They never appear when the car starts giving issues and breakdowns.
Sales people. Whether in a well dressed suit or walking up to you in slippers and t-shirt in a ‘kopitiam’ are basically the same. It is just the value of your purchase. Buying a RM10.00 toy from a table to table sales person shows you that you cannot rely on them if the toy fails the next day. Or can you?
Buying a RM200,000 vehicle or even a RM40,000 basic commuter vehicle that breaks down a month later leaves you dealing with a workshop ‘service advisor’ and the friendly tow truck driver that will lend you their sympathetic ear while they ‘hook’ up your almost new car to their trailer bed.
After that the tow truck driver just laughs as he counts his blessings that modern cars are getting less reliable and he has steady income from breakdown cars.
When your new RM200k vehicle keeps returning to the authorized workshop often enough, the salesperson suddenly is too busy to assist you or even to talk to you. Well, the sale is done and the nice commission is in the pocket.
Good chance you are never going to recommend a new customer to them. So, best to ignore and move on to the next ‘punter’.
Even with car brands spending thousands of Ringgit every year to train and make showroom sales people be more involved with their customer, it only works with a handful.
Why? Well it is simple. The car comes from a foreign owned factory. It is delivered to the showroom. When brand spanking new with a bright red bow across the hood, it is all smiles and ready for its new owner.
After some time on the road, the issues from the automotive factory might suddenly come to light. The new car buyer goes back to the showroom to get the salesperson who sold them the car to assist in getting their problem sorted.
More often, they pass the issue on to a workshop service advisor who in turn does the necessary warranty claim. This takes time and sometimes, with some new vehicles, it is a recurring problem which the sales-person knows about, but can’t do anything as it is how they earn their income.
Selling a ‘Lemon Car’ is part of the job and it is best to just pass the issue along to the workshop.
Interestingly, a recent report from PWC says that 86 percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, but only 22 percent of buyers are happy with their new car purchase.
Consumers get frustrated and they face the issue of sending their unreliable car back over and over while the warranty is still active. So, why is after sales never taken seriously?
Will and do they ever get looked after by the smiling salesperson after the sale is done. Very seldom. This is the difference between a professional salesperson and a ………..
The victim is the ‘Lemon’ car owner who continues to pay the monthly installments and face high depreciation when they sell their ‘Lemon Car’.
So, are you one of the car owners having the above issue right now?
