Comms and Expectations

[Evotion]

Well, I am actually assuming it will be worse by definition. That being the disconnect between HQ and Agents/Dealers.  There is no real going back. The path is set.

It is now about accepting the new way and hoping that HQ work closer with agents/dealers and that HQ also starts working closer with customers and prospects. 

Annoyingly, there is a not a lot that needs to be done. Just better strategized and implemented comms.

At present there is fear of the unknown. This needs addressing  ASAP.  

[Barrykearley]

8 hours ago, MJON said:

really want to feel a quality customer support

Try Porsche, VW or maybe Audi. They really are absolutely piss poor once you have taken delivery.

[Evotion]

Bentley are excellent - even get biscuits with my coffee  but it comes at a price!

[C8RKH]

QED re people will pay for a quality or premium experience.

Edited April 21 by Bravo73

[MJON]

3 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

Try Porsche, VW or maybe Audi. They really are absolutely piss poor once you have taken delivery.

Never bought into Audi, had one VW and it was what you’d expect from a volume dealer. Had Volvo, Saab, Merc, BMW, Lexus. All been okay, but also had four Porsche models and quite honestly (for me) nothing compares. Pre, post and aftersales, I have had exceptional service throughout with lots of additional benefits, really treated like a special customer. Same dealer throughout and I know there can be differences, be interested to know where you’ve experienced bad Porsche service?

[Mctaff]

Aston were great.

Porsche are being absolute dickheads re evidencing the 5k fix really needs to happen to my warranty company. I’m starting to think they just made it up 

Audi were always pretty good too I thought 

[Del Lardo]

10 hours ago, C8RKH said:

No. A crass response to be honest from you 

I have no issue with Lotus striving for, or attaining, profitability. We all want to see Lotus succeed. @MJON as I said it is NOT about the shift to SUVs to drive profits. We get the practicalities.

However, their approach is moving to quite a cold, push, experience. To me, that means they are losing some of the personal connection and what I am driving at is that at a time when brands are bending over backwards to drive a closer relationship, a feeling of connection, a fulfilling customer experience, Lotus seems to be going to a more transactional approach. Ferrari, Aston, Jaguar, Porsche etc are all leaning heavily on their history. Their legacies (including older cars). All to create a warmth and loyalty attachment for their customers. What does Lotus know that these brands do not?

There are plenty of very profitable companies out there who major on a close coupled customer experience. It's their USP that attracts customers and encourages loyalty which often allows them, ironically, to charge a small premium to protect their bottom line. It build "credits" with the customers who will be more understanding/forgiving during difficult times/situations 

A cold relationship moves it to a transactional relationship which reduces loyalty as customers do not have the same depth of connection, so a lower tolerance threshold and a higher propensity to switch brands as the purchasing decision is more cold, more transactional.

It's not as simple as your curt response suggested, in my point of view.

 

 

What you view a crass and curt, I view as a succinct summary of what Lotus are trying to achieve, in my point of view.  Aston and Jaguar leaning on their history isn't exactly doing much for their sales figures, so why are people buying Ferrari and Porsche, because they are making very good cars that people want.  Exactly what Lotus seem to be doing with the Emira if the order book is anything to go by.

 

As you don't like brevity, let's take a look at another car manufacturer who hasn't needed to reinvent themselves as they've had to invent a brand from scratch, Tesla.

 

I've bought two cars from them, both with zero involvement from Dealers, I placed an order on the website, paid my deposit, got a rough delivery date (sometime in Q1/22 for latest car) and received a text message a week before giving me a link to a website to chose the date and time to collect the car.  Collection itself was in a shopping centre carpark and literally took 5 minutes.   You know what, it was brilliant.  No dealing with sales people, no 10 minute pitch on PCP finance, no wasting an afternoon going to a dealer to view the car (if I'd wanted to view, no upsell on stuff that I didn't want.

 

So this brand, renowned for dodgy comms & dodgy build quality has an army of owners who will evangelise about the brand and cars, boring you senseless, because the cars are very good at what they do and they can't build them fast enough.  Remind you of anyone?

 

I hope that this response meets your standards for intelligence, sensitivity and length.

11 hours ago, CocoPops said:

I posted on the Facebook group to this effect...
As a long time Lotus owner (4th lotus, but 6 Hethel made cars) I am rolling with the "meh, it's Lotus" approach, but it really is piss poor quite frankly.

It HAS to change.

I placed a £2k deposit, like many others, on the morning after the global launch (preGoodwood) and yet I've had 2 emails and maybe 2 phone calls in that time. The silence is deafening!

Weren't you invited to the car launch events at the Dealers?

I had a lovely time chatting to a number of senior people from Lotus about the car.  Can't imagine many, or any, other brands letting that happen.

 

Edited April 21 by Del Lardo

[C8RKH]

@Del Lardoif you are happy with a purely transactional experience then I am happy for you. It's taken Tesla a long time to turn a physical profit and their product consistently performs poorly for reliability mainly due to annoying niggles. Demand is high, but they've had more than their fair share of production, quality and supply issues too that a lot of their fans brush over. So maybe it is the way to go for Lotus!

Tesla seems to be a marmite experience. Those who buy into it are the most evangelical owners I have ever met. But I also know of  owners who swear never again and have had extremely poor experiences, especially when things don't go to plan and the direct transactional experience has delivered a cold, inflexible, disjointed approach.

Lotus is going through a transformation. In changing the bath water my view is it has lost some of the babies!  Time will tell if the new strategy works. I'm confident it will drive financial results, but also feel some of the community soul will be lost with it. You might be fine with that, which is OK. I'll lament it which should be OK too. 

 

 

[Eagle7]

I know Lotus has to grow and become profitable, I just hope they don't become too big.  There's a point where a growing company stops being a company, and starts to become a corporation, which is where it becomes more like a government machine and starts to lose its soul.  I hope the Hethel group at least can keep their mojo and not lose sight of why they're making sports cars in the first place.

[C8RKH]

Porsche has done a decent job of it to be honest. They make what, 3 or 4 SUV type cars for every sports car they make, but, they are still making some great sports cars AND these days turning a nice profit though they do obviously benefit from Group shared development costs / buying power etc.

However, the importance of the "brand" is everything to Porsche and many owners and the crest is merely a badge to show off to anyone who is easily impressed that they are a member of a club.  I've met some very nice Porsche owners who really appreciate their cars, driving, etc. But I've also met so many who were nothing but dicks and literally just had the Porsche because it "fitted the image".  I hope Lotus and its owners don't go that way as unlike Porsche, Lotus just does not these days have the racing experience that Porsche does use to sell its sports cars, but also, to develop them.  That's why in my humble opinion the Porsche GTn cars are just so damn good.

It's probably why I'll never buy a Tesla too. I don't think Musk nor Tesla give a shit about the driving experience and to be honest anyone can put a huge amount of power into a car to make it fast. There's no real skill involved in that. But for the majority, the driving experience is not a priority, and they are happy to prod the accelerator on a straight to get the "rush" of fast acceleration and think that means they are fast etc.

I know there are many people out there who just want the Amazon Transactional Experience. But by christ do people like usually whine when things don't go smoothly and then they expect the "personal" experience. It just won't happen as that is not what the company is geared up for from a systems, processes, and people attitudes perspective.  I guess people like to have the cake and eat it.

 

Edited April 22 by Bravo73

[jimichanga]

Everyone is in favour of Lotus making money. Seems very odd to argue that part of that process should be poor customer communications. Ignoring loyal customers wont help them reach the new audience that they need. Simply doesn’t work like that and is not what successful competitors do. When they do finally get the new customers they will surely need to communicate well with them if they are ever going to reach any of their ambitious goals. In my personal experience Aston Martin has been head and shoulders above any other for treating customers well, great attention to detail and always looking for an opportunity to exceed expectations. The experience of owning an Aston Martin was much more than the car itself which was already fabulous. Audi sadly has been very disappointing in my limited experience, they are always looking to upsell some corporate con I don’t want which is very typical of the industry and pales in comparison to the courteous service I got from Lexus. I have had mostly very good experiences with Lotus dealers, never bought a car from Silverstone but they have been outstanding to deal with a number of times but that’s individual dealers not the factory and exactly the people Lotus are seeking to distance themselves from and to upset for no reason that I can understand. I don’t see who it benefits, certainly not the customer, just seems short sighted and short term. I have seen first had some really crap antics from other Lotus dealers, thrashing new cars for sale stone cold and driving aggressively away from shows and the like. Just puts me off them for life instantly.

I am now being invited to reserve my Eletre all over social media. I really like the look of it for an eSUV but why would I or anyone else do that? I have been told nothing about the car, no idea about price or spec or how long I would have to wait. What is this weird world where people just throw deposits at everything panic buying cars they know nothing about? Seems old fashioned fact based persuasion has given way to empty hype fuelled mania around all new cars.

Latest ‘ad’ says ‘who I will become is up to me’ - seriously what the actual F are they on about and how on Earth is that supposed to inspire someone to buy an Eletre?

Edited April 22 by jimichanga

[Barrykearley]

35 minutes ago, jimichanga said:

who I will become is up to me

Translated in social media speak - if you don’t buy one of these you are a no-one 😂

[KusaKusa]

A good customer experience isn't mutually exclusive with being a big business or the transformative direction of Lotus.  Lotus is in a weird spot between the traditional higher end car "bespoke" dealer experience, which fulfills the voice of the current and historical Lotus customer, and higher volume "transactional" experience like Tesla, which fulfills their future plans for higher volumes, worldwide sales, and agency-based operations.  But really Lotus isn't committing to either option nor do they have some sort of transition plan, and this is just executing bad customer experience.  Even if the Tesla way isn't as intimate, I think a majority of current complaints would be handled through that method.  Tesla streamlined the customer experience by bringing a ton of distribution and delivery in-house and centralizing communications and user interaction on their website, so they could clearly map out the delivery process and give clear communication on estimates and delays.  I don't think it's too much to expect Lotus to do that.  It really just seems they're winging the customer experience and delivery process rather than having some sort of process map for it and intentional plan of action.

[Eagle7]

Keep in mind Tesla was able to do what they've done because of government subsidies funded by the taxpayer.  Without that, they probably wouldn't have survived.  Lotus doesn't have that kind of backing.  Porsche and the other premium brands have years of experience behind what they're doing now.  Lotus is just now getting started trying to compete at that level.

This is all a big first for Lotus to go beyond what they were before.  Were they ready? No.  Do they have a plan? I believe so, but it looks like the plan is/was based on having a shipping product, i.e. the Emira, which is why the big focus at the moment is as Matt put it: "Quality, quality, quality" and getting finished customer cars coming off the production line.  Okay, fair enough.  That will make it easier to focus on other things, but in the meantime, those other things just aren't where we'd all like them to be.  Do we stick with Lotus through this first big step forward anyways?  I'm in.  A high quality Emira sounds good to me.  However, once they start coming off the line, Lotus had better start making it evident that those "other things" are now being pushed with the same fervor, or they risk stalling for future growth and acceptance based on the customer experience people are having with this first big step.  If quality holds off bad experiences out on the road, that will certainly help, but they still have to bring everything else up to speed, and do it before the end of this year.

 

Let's hope the first true reviews of production cars are good.

Edited April 22 by Eagle7

[simonb]

The Lotus buying experience compared very badly to the Alfa experience when I bought a launch edition 4c

Would not have cost AR a huge amount, but there were gifts along the way (and a longer delay than people are whinging about now) that made me feel valued

 

[MJON]

When your buying as a car enthusiast, aka nut (I’m not alone here) It is expected that the buying experience is both engaging and rewarding. The Tesla method of transaction is fine for those that have no desire other than to procure a mode of transport, not really bothered about style, performance, finesse. Just as long as it does the job! I always order all my electrical goods on line, just don’t want to take that path for my cars. Maybe I’m just a dinosaur 🤔 I do like my fossil fuel 💥😊

[DarrylV8]

just cause you order your car direct from factory doesn't stop you talking/having a coffee at your Lotus dealer/agent/retailer (or whatever they are called at the present time). 

we have ordered an Eletre on line as has Andy our local Lotus dealer, we chat to Andy regularly and to various people at the factory nothing has really changed dont think Lotus have ever been that good at comms, have purchased brand new Lotus cars from many different Lotus dealers over the years always got on well with the folks at Hethel including JMG & MJK and the Lotus dealers

dont really see what the issue is; NOW heading to kitchen for a coffee and out of the firing range of incoming flak, till next time

 

[Barrykearley]

2 hours ago, MJON said:

When your buying as a car enthusiast, aka nut (I’m not alone here) It is expected that the buying experience is both engaging and rewarding.

Most towns and cities have special areas for such engagement 😉

[DarrylV8]

On 21/04/2022 at 16:42, Evotion said:

Bentley are excellent - even get biscuits with my coffee  but it comes at a price!

Don’t think any of the Lotus dealers charged us for the biscuits 😂 

[Del Lardo]

 

email didn't come with any fancy coffee or biscuits 😠

 

[simonb]

got the same email for me i4

[Woodman]

I have had a call from customer care and email with confirmed spec in full plus the above email which is worded much better than the early ones. It does seem like they have more focus on this now. Time to just sit and wait. Hopefully we will get a production car road test in the near future.

[Graham Ridgway]

Bit late to this thread but one perspective I have is that the comms and buying experience are not a trade off between a great buying experience and cost.

Lotus have decided to reinvent the customer experience and it looks like they are making a poor job of it. That's because of ineptitude.  Either a poor idea and plan or poor implementation or both.

Their profitability will be driven by how good the cars are and how well they can rebuild their brand and customer management.

Clearly the latter looks poor at the moment.  Just like a bunch of well meaning amateurs with beards (and that's just the women).  The lotus we know and love.

Let's hope the car is fabulous.  I have doubts.  I have a real fear that it will fall short.  But let's hope that the well meaning bearded people have done a great job with it!

Edited May 7 by Graham Ridgway
To follow topic

[exeterjeep]

6 minutes ago, Graham Ridgway said:

Let's hope the car is fabulous.

Was in Hendy yesterday, at the dealer day at the factory from which the Emira pics escaped., he was driven fast round Hethel and was really impressed with the quality and performance of the car (I suppose he has a vested interest..) He also was telling me about the 'attempts' to stop the dealers/retailers (UK and abroad) from using their phones to take some of the pics that we saw.

[TomE]

They wouldn't need to stop the dealers taking pictures if they'd got on and published their own.  They have been promised "soon" every month since October.  There are people flying over from the US and Europe to do the factory tour in the hope of seeing all 6 FE colours before having to make spec commitments.  That's how bad the customer experience is.