[Bibendum90949]

I've the LTD stickers on all my cars. And more often than not, the popular automotive touch points in Bangalore are well aware of the forum and treat you well, be it at the A.S.S, a popular detailing shop, car wash, tyre shops etc. It also has to do with their awareness that T BHP ians are quite updated and knowledgeable. They rarely dare to take us for a ride.

More than anything, I've always felt when one respects them and value their work and genuinely shows empathy to their hardships at work, the relationship always gets cordial and they'll fight among themselves to get our car allocated to them. Yes T BHP stickers and merchandise do help but it's the rapport with the people that does the trick.

I've had experience of SA bringing my car back from their open yard parking back to the covered service bay when they wrapped up for the day as it was raining and car was to stay with A.S.S for an extended service repair. i've also had instances where i've seen them taking extra care of my car since the owner is friendly and a familiar face

Despite all the umpteen horror stories of Skoda A.S.S, I'm one of the happiest customers with them.

[xjosephjacob]

I've no experience with OEMs, however at dealerships what has really worked for me is rapport I build with people. When that works out everything simply falls in to place be it service quality, warranty, goodwill warranty, insurance claims and what not.

That said, I just talked to my trusted SA's at Maruti and Renault and checked what they think about team bhp. Save for a few, the awareness level among the technicians and service advisors are pretty low at least in my area.

The amount of information that I gather from this forum is immense, and I use the knowledge primarily for better decision making. Beyond that I don't flex my team bhp muscles. I see service as a human-to-human transaction, where people at both ends can mistakes. At the end of the day I'm an armchair expert, and they are the ones who are living on the field. If the service is good, I drop an appreciatory email to the higher ups. If it's bad, I'll pass on my feedback to the SA and give him an opportunity to correct it. Will this model always work ? Only time will tell.

[Himanshu809]

I'm not as experienced/knowledgeable about automobiles as many of the members here, especially the senior ones.

But I witnessed TBHP's influence when I made a simple post about the Honda service centre not taking responsibility for the theft of navigational SD card from my Honda City at their premises during service. And within hours of making a post on the Honda City review thread, not even a new thread mind you; he called me up to 'talk' and 'sort' things out as long as I delete the post. Which I found certainly surprising because let's face it, people who are nuts about their cars/bikes or automotives in general are a minority in our nation compared to the general populace and I'd say we don't have much representation in terms of companies taking us seriously, as in launching products based on what we want, because let's face it is a numbers game for them. They can't try to appeal to all kinds of customers, especially picky ones like us.

I was just surprised that he/someone else found the post in an old thread like that. It means someone monitors TBHP for negative reviews, either from the company or from the dealer. And though I had to apply twice before I got a membership at this beloved forum, I had been a daily reader since years and I understand why the process is so selective.

Earlier I thought they didn't want younglings here because we can be quite loud and obnoxious with relatively lower purchasing power/contributions to the forum but I get it now.

I'm proud to be a part of this community. And I absolutely cherish the opportunity to interact with like minded people from all parts of the world. Thanks to the mods for letting me a part of this wonderful forum.

Also, haters gonna hate. I actually enjoy it, it means you stand for something.

[mayank612722]

Originally Posted by GTO

That being said, every OEM - 100% of them - are daily readers of Team-BHP. Even the ones that detest Team-BHP are regular readers because - end of the day - more than BHPians, it is their own customers talking. The day you stop listening to your customers is the start of the end of your organisation.

I don't think the point needs any reassuring but I feel great telling you that a Team BHP post about tyre warranty reached the manufacturer's senior leadership within hours.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Himanshu809

I'm not as experienced/knowledgeable about automobiles as many of the members here, especially the senior ones. .

thanks for sharing your positive experience.

A word of caution, don’t let seniority, or something like mature age, cloud your judgement. There are a lot of old guys just bitching out there on the internet.
Age doesn’t automatically bring wisdom. Many people confuse experience with being stuck in a rut and having an increasingly more limited view of the world as years pass by.

My money is on the young and the inexperienced! The old ones by and large dislike change, so better not to expect too much forward looking.

Jeroen

[jithin23]

Yes, any OEM or dealer takes a Team Bhpian very seriously (some of them are scared of Bhpians because we know what we exactly want!) because we know a lot more than the SA or dealers in general. I've encountered this situation twice:

Once while helping one of my close friends purchase his XUV500 W9 in 2019. He didn't know about PDI or negotiations. When I took the PDI checklist, the dealer didn't utter a word, he just let us do the PDI as many times as we wanted to and did upsell to force for insurance and we got a cool 1L off on the on road price.

Another time during my tyre purchase at Said Iyengar tyres, Indiranagar. That dude had different respect towards after I told him that I'm a bhpian.

Yes, some dealers frown upon bhpians because we tend to cut off all the extras during the car purchase or maintenance.

Even FASS guys know about our presence and don't mess around with my car much.

In terms of OEM's Ford India shouldn't have behaved like a child to Team-Bhp when the EcoSport S was launched. That incident also shows that our community is quite a powerful one across the world, not only in India!

This thread is quite interesting and it's better late than never to bring this topic up!

P.S.: I put the Team-BHP sticker just a few months ago on my car despite being a member for 2 years. Only thing that saddens me is that others those who aren't members also use these stickers and it's difficult to spot the legit Bhpians.

[mmxylorider]

This is from a couple of months ago when I dropped off my Accord at a local garage (in the USA) for an oil change (15 months, 3K miles - yep, the pandemic effect). The Accord key is on a TBHP key chain and the advisor found that to be very unique. A quick 2 minute summary of the site (Indian auto scene, travelogues, reviews) and the content it offers and the advisor said he would read through during his free time. When I picked up the car, he was impressed with what he could browse through and he did mention that one of the reviews he read was so detailed he wondered if the manufacturer provided inputs.
Felt good and hopefully he is still browsing and getting to know some hitherto unknown facts and information.

[Arvind319]

Few years back, was looking for upgrade from our Verna transform SX. Had not decided what type of vehicle to go for (Compact SUV / Sedan / full size SUV ). Me and wife were only doing random visits to multiple showrooms to see the options available and wanted to feel the car to fill in the shoes of Verna. We didn't like the new Verna available then. Happened to visit Shireesh Auto Yelahanka on a lazy weekend. The sales manager Nithin JP immediately arranged for the test drive and while we were leaving the showroom, he suggested few long term ownership reviews on Team-Bhp and also pointed to some travelogue of Bhpians. Within a month we had our XUV5OO delivered.

They do follow the discussion here and share the positive reviews to sell their cars.

[jazrox]

My experience so far has been limited to a couple of dealerships.

I visited a couple of Ford showrooms at Hyderabad in early 2020, the sales advisors who attended to me knew the forum very well. One SA did a specific mention of the two hour long PDIs (in a nice way only) that forum members do when taking delivery. At Pondicherry, where I finally ended up picking a Swift neither the SA nor the GM of the dealership knew about the forum. I did show the SA certain sections is the forum and he was definitely impressed. I politely mentioned to the GM too, that he should check the forum and he said he would (never had a chance to ask him again). At the ASC (again at PY) I didn't even ask if they knew - maybe I should at the next service. Looks like awareness is indeed limited to certain parts of the country.

[Mile_muncher]

Originally Posted by GTO

We are brutally honest with our reviews (official & ownership, both). Plus we have many threads openly lambasting the OEMs, dealers and other product / service providers. As a result, 50% of the industry people I meet respect Team-BHP, while the other 50% hate Team-BHP. There comes a point when you really don't care about what others think & I feel I reached that stage a couple of years back. That being said, every OEM - 100% of them - are daily readers of Team-BHP. Even the ones that detest Team-BHP are regular readers because - end of the day - more than BHPians, it is their own customers talking. The day you stop listening to your customers is the start of the end of your organisation.

As long as we know we are doing the right thing, we'll keep pushing .

I do agree with GTO. They may love it or hate it BUT they definitely (most of them) read it. My profession requires me to interact with lot of marketing/customer engagement folks across industries and have also met few senior folks from 2 car manufacturers.
Trust me guys, people at different levels are cognizant of what's being discussed across threads. This forum (in a manner) is a FREE platform to assess A) what customers want i.e. Wishlist B) What can be improved

How they consume this information and to what extent things are implemented is at times part of larger strategy (commercial viability PLUS other factors).

[Old_Salt]

As they say in Hindi….log ( OEM / Dealers)

[ruzbehxyz]

Here are my observations:-

1) Few service centres, dealers, detailing centers do not know TeamBHP.
2) Many are upset over the forum not because of criticism, but because they were rejected and not accepted as a member.
3) Many people speak ill about the forum, but still read it, and will never mention what knowledge they gained out of it .

All in all, it is the rejection which hurts many and the negativity starts from there.

I am a proud member and will continue to do so.

[ssjr0498]

Do let us know of this place, will go there to get my car's washed

Originally Posted by Chugh_H

Last time I went to get a car wash, the owner tried and make me feel extra special, had a good conversation, and gave me an extra discount.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I just don’t have the insights, but if I had to take a stab at it: Car forums are just way too small a group of people to make any meaningful impact for most manufacturers.

NONE of my friends even know what Team-BHP is. NOT ONE.

Those who know about this forum are either (1) very passionate about cars or (2) involved with the marketing or service of cars or both.

Even a few of the CEOs of the car companies in India are only interested in their brand. They have little interest in the other brands and how they are doing unless they have a car in direct competition with the other brand.

They are selling cars today, but they could be selling washing machines tomorrow or toothpaste the day after, it does not matter. The car is just a "product".

The same applies to some of the biggest investors in companies like Hero Honda, Bajaj, Tata, and Mahindra. Even Soli Sorabjee, Hormazd's dad, had little interest in cars. He replaced a Corolla with a Corolla, with another Corolla. It served his needs and that's all the car was.

It's nice to have a forum where like-minded enthusiasts can exchange views but in a bigger scheme of things, automobile forums (and Team-BHP is one of them) cater to a very very very small niche.

[khanmaj]

The amount of knowledge, genuine feedback and reviews available on this forum help the members and visitors immensely. It really does not matter whether OEMs or dealers know about this or ignore on purpose. As many have already said, the forum does have reach mainly in the tier1 and tier 2 cities. I have been following TBHP for last 7 years and purchased my first car from an existing member in 2017. I still remember when I took that for the service in one of the Mahindra ASS in Lucknow, the SA was paying extra attention and very concerned about the details of the service because it had the Team – BHP sticker on the bumper. At the end, he asked me if I could give good feedback on service in TBHP forum. I kept quiet as I was not a member back then.