[arijitkanrar]

Had been to a Honda showroom once for evaluating the WRV for my friend.
We had evaluated the EcoSport before that so we were comparing against that with the SA.
Noticed a particular level of arrogance in the SA that after a point became really annoying.
He was simply refusing to do a objective comparison. All through the 30min I spent there I only heard "Honda is Honda saar. Honda is premium product".
I asked what is premium about Honda cars that other cars lack? He just repeats.
On aspects WRV is better than EcoSport (for e.g. interior space, sunroof etc.), he had arguments like you'll get more space, you'll get sunroof. For everything else his only argument was Honda is better car.

On EcoSport he kept repeating the following lines in no particular order
"EcoSport has lot of issues in market"
"EcoSport has too much maintenance problem etc"
"EcoSport is costly to maintain"
"Ford design is bad saar"
"Honda has done research saar"
"Honda is japanese quality saar"

It was as if he was told to not to listen to any criticism of Honda and just keep harking about Honda till the customer gives in and buys.

Got frustrated and was leaving when he asks "Saar, you will book today or tomorrow saar?"
My reply: "Let me book EcoSport first!"

If this is the experience one gets at the showroom, believe me you wont even see the interior decor! No amount of revamp can fix that!

[mukeshgoel]

Originally Posted by arijitkanrar

All through the 30min I spent there I only heard "Honda is Honda saar....t".

When I bought Suzuki Shogun in 1993 even before formal launch, that was the time when popularity of Yamaha RX-100 was at its peak.

A friend saw and asked me why I bought Shogun, after all a Yamaha is Yamaha.

I told him "Yes of course,
Yamaha is Yamaha,
Donkey is Donkey,
Monkey is Monkey and
Shogun is Shogun."

Expressions on his face were priceless, I still remember that even after 25 years.

[pavi]

All these experiences are mostly location specific. I used to go to Vision Honda and Perfect Honda, and the sales and service personals have patiently always listened to my complaints and accepted the faults and always rectified to my satisfaction. So it is also something which heavily depends on the dealer and the sales/service personal culture/mindset.

[arjab]

Revamping showrooms et al has emerged as the latest fad amongst manufacturers.
Putting a new monolith here and a digital wall there to changing existing furniture to a lounge like atmosphere replete with snazzy pouf's etc, to rest your posterior, all looks and sounds nice but when all these additional investments do not generate incremental showroom walk-in's, the poor dealer is seriously in a big, bad fix.

Manufacturers fail to realise that in our country, you simply need neat, crisp , simple show windows which will provide all information about the product being "on show" to the customer.
Throw in a couple of knowledgeable staff , who knows what they are peddling and not try to pull the wool over prospective customer's eyes, gives honest price and estimated delivery commitments and the OEM's day is made.

In today's car buying scenario, customer's are armed to their teeth with product information culled from multiple sources and they also contact the showroom or its representatives through different digital platforms, for eg: Facebook, OEM websites, showroom websites, app's, WhatsApp groups so on and so forth.
The smart dealer should have a very strong backend team, collating this flood of information, analyse it, build a repository and follow up on it with metronomic regularity to convert these opportunities into firm prospects and then into confirmed sales orders. In metro and mini metro cities and tier 2 towns of India he who does a thorough follow up of all leads emanating from the digital enquiries platform will win the day.

Yes, revamping a showroom to sci-fi levels will definitely increase social media chatter, walk-in's and maybe also visibility, but depending solely on the prettier looking new setup will not gain incremental sales.

A large percentage of potential buyers nowadays do not even visit the showroom. They call up the OEM of their choice, who in turn hotfoots it down to the customer with his or her potential choice of model, test drives follow, financial deals are worked out and if all goes well the car is delivered at their doorstep.
More so in urban locale's as going to a showroom , battling through maddening city traffic , itself is a nightmare.
Also, with real estate prices going through the roof and vehicle stock pressure on dealers by OEM's to keep their pipelines filled, the added burden of sprucing up the shops may be too much of an ask, weakening the dealer's financial strength further .

Am sure, if layperson's like us can understand such things, OEM's would've definitely thought this though in a better way. For Honda , let's hope for the best.

[V.Narayan]

Even though I am a pro-Honda buyer I would advise them to up the game on the training, basic knowledge and competence of their sales staff. My experience with Ring Road Honda, Gurgaon shows that the sales staff were so ill-trained and low on basic IQ that they couldn't sell water to a thirsty man. Contrast that with Maruti or Toyota. Second Honda needs to stop harassing existing customers with dozens of unco-ordinated phone calls when a car is due for service. That irritation alone is enough to not want to ever buy a Honda again. Not sure refurbishing your tired showrooms needs to be your first priority. Tell me what you are doing about the more critical soft issues.

[pavi]

I think this was successfully implemented through Nexa showrooms. Make the showroom experience premium, your normal cars starts to become premium cars. Changing a normal Ciaz to Nexa have made it premium at least among the consumers (non-enthusiasts), while retaining all the switches and stuffs which even a not at all premium WagonR has. An iPad instead of a printed paper in the hands of sales personal itself make people feel that they are buying a BMW or an AUDI. Otherwise what else makes Nexa cars premium.

[adimicra]

Famous quote from Albert Einstein -
"“If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.”

Can't think of a better way to describe Honda India.
Customers are not fools. Yes, showroom experience matters, SA behavior matters, IPads matter but at the end of the day, only one thing matters - Your Products.
Honda is in a no-mans land - A decade or so back, Honda clearly had the edge in performance, packaging/space management and bullet-proof reliability. Then, they diluted their brand value by bringing sub-par products, quality took a nosedive and competitors close the gap or even overtook them in their own game. Now, Honda does not have any USP. For some inexplicable reason, they are not interested to bring latest technology like hybrids or even the new turbo-petrol engines and neither they are not interested to bring cars like HRV which can help them to re-establish their brand. Honda India is going in one direction and that is - downhill. These gimmicks can provide some short-term incremental relief but does not change the trend.

[jazzy47]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Even though I am a pro-Honda buyer I would advise them to up the game on the training, basic knowledge and competence of their sales staff. My experience with Ring Road Honda, Gurgaon shows that the sales staff were so ill-trained and low on basic IQ that they couldn't sell water to a thirsty man. Contrast that with Maruti or Toyota. Second Honda needs to stop harassing existing customers with dozens of unco-ordinated phone calls when a car is due for service. That irritation alone is enough to not want to ever buy a Honda again. Not sure refurbishing your tired showrooms needs to be your first priority. Tell me what you are doing about the more critical soft issues.

I fully agreed to what you said. It's the soft skills which needs more attention. They need to focus on the training, their technical competencies, even they lack awareness on their own models and features. Talking to them you won't feel any passion or intensity.