Word reaches us of an unfortunate “potential” customer and their customer service “experience” at an unnamed Toyota dealership. It seems that they endured some pretty shabby treatment when they dared to ask for a valuation on their current car. Now although their current car was a Skoda Roomster (in with a bullet at number two in the MTI Ugly Car Top Ten) they still deserved to be treated with respect and not openly laughed at and dismissed as they were in this case. As we keep saying, anyone entering the showroom should be treated like royalty, never more so than in the current economic climate, where every prospect should be handled like a rare orchid.
The problem they experienced I would love to say is isolated but alas it’s not. The reasons why a lot of dealers are not taking trade-ins is that they need to reduce their stock limits in the most challenging market the motor trade has seen for many many years. The experience they had probably goes a long way to describe why so many dealers are not selling any cars; lazy unprofessional staff who can only sell a car if a customer waves his credit card at them, points and says;
“I want that one!”
If they actually have to give any advice or explain the benefits of the product they are trying to sell I am afraid that many are left sadly wanting. Luckily there are many dealers out there who may like to make the effort to try and underwrite this cars value and construct a deal for these battered and bruised potential car buyers, My advice to them would be to call some dealers first and explain that they are a serious buyer and that they would like to buy a new car but need to trade in their existing one first, saving any potential embarrassment by meeting another numbskull. Also it might be an idea for them to try calling some Skoda dealers and ask them to give a ball park value or whether maybe they would like to buy their current car.
Yes late used cars are in plentiful supply at present but they are also great value against a brand new one so they are selling well too. The important thing is if a dealer wants the business he must be prepared to work hard to achieve this or prepare to close down and get another job. Unfortunately like most things in business it’s about the people and if you get a bad one which they clearly did then it can leave a bad impression of all sales people, which is obviously not always the case.
It is truly irrelevant whether they were even actually going to buy a new car at that precise moment, if a dealer wants to stay in business they should be consistent and treat each person entering the showroom with respect.
Will they go back to this place when they are ready to buy? Of course not.
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