What do you look for in a Car Dealership & Workshop ?

[Ricky_63]

Hi

I have been mulling over this subject for long. Tried to find the answer talking to a lot of people I interact with, socially & professionally.

But then it struck me TEAM-BHP is the perfect place to answer my questions !!!! Why did it not strike me before today ??

So what would you look for in a Car Dealer AND an automotive workshop ?

I am sure we all have had our highs & lows everytime we went into a car dealership / workshop. Disillusionment, exasperation, frustration or elation, satisfaction & a happy feeling

Please be honest in your answers & NOT idealistic. What parameters are most important & what can be overlooked. What would make you go back & what would drive you away.

Let your views flow !




Cheers

MODS..Hope I am in the right section.

[simply_sunny001]

Honesty
Customer Orientation
Knowledge of Automobiles (at least their own products)

There can be some more too,but they are the one which came immediately to my mind.

[Sahil]

1. Transperancy
2. Knowledge
3. Prompt and courteous attitude
4. Last but not the 'least'- Discounts

[toiingg]

Honesty, Knowledge & good customer service. I mean, they are not doing us a favour by servicing our cars.

[aman345]

If I have to choose any dealership first think I look for is location ie if I live in east Delhi then I will prefer dealer in east Delhi frankly I don't go for discounts if I get good service and friendly attitude then I don't mind paying.

[phamilyman]

Persistence
Pride in the product
No madness in the service center

/which is why Dhingra motors
//Courtesy politeness are basics I take for granted!

[Ricky_63]

Totally agree with all of the above points.

I think thorough Knowledge of their product, is the most important thing.
Simply because if they do not know the product well, what are they going to advice or correct. They'd probably be ineffective, as a lot of service advisors are.

Honesty needs to be unquestionably there , else we will feel cheated & never want to return to that particular service provider.
Unfortunately that is not a virtue a number of workshops & dealers have.

Customer service : most definately.
A lot of their short comings can be overcome if they win customer confidence. All of us feel the need to be treated with respect & courtesy. We all want our problems addressed with utmost care. In case of a problem we would want the customer care executive to accept their workshops/dealerships fault & rectify the same, without trying to show it as an obligation.


B U T

A lot of dealerships / Workshops have all or most of the above lacking

A lot of gullible people are taken for a ride time & again. Many people are just lay persons. They do not know the intricacies of an automobile. The Dealerships / Workshops take advantage of their ignorance & fleece people left, right & center.

I have had an experiance where a Skoda dealer insisted that the "pollen filter" had to be replaced on XXX service.

When I told him the mileage of my car is way under the mandatory XXX service schedule, he stil insisted on changing the filter without my consent. This is the kind of high handedness some of these guys resort to.

Anyways, do keep haring your view points & experiances !!!!



Cheers

[muralisk]

Here are few parameters that I look for in both Car dealers and Automotive workshops.
Car Dealer:
* - Honesty
* - Not too pushy in selling what they want rather than what I want
* - Articulate in explaining every aspect of the product

Workshop:
* - Honesty & reliability
* - Sincere in service
* - Attention to detail

What really drives me away is the opposite of what I have listed above.

[agbenny]

Valuing the customer - Both at sales and support.

The Service Manager at local GM workshop called me (to my Mobile) for a personal help for him, which I happily did, But when I called him for quick advice regarding tyre replacement, he neither picked up his Mobile phone, nor called me back.

I have seen the support guys not treating the Drivers of the customers when they go on behalf of the car owners.
Finally, yesterday, when I called another GM service guy for the Tyre replacement advice, he asked they have the tyres sales and asked me to come there - and when I asked when to come there, he hung up the call abruptly. They lost the sales, I went to another dealer, and how will their management know this? This is a shame.!

My Question to GM here is, Do they value more their customers or the dealers? Looks like most of the Car manufacturers are reluctant to take any action on customer complaints. If you find GM India website/Chevrolet India website, you will not find a customer support email id, which means they do not require any complaints from their customers on products or dealers.

Six months ago, when I wrote to GM (after finding their email id) customer service with a complaint on the local support, alas, those guys forwarded my email to the dealer.

Now, GM service center guys calls the customers and asks if they recieved any feedbck form. If yes, they ask them to come to the service center with that form and get a gift as a bribe. LOL!. This is the way the manufacturer-dealer network works!

[GTO]

So what would you look for in a Car Dealer AND an automotive workshop ?

Great topic Ricky!

I don't care too much about the location of the dealership or service center. Most offer a pickup / drop-off facility anyways. My choice of dealer / workshop depends on:

1. Reputation. I conduct a good amount of searches on the Team-BHP forums before choosing / recommending a dealer / workshop. I guess honesty would be a significantly contributing factor to reputation.

2. Service advisor / People factor : Courtesy, knowledge and ability to deliver. Sticking to commitments is very important.

3. Scale, equipment & organisation of the facilities : You can tell a lot about a workshop just by spending 15 minutes on their premises. The one thing I detest is a crammed workshop that has cars spilling off on the road outside. This is a sure shot indication of them running over capacity.

4. Ability to understand a problem, and solve it within a reasonable time frame in the same visit. I am hard-pressed for time and just don't have the resources to keep sending the car back for the same issue.

5. Quality of work : Obvious, isn't it? How well-fitted are the new installs? Is the alignment / balancing perfect? Quality of service / repair is of paramount importance.

The most important is experience. If I have had a good experience with a particular workshop, I am sure to return to them. That's why point no.1 is relevant. I trust the experience of fellow BHPians too.

[esteem_lover]

1. Honesty
2. Attention to detail
3. Reasonable charges
4. Fully covered garage. (Don't like to see cars baking in the sun or drenched in rain)
5. Skill set

[Ricky_63]

Any organisation is judged by the people that work for it !! This would hold true for almost any business. More so with a Car Dealer / Car Workshop.

I have seen guys & girls employed by Maruti, Tata, Hyundai, M&M, GM, who have sub-zero communication skills.

There is absolute lack of knowledge. Their interest is limited to handing over a printed brochure & expecting you to read it & understand the features etc. on your own. Their eyes light up ONLY if you are willing to write out a cheque. Period

I feel there is a lot left to be desired & dealerships have died in NCR or progressed tremendously based on the skills of their sales staff.

The above is based purely on MY experience of the past 20 years or so !!!!

Looking forward to hearing of members' experiences & views



Cheers

[Ricky_63]

What happened ? No views worth sharing ?




Cheers

[Ricky_63]

Just wanted to bring forth this dormant thread. To share some experiances.

Some workshops have this "chalta hai or ho jaye ga" attitude. This results in loss of confidence in the workshop.

Commitment is another virtue lacking in workshops. They give absolutely no value to the customer's time & energy. If one was to be fiesty and commited I personally would go back to that workshop even it were a tad more expensive.

Lying to a customer on account of time, quality of work, spares used, jobs done also take away the confidence of a customer.

Indifferent attitude is another big put off.

One must remember, that all customers big or small are customers. Infact they are the whole reason that you are running your establishment !! Many tend to forget this & take things lightly or indifferently.

Quality of work is essential for retaining customers.

Pretending to be what you are not. This is another big folly that workshop owners make, with their "know it all" attitude. This is detremental to their own interest. It is best to be forthright & honest.

It'd be nice if members can share their experiances on the subject.




Cheers

[Tejas@perioimpl]

All good points mentioned. Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of choosing dealers with hardly two or three of them in most cities.
The moment there are private dealers selling cars (and giving service backup) of multiple companies, then the whole situation will change.