Chrysler’s Opportunity for Innovation…
I believe that the customer experience lifecycle is the most important social dynamic a company needs to understand and nurture. Why? Because good relationships are the cornerstone of long-term success for a brand. Build it and they will come is true—if what you sell meets a need no one else can—but enter considerable competition and customers are less tolerant with poor customer experiences before, during and after the buying decision. Microsoft, with its monopoly on the corporate desktop, will someday be forced to refine their customer experience lifecycle. (As a former CIO, I can tell you that I have been held hostage by the technology giant and forced to deal with costly and painful experiences due to their seemingly lack of concern for how their new releases impact a company’s life.) Nevertheless, this posting isn’t about Microsoft.
I recently leased a Jeep 4-door Wrangler. Now some would say, shouldn’t you buy a car that is more economical on gas? Well maybe in a different set of circumstances but I don’t drive that much, I fill my tank twice a month and need an all-terrain vehicle because of where we live. This posting is also not about being “greener”; this post is about an opportunity for innovation in the workplace: an opportunity for Chrysler to bring innovation to its customer experience lifecycle. A dynamic that I know, firsthand, they care about. As the former CIO for BBDO, Chrysler was their largest client during my tenure and we were involved in many aspects of managing the customer experience lifecycle.
Anyway, back to my Jeep experience. I didn’t have a good experience with the dealership. I won’t bore you with the details. I tried to resolve it with the dealership, went as high as I could and basically was told we’re not going to help you. At the same time, I was sent a customer satisfaction survey from Chrysler, online and via postage paid mail, that asked about my dealer experience. I filled out both and sent in a letter detailing the experience. I received a reply back within a reasonable period of time and it basically said we can’t help you because…we can’t. Take a look at the letter…
I decided I would call the gentlemen that signed the letter and see if I could better understand the process at Chrysler because if I had such a poor experience there had to be others as well and I’m sure Chrysler would want to know about it so they could correct the problem, right? I called the number at the bottom of the letter but I was told that there is no way to connect me to him.
Chrysler wants to know about my experience, I guess, I thought…why? I’m not sure, neither are they it appears…
Basically, if you have a bad experience at the dealership during a sale there is no way for your problem to be addressed within Chrysler, outside of trying to resolve it at the dealership. If the dealership conducts its business “inappropriately” they are not held accountable by Chrysler–it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. You have to pursue the matter outside of Chrysler. I’m not sure of the value of the customer satisfaction survey they want you to complete. If you complain, you receive a letter stating they really can’t do anything; you can’t contact the representative that wrote you and they don’t have that representative’s letter on file that they can reference when you call the customer service line.
You know…I’ll just let you hear the recording of the phone call. I was routed to a call center in India, someone tried to help me, put me on hold and then my call was disconnected after 15 minutes–a recording stated my call could not be completed at this time. I called back, was routed to India again and then sent back to the USA. The second call was 47 minutes. In total, I spent over 1 hour on the phone. So you don’t have to listen to all of the muzak, transfers and regurgitations of the incident, I have provided the last 4 minutes of the call below so you can get the substance of the outcome…Here goes, put your seatbelts on…(the unedited calls are available if you want them).
Dennis Pannuto is the President & Founder of Aha! Insight Technology. You can reach him at dennis.pannuto@ahainsight.com
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