After living in Europe for nearly 20 years you get used to doing things on your own. You pump your own gas, you pack your own bags at the grocery store AND take them out to the car AND load them in as well. It’s different in America. You get customer service. But is there such a thing as too much customer service?

Tough times call for tough strategies; desperate times make for desperate measures. The folks at the top are telling their sales people to pull out all the plugs and do absolutely everything they can to make the sale. And no one is trying harder then the US auto industry to make this happen. But what happens when customer service goes over the top?

Under the gun with millions of dollars already owed to the American Government, I’m sure the word from the top is “Find every way possible to find the customers. React to every lead. And close the deal.”

And so they are.

Radio and tv stations are broadcasting ads that talk about special employee pricing deals. Valentine’s Day specials; President’s Day Extraveganzas. The online world is busy trying to sell too. Go searching for a car online using a site like AutoTrader and you’ll probably find ads interspersed through the search results promoting their special offers.

I made a search like this for a Ford Edge because I’ve liked the looks of it ever since I laid eyes on a white one at the Aral Gas Station in Gonderange, Luxembourg. That’s a bit ironic when I think about it now because Ford is promoting this crossover as a car that lets you ‘Drive Past Gas Stations Faster’. But I digress. Now that I’m in Illinois and in the market for a car, I thought I’d check it out.

I clicked on the ad and went to the Ford site and, well, those crossovers sure look nice, so maybe I should find out if I can get pre-approved for their 0% 60 month financing deals. On a secure site. They’ll tell you immediately if you’re approved.

Before you can spell Mississippi backwards, I had real people calling me, thanking me, genuinely interested in getting my business. No slimy Danny DeVito-type salesman. Very professional. Very nice. Very keen. I expressed my interest to him and I will visit the dealership on the weekend.

And the online quote - well that hit my inbox around the same time that the fellow from the dealership called. This was all within 12 hours of my online application.

Less than 36 hours later, I received an email with a link to an online survey to find out if someone had actually contacted me. Because the email was so nice and short and gave me clear options - click here if you’ve been contacted - click here if you haven’t been contacted - I clicked the link. There was also a promise of a $150 draw for people who responded –so there was a carrot for the stick — but carrot aside, I was interested to know what they were asking.

Okay the survey was quite relatively short, I would say 10 questions, and it seems they wanted to be 100% sure that no one was dropping the ball on this. They asked my opinion of the salesperson, the service I’d received, how responsive I was and if I’d been shopping around to other manufacturers and if so, which ones.

An hour later, the phone rang and it was a very friendly lady calling from a call center to find out if I’d been contacted concerning the Ford Edge. At this point, I started feeling edgy. I told her that I had, and I had just finished the online survey. She explained they have a VIP Program that would allow me to book an appointment at my convenience and schedule a test-drive, would I like to do that now?

Well, I know that it’s a buyer’s market. I have seen that with the housing market here and with the car market too. I’ve been cruising the car lots where salespeople jump out of their cubbyholes the moment the tires of my car hits their lot. I know that if I want to buy a particular car, they are going to jump hoops.

But I don’t really want them to jump so many hoops. I know they are desperate. I also know that I don’t want them to be desperate. I want everyone to keep their jobs, that no more factories close, that the markets will only rise.

I told her that I would be trying the car out on the weekend, that I don’t need to be a VIP. And she asked if there was anything else they could do to get my business, I said, “Yes. Please stop bothering me.”

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As an afterthought, I thought I should let you know that the bag packers at my local grocery store pack the bags better than I do, and I am always impressed that the like things always go together. It’s as if they know where everything is kept in my kitchen!

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 12:35 am and is filed under Americana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.