Customer follow up

[sprogster]

Having been fortunate enough to have owned a new Fairline and then Princess Flybridge cruiser over the past few years.I have been amazed by the total absence of any customer follow up by the manafacturers.
All car manafacturers for example will generally follow up sales with a questionaire as to the customers impressions of the product ,dealership and after sales service.
Is this apparent unwillingness to obtain customer feedback unique to British manafacturers ?.
If so it does not bode well for the future health of the industry.

 

[lanason]

This is typical of a lot of British Business. Last week I went to see a boat - made an appointment and when i got there the guy had not told his colleagues about it and they did not know where the boat was being kept !!!! After waiting 2 hours they found out and i was taken to view. The staff on the day were very apologetic and helpful.
However the follow up call from the original guy was made to see if I was "going to buy it" NOT to apologise for the c**k up. I had a go about it and he passed it off - "that was sorted on Saturday"!!! I'm glad I'm buying a boat and NOT the Broker.

Adrian )

 

[longjohnsilver]

Adrian if that was Exe Leisure then it's no surprise. I was told by Avon at SBS to approach them about a seat for my Avon RIB, so I went in and they said they would have to find out a price and would phone me in a few days. Of course they didn't, so I went in again a few weeks later and was told the same again. That was about 3 months ago and I'm still waiting. All I can say is their service is crap and they won't have any trade from me in the future. And I know I'm not alone, their poor reputation will probably lead to their closure before too long.

 

[rich]

ljs if the seat is grp, there bl%%dy expensive

rich

 

[ari]

What happened to the Targa you were buying a fortnight ago?

 

[Guest]

Seems to me that they don,t need to at the moment so many new boats are on order they can just do as they please a friend told me that Sealine sold over 50 at LBS so that wil keep them going for a while, as you are a newbie fill in your profile, what do you have and where is it moored?, to get anything out of the builders(british that is) you have to fight, see previous treads etc.

Paul js.

 

[tcm]

Do customer surveys do anything? They give the impression of close attention to customer requirements. I think they do no such thing. If you really wanted to know what customers thought, you'd ringem up and actually do something about it, mingle mingle mingle. You'd listen carefully to the sensible ones, and less carefully the the ones with no brains.

You wouldn't get them to fill in forms to eventually confirm that 80% of the customers think things are okay, 10% think they're a bit shit, and 10% utterly ecstatic.

Usually, moderately crap companies do customer surveys. Posh hotels don't do them, neither Mercedes.

What are they measuring? Often they measure customer expectation. I was onced asked to rated the performance of a Ferrari on a scale of 1-10. And its top speed. And its acceleration. But the was still a bit crap cos sometimes it wouldn't start. It seeemd to slant it towards their agenda.

However, I *would* do customer surveys if I was as crap at designing things as Princess with wooden kitchen surfaces in a V55, or fairlines specially-postioned smash your head open grab handles here and there. But then, if I was that much of a donkey, I wouldn't listen to anyone, I'd hire cheapy designers who had never been on a boat (or in Princesses case, never cooked anything in a kitchen) and take no notice of customers at all, which is precisely what they do, perhaps hence the question. They are having quite a bad time at the moment, although they are way beyond the stage at which a customer survey would help.

 

[hlb]

Trouble is, not many people buy a boat for what it's supposed to do, or they'd all buy a \Nelson. All the rest of boat builders are much cleverer and build boats for what people think they want. (And what the women want). So loads of sun decks. So Think its never going to rain again. Extra beds where engine room and storage should be. Little engines knocking out more power than is good for them. It's Ok asking customers what they want. They just dont buy what they want. Just some thing with a flashy name tag.

Haydn

 

[lanason]

Targa ???? I wish.
No I'm after a Holiday. saw another 6 yesterday .......
Still looking is half the fun of buying - then I will look real close at the favorite .... watch this spot.

Adrian )