Honda recently launched its Jazz model. The car looks good, it's from Honda and therefore, I am sure there would be thousands of customers wanting to have a close look at this car. I am one too. So, I went online and registered myself for a test drive. 3 days on I haven't heard from Honda. This isn't the first time - I see checking customer responsiveness of companies as part of my learning process - I had asked for test drive of Honda Civic as well - 8 months back. I still haven't heard from them.
People who are familiar with the automobile industry tell me that generating test drive is the most important milestone for a new car launch. If this is such an important metric, can Honda explain why their full page advertisement for Jazz does not have a prominent "Call for a Test Drive" with the number as the call to action? I looked at the ad as a consumer and as a marketing professional and I felt like saying "I am sure this money could have been made to work better".
Honda possibly needn't worry about their lack of focus in handling leads. My experience with Hyundai has been no better. My online registration for i10 has not been responded to yet - it's been 3 weeks. Jai ho!
I was at a mobile store the other day for a new connection - it was a small store but seemed like a popular store in that area. In the 10 minutes I was there, 2 people came asking for Reliance GSM Prepaid cards - the store didn't have it. Now, you have a high profile campaign endorsed by a celebrity and you have created the demand. But potential sales are leaking due to lack of distribution. What I saw was a small pocket. Could there have been thousands of such small packets leaving not just loss of sales but disgruntled consumers?
If one looks at each of these examples closely, actually all it needs is for a few people to put their heads together and frame a process. I am sure there is one but the internal system seems to have completely re-engineered the process to produce results that are not just business threatening but also customer-hostile.
Dhruv
ReplyDeleteBrilliant point. Is it because there are different departments for 'new acquisitions' and 'customer service'-and neither is incentivised for 'customer retention'? While we love to churn competition, can we put a mechanism to spot exits or metrics for customer dissatisfaction?
Achyut
Your fault, did the ad say "You can email for a test drive" ? Surely not, why did you email them ;-)
ReplyDeleteUnfortuantely, even during recession, businesses don't go extra mile to please their prospective clients. They don't think for a second before spending huge amounts of monies on a full page ad, but when it comes to the internet (advertising or responding to queries) - they feel internet is a waste of time :-(
No Surprises you mentioning this -
ReplyDeleteWhile I have not been thinking too much on this subject until very recently, at the outset a question thats been challenging my thought
process offlate - do many companies and people in business succeed by accident but not by plan?
In an attempt to identify the potential route causes for this behavior from even famous brands, I'm trying to answer few questions for myself even before I make the list that could probably fill of the dark spots.
* Do companies reward their employees on not just customer satisfaction but also on customer loyalty? Are there any tangible metrics that
somebody already use?
* Do companies track or measure word-of-mouth? Is it possible ?
* Each company does spend money on collecting feedback. Do they track or measure the actions post feedback collection and are there practices
in place to ensure that this measure is a metric for performance?
* Do companies realize the value and potential of their product/brand/market and do they really beleive in it? For instance - the reliance GSM case : the dominance of demand over supply is because of any underestimation or purely complacency, I mean - did the marketing department fail to establish realistic co-relation between estimated and actual responses?
and many more questions still unanswered. My quest increases exponentially each time I think on this topic and research continues ...
I'm eagerly watching this space for any post from you on the potential reasons for this behavior; your analysis on the same.
Good points all.
ReplyDelete@Mahesh - :-) I responded to an online ad, went to their site and filled up a form! :-)
Incidentally, 3 weeks on, I still haven't received a response.