There the marketeers will tell you that the product is not the pair of shoes; but the product is the experience of selecting, buying, owning and wearing the shoes. [quote[
That's the bullpoo that they use to try to justify an £80 price tag on a £10 pair of trainers!
As to the main point of the thread; Give me the sole trader/small business every time.
martyn_16v - 6/3/07 at 10:24 PM
He's possibly quite canny, it is possible to wreck your business by taking too much on, better to turn work away than land yourself in a world of
poo by promising things you just can't do.
I don't know what it is about the automotive industry as a whole though, service is just so much poorer than any other area of business I can
think of. Garages ripping people off for unnecessary work, orders rarely delivered on time or correct etc etc etc. It's more of a surprise when
everything goes right than wrong, which is a low level of expectation that I don't hold for any other area of business I do. The kit car industry
does have it's own problems due to being on the whole low volume, but it doesn't have a monopoly on being pants, and in some ways does
better by being friendlier than your average garage...
andyps - 7/3/07 at 12:09 AM
quote:
Originally posted by miegru
Damn these marketing people; they are right!
Mies.
Of course we are
Actually, I do sort of disagree with you on one thing - the Westfield dealer (and many of the other manufacturers who have forums on here) is probably doing what he does because he loves the experience, and wants to be involved in it on a daily basis. The trouble is that as a get rich quick scheme it is never going to work because there aren't enough people around with enough money to sell large quantities at inflated prices, plus the small manufacturers rarely have a marketing budget which allows them to get the reputation which enables them to charge prices some would consider over the top (Caterham level, for example - but they justify that with r&d spend etc.).
As to the main point of your post - I know I have contributed to some of the posts, and have been criticised this evening specifically for a comment I have made in one. But, I think it only fair in a public forum that people are able to voice their opinion, and ask how others have got on. I try not to take a one sided approach as I feel some on here do, and will add comments as I see appropriate about comments made by others.
I am a marketer who is passionate about providing good customer service, and to me that means promising what you can deliver, and delivering what you promise. Bodgers engineering firm has the right attitude in my opinion - and is very lucky to be in that situation, but most importantly he communicated it and gave the customer a choice.
Whenever people or computers are involved mistakes will be made. It is how that mistake is dealt with which makes the difference. I could talk in depth about research which proves that a well handled complaint makes a customer more loyal, but I think it is time for bed!
02GF74 - 7/3/07 at 08:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by andyps
Whenever people or computersinvolved mistakes will be made.
WRONG! computers do not made mistakes; it is human error in data input, programming, design etc. at least until the day SkyNet becomes self aware .....
DarrenW - 7/3/07 at 09:22 AM
Did you delete your post Mies?
So much of what you say makes common sense to me. I work in the OEM automotive business and most of the kit manufacturers just wouldnt survive in that
environment.
The kit industry does seem to be unique. Unique in the fact that passionate engineers can actually keep going for so long. If it wasnt for such
passionate hobbyists like ourselves most wouldnt survive. I often think there are 2 main reasons why they survive and we are all to blame (in a nice
way);
1. Some tend to have blind faith in a particular supplier despite bad experiences (rather than total faith in the minority that give excellent
service, and i define service as Quality, Cost and delivery);
2. As we all need advice from the manufacturers when building the cars (very few can profess to know everything about everything) then we tend to be
almost too scared to upset the supplier for fear of being ousted from the 'click'.
Maybe some manufacturers should be applauded for creating such an environment to operate within.
At least i can hand on heart say i have had NO such bad experiences.
At the end of the day there is a wealth of data on this site to help people make the right decisions for them. We all know what we get into when
building these cars. That is the way it is and we have to just get on with it.
[Edited on 7/3/07 by DarrenW]
[Edited on 7/3/07 by DarrenW]
andyps - 7/3/07 at 12:14 PM
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
quote:
Originally posted by andyps
Whenever people or computersinvolved mistakes will be made.
WRONG! computers do not made mistakes; it is human error in data input, programming, design etc. at least until the day SkyNet becomes self aware .....
OK - not just the data input, but also the people that create computers and software make a lot of mistakes which I guess people like me then blame on the computer
martyn_16v - 7/3/07 at 07:34 PM
I'm pretty sure one of the original pentium processors couldn't add up properly, and so did make mistakes 
andyps - 7/3/07 at 11:12 PM
quote:
Originally posted by martyn_16v
I'm pretty sure one of the original pentium processors couldn't add up properly, and so did make mistakes
In my resolve to avoid pointing out that others may be incorrect I wasn't going to mention that!! It was the first generation of Pentiums which if you used them to calculate Pi to about 10000 places got it wrong! Probably because of human error in the way the chips were designed though. In service terms Intel did the right thing - once they accepted that there was a problem they offered free replacements for all chips which they had sold to date. Cost them a fortune but saved their reputation.