so they probably have a time reference to follow.

Did they seem to be booked to the max that day?

 

Maybe they held a Cargo Cover Tech Day and had several techs replace and remove it for practice?

Best wishes.

 

I'd have to agree. Seems like pretty good service considering they were busy. Appears to have coffee available as well.

 

Right part,fixed properly under warranty and car washed. I'd wait an hour for that.

[ltljohn]

+1 oN mITCH'S reply...

 

I agree with you and Mitch but for every three of us there are probably 10 that will be influenced the other way. Not hard facts just my opinion.

[Lets_Play_Two]

Now, this wasn't a high-stress occasion. My life's been a bit complicated lately and it was actually nice to have an hour to myself.

 

Seems like a good place to put your focus rather than turn it into a high-stress occasion.

[John Ranalletta]

Unfortunately, Mike, all behavior is motivated...

 

In this case, likely the only motivator was the flat rate Subaru designates for that repair/replacement. Service techs are paid and their performance judged by the time a repair takes relative to the flat rate. If the tech who worked on your car beat the rate, he's good to go.

 

The dealer should impose a "flat rate" for customer waiting times as well.

[Mike]

Now, this wasn't a high-stress occasion. My life's been a bit complicated lately and it was actually nice to have an hour to myself.

 

Seems like a good place to put your focus rather than turn it into a high-stress occasion.

 

I wasn't at all stressed by it, mostly bemused. I don't expect that something that takes two minutes at home is going to take two minutes at a dealership, but I was trying to imagine how the dealership's owner would view the scenario (at the height of activity there were four customers waiting for their cars). Incidentally, while this place offers cheap oil/filter changes, I don't bring my cars here for this very reason--it takes over an hour every time.

 

If I had been in a hurry, it would have stressed me; I treated it as a mini-vacation.

[SageRider]

Another possible explaination:

At least in my neck of the woods, many dealerships open to start writing up the service orders at least 1/2 hour before the mechanics arrive to begin work.

[Lets_Play_Two]

Now, this wasn't a high-stress occasion. My life's been a bit complicated lately and it was actually nice to have an hour to myself.

 

Seems like a good place to put your focus rather than turn it into a high-stress occasion.

 

I wasn't at all stressed by it, mostly bemused. I don't expect that something that takes two minutes at home is going to take two minutes at a dealership, but I was trying to imagine how the dealership's owner would view the scenario (at the height of activity there were four customers waiting for their cars). Incidentally, while this place offers cheap oil/filter changes, I don't bring my cars here for this very reason--it takes over an hour every time.

 

If I had been in a hurry, it would have stressed me; I treated it as a mini-vacation.

 

Since you are sitting by the fireplace, as a point of conversation simply, how long do you think the process "should" have taken giving you weren't doing it at home?

[elkroeger]

Since I only buy used cars and such (usually from nice people like yourselves), having stuff repaired under warranty if kindof a foreign concept. So my first thought is - why didn't you just ask for the part, and then put it in yourself?

 

My second thought is that I've always assumed that dealers only view warranty work as a liability. So there's no (or very little) motivation to do it. You've already bought the car. Those other four people in the waiting room with you are probably having body work, tune-up, oil change, etc. which amounts to $2500 between them. You're just corking up their tech. Maybe Subaru Corporate pays their time, but I'm sure there are incentives - real or perceived - to keep warranty costs down.

 

And don't discount that "go check out the new cars" angle. I don't care if your car is 1 week old - they'd be happy to have you trade it in on a fancy new(er) one!

[elkroeger]

While I'm at it, I never understood the whole employee structure at the dealers. You had to deal with three people: the service manager, the tech (indirectly), and a cashier/bookkeeper. How much does that cost to keep 3 people on staff for that? Nevermind the process: Bob writes up the ticket, we wait for Joe to finish his coffee, walk past his in-box and grap the ticket, figure out what it says, go get the part, wander around to find the correct "blue outback wagon", perform the task, do the courtesy wash, finish the ticket write-up, drop it off at Julie's in-box, wait for her to finish texting her old man, figure out the ticket, punch it in the computer, call your name over the PA system... Jeepers! An hour for all that sounds pretty quick!

 

For stuff I can't do myself, I take the bike to an indepentent shop, where there's just one guy to talk to - the mechanic/owner. I'm in, I'm out. And he knows whether I'm pleased or not just by reading my body language.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

...why didn't you just ask for the part, and then put it in yourself?

 

I've done this before on simple/easy warranty repairs. Saves me some time hanging around at the dealer.

 

My second thought is that I've always assumed that dealers only view warranty work as a liability. So there's no (or very little) motivation to do it. You've already bought the car. Those other four people in the waiting room with you are probably having body work, tune-up, oil change, etc. which amounts to $2500 between them. You're just corking up their tech. Maybe Subaru Corporate pays their time, but I'm sure there are incentives - real or perceived - to keep warranty costs down.

 

I think you're right about the dealer staff seeing warranty work as low-paying, low-motive PITA work that gets in the way of full-fare customers. And I think that's an awfully shortsighted perspective on their part. If someone is in for warranty work, that means something on the car failed early in the ownership period. If the customer is a reasonable fellow, he understands that this happens from time to time, and he's waiting to see how the brand/dealer takes care of him; if he's a temperamental putz, then he's already stewing about his POS car. Either way, this is the dealer's chance to retain (or lose) a customer for the marque - and probably for his own dealership in particular - depending on how he takes care of the warranty grievance. If the dealer drags his feet, the reasonable customer (see OP) will think twice about buying this brand of car again; the unreasonable customer will swear to never buy this car again, and will also tell all his friends what a POS it is and what slowpoke a-holes they have at the dealership.

[Sailorlite]

I would have been more annoyed than Mike evidently is. My expectation would have been that I'd be done and out of there within maybe 15 min. of my scheduled appointment time. Despite their reasons and explanations, I bet even the dealer himself would not have been pleased to be held up unexpectedly like that, had he been a customer.

 

If on the other hand, the customer had been advised that because of their scheduling, service writing, mechanical labor and bookkeeping procedures, the customer ought to plan for a least one hour's wait - during which he could wander the showroom, drink coffee, and get his car "washed" - he might have been delighted with the outcome or perhaps have chosen to just pick up the part and go home. The issue here is the "negative surprise". I, and no one else, likes that.

[elkroeger]

...that's an awfully shortsighted perspective on their part....

 

Bingo. The owner is motivated, perhaps, to offer tip top customer service, but the quandry is always - how do you instill that same motivation in the employees? And that 3 man process is maybe okay for big jobs, like a tranny or valve job, but too cumbersome for small jobs. it seems to me that they ought to have a "quickie" aisle like the grocery store.

 

The whole thing reminds me of "all you can eat" deals at restaurants. Sure, you can ask for, and have, more shrimp every time the waitress passes by, but you only get 4 shrimp at a time, and then it's only AFTER she's made her rounds with the other patrons. It takes 20 minutes between shrimp courses, and nobody can wait that long.

 

You get the same effect when taking the car in on your bumper-to-bumper warranty, for dumb little things. Is that wonky bit on the cup-holder really worth an hour long hassle? (Two hours if you count the drive, etc.)

[Lets_Play_Two]

While I'm at it, I never understood the whole employee structure at the dealers. You had to deal with three people: the service manager, the tech (indirectly), and a cashier/bookkeeper. How much does that cost to keep 3 people on staff for that? Nevermind the process: Bob writes up the ticket, we wait for Joe to finish his coffee, walk past his in-box and grap the ticket, figure out what it says, go get the part, wander around to find the correct "blue outback wagon", perform the task, do the courtesy wash, finish the ticket write-up, drop it off at Julie's in-box, wait for her to finish texting her old man, figure out the ticket, punch it in the computer, call your name over the PA system... Jeepers! An hour for all that sounds pretty quick!

 

For stuff I can't do myself, I take the bike to an indepentent shop, where there's just one guy to talk to - the mechanic/owner. I'm in, I'm out. And he knows whether I'm pleased or not just by reading my body language.

 

Absolutely, that's what plagues a lot of business and (OMG) our government. But it is also the price of growth and in some cases the victim of an ever increasing cost structure. Why aren't their more independent mechanics. When I was a kid, every "service station" was independently owned by a mechanic. My Dad used to get a discount on buying gas if he pumped it himself so the mechanic could do what made money for him and not pump gas!!! Do you really think you could simply go to an independent to get a 30 minute oil change? "Nobody" does their own any more and we are all in a hurry to get things done. I think that the expectation that a dealer could provide any service in 15 minutes is what is wrong, not that the time is necessarily unreasonable.

[Mike]

To answer a couple of questions that were posed to me: I would think that a dealer should be able to handle a transaction like this in 15-20 minutes. I could have done it on my own, but I never thought to ask the question.

 

As I've noted, this wasn't the worst thing that's happened in my life. I made the most of it and took advantage of the down time. It struck me as kind of funny, but also as the sort of thing that could easily be fixed if the dealership made a priority of respecting their customers' time.

 

Having said all of that, I like all the people in the service department with whom I've dealt. I like these people; I'm just a little taken aback by their very casual approach to business.

 

I have run into the opposite experience elsewhere, dealerships where the service people are hustling and working very hard at making customers happy, so I know it can be done. It's kind of funny to see a business where this isn't the case . . . time is definitely not off the essence at this Subie dealer.

[tallman]

Maybe these laid back techs ride bikes w/loud pipes to work so they are mellow when they arrive.

OOps, cross-threaded.

 

Mike,

How's the cover holding up?

What was wrong to bring it in for replacement?

Is that going to keep you from looking at the same marque in the future?

 

[Paul Mihalka]

Maybe these laid back techs ride bikes w/loud pipes to work so they are mellow when they arrive.

OOps, cross-threaded.

 

Mike,

How's the cover holding up?

What was wrong to bring it in for replacement?

Is that going to keep you from looking at the same marque in the future?

 

Tim, just be careful and don't bite your tongue!