As a student - many moons ago - I had a part time job in an old fashioned hardware store. I learned a lot there but above all my boss impressed on me to look after his customers & ensure that they would wish to spend money in his store again.
Moving on - quiet a bit - I purchased a new 1200 GS in a Dublin dealership in 2005; a Cork dealership opened shortly after that & I transferred service duties to that dealership. Ultimately the bike came out of warranty & the bill for such mundane tasks as bleeding the brakes was staggering & occasional short cuts were apparent, so I learned to look after it myself.
In fairness I. Was invited to a customer focus group, the group was composed of happy & former customers (I was a former customer). Many flip charts & much honesty later the customer focus professionals were carrying their findings back to the dealership. Value for money & customer service encapsulated 80% of the message.
Moving on again; while doing a service on the bike recently after 120,000 kilometres of trouble free service (except for one fuel pump relay failure) I detected a wee bit of play in the back wheel. The bearing that I Was waiting on to fail had started it's final few laps. Hearing on the grapevine that the rates for this job (which is beyond my competence to do) in the dealership in question was not that exorbitant, a call was made. The workshop guy will get back to you was the outcome. He did not so I Phoned again; apologies were offered & I Was assured that he definitely would get back to me with a quote.
He did not. The job is being done by somebody else - my cash is going to somebody else. Somebody who looks after the customer.
Moving on - quiet a bit - I purchased a new 1200 GS in a Dublin dealership in 2005; a Cork dealership opened shortly after that & I transferred service duties to that dealership. Ultimately the bike came out of warranty & the bill for such mundane tasks as bleeding the brakes was staggering & occasional short cuts were apparent, so I learned to look after it myself.
In fairness I. Was invited to a customer focus group, the group was composed of happy & former customers (I was a former customer). Many flip charts & much honesty later the customer focus professionals were carrying their findings back to the dealership. Value for money & customer service encapsulated 80% of the message.
Moving on again; while doing a service on the bike recently after 120,000 kilometres of trouble free service (except for one fuel pump relay failure) I detected a wee bit of play in the back wheel. The bearing that I Was waiting on to fail had started it's final few laps. Hearing on the grapevine that the rates for this job (which is beyond my competence to do) in the dealership in question was not that exorbitant, a call was made. The workshop guy will get back to you was the outcome. He did not so I Phoned again; apologies were offered & I Was assured that he definitely would get back to me with a quote.
He did not. The job is being done by somebody else - my cash is going to somebody else. Somebody who looks after the customer.
