Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Law on January 5, 2011 at 12:07pm

Too many companies think the only way to make more profit is to cut expenses and what better way to cut expenses than to reduce staff. By over using technology you remove the human element and ultimately customer loyalty. A business might be able to sell this way for a while but sooner or later this will come back to haunt them. Now more than ever is a time for every business to do their best to do business with  a local company. Buying locally creates local jobs, which adds money to the local economy which creates local spending which means  better business for everyone.

Tom Law

 

Permalink Reply by Tom Law on January 5, 2011 at 12:08pm

Only with a firm commitment from business owners who value their customers.

Permalink Reply by Jim Sabia on January 5, 2011 at 12:11pm

Being in the RV and Boats sales businesses, we use a combination of tech and personal contact. The purpose of all the contact is to convert electronic to verbal to personal communication. IE. email to phone to visit... Love your writings!

Permalink Reply by Ryan Kleinjan on January 5, 2011 at 12:37pm

I love this topic - back in 2000 I took a philosophy course on it.  Did you know there was a time in the late 70s/80s that large corporations were actually bringing in 'consultants' to help their employees develop hobbies (knitting, golfing, ect) to fill the one day of work they felt that the computer was going to alleviate? 

Imagine a 32 hour work week? 

Well, the 32 hour work week fell to the concept of instead laying of 20% of your workforce

 

The 40 hour work week fell victim to 'salary' and another 20% was gone. 

 

Too bad, these unemployed folks sure would be helpful as 'consumers'!

 

My background is sales and marketing -- so my answer to this is always a question -

WHY DO YOUR CUSTOMERS BUY FROM YOU? 

If you are the low price option - your customers have lesser expectations for service ("get what you paid for")

 

If your customers prefer the personal touch - charge more and GIVE IT TO THEM.  Not everything is price driven - if so, we would all be driving 1975 Yugo hatchbacks....

 

If expenses need to be cut - believe me - head count is the easiest but isn't always the smartest.  Most customers want to be treated with respect, common sense, and a bit of apathy -- these aren't technology's finer points!

 

Great Topic Nancy!  Good luck with the new gig and hopefully catch you at NADA!

Ryan

Permalink Reply by NANCY SIMMONS on January 5, 2011 at 12:57pm

Tom, First of all, Thank You for joining Nothing but Net... I have not been as actively involved here as I should, but even if you look back, there have been some great discussions posted here that could be resurrected!

You are so correct in your statement regarding Customer Loyalty leading to Customer Retention!  People still want to deal with people, especially the seniors to the baby boomers age groups!  People do not feel a sense of loyalty to a computer but do to a person with likable traits and good character!

Great comment, Tom!  Thanks and have a wonderful day!

Tom Law said:

Too many companies think the only way to make more profit is to cut expenses and what better way to cut expenses than to reduce staff. By over using technology you remove the human element and ultimately customer loyalty. A business might be able to sell this way for a while but sooner or later this will come back to haunt them. Now more than ever is a time for every business to do their best to do business with  a local company. Buying locally creates local jobs, which adds money to the local economy which creates local spending which means  better business for everyone.

Tom Law

 

Permalink Reply by NANCY SIMMONS on January 5, 2011 at 1:01pm

WOW, Ryan!  You never cease to amaze me!  Fantastic input...I never heard about the hobby training!  I would have loved the free golf lessons...LOL, I certainly need them! 
But sadly, we know the outcome was loss of jobs, which contributed to the decline of the economy!  Successful businesses understand that it is the caliber of people, the face, voice and character representation of their dealerships is what will make or break them!

 

Thanks again for posting and have an incredible day!!!!
Ryan Kleinjan said:

I love this topic - back in 2000 I took a philosophy course on it.  Did you know there was a time in the late 70s/80s that large corporations were actually bringing in 'consultants' to help their employees develop hobbies (knitting, golfing, ect) to fill the one day of work they felt that the computer was going to alleviate? 

Imagine a 32 hour work week? 

Well, the 32 hour work week fell to the concept of instead laying of 20% of your workforce

 

The 40 hour work week fell victim to 'salary' and another 20% was gone. 

 

Too bad, these unemployed folks sure would be helpful as 'consumers'!

 

My background is sales and marketing -- so my answer to this is always a question -

WHY DO YOUR CUSTOMERS BUY FROM YOU? 

If you are the low price option - your customers have lesser expectations for service ("get what you paid for")

 

If your customers prefer the personal touch - charge more and GIVE IT TO THEM.  Not everything is price driven - if so, we would all be driving 1975 Yugo hatchbacks....

 

If expenses need to be cut - believe me - head count is the easiest but isn't always the smartest.  Most customers want to be treated with respect, common sense, and a bit of apathy -- these aren't technology's finer points!

 

Great Topic Nancy!  Good luck with the new gig and hopefully catch you at NADA!

Ryan

Permalink Reply by NANCY SIMMONS on January 5, 2011 at 1:08pm

Hi Jim, 

Thanks so much for joining the group and I am grateful for your compliment!  I guess I love writing about the automotive industry because it is my passion!  Ask me to write about knitting or reality TV and you will have a blank canvas!  It is nice to see that you folks in the RV and Boating industry "get it".  As a past boat owner, myself, I understand that a recreational vehicle is more than an asset, but could be a goal, a reward to yourself after many years of coveting.  Well, vehicles now which are so much more than transportation that gets us from point A to point B deserve that same attention and respect! 

Stay engaged here...I love your perspective!

Have an amazing day!!!!

Jim Sabia said:

Being in the RV and Boats sales businesses, we use a combination of tech and personal contact. The purpose of all the contact is to convert electronic to verbal to personal communication. IE. email to phone to visit... Love your writings!

Permalink Reply by Joe Tareen on January 5, 2011 at 2:32pm

The problem is not too much technology, problem is too much irrelevant and not well thought out technolgy that brings about no real value added solutions to the end users and organizations. We are now entering a phase of our economy where most of the technology that was invented in the 90s is now becoming more value oriented. I firmly believe that the next decade is going to be the decade of technologies that bring about pragmatic, utilitarian and value added solutions that make a diffrence at the micro and at the macro level. Business optimization will be the key word in this regard. However please keep in mind that the process is and always has been organic and evolutionary and the current plethora of unwarranted and zero value added applications are precursive and apriori to the filtering of the ideas and tools that work and discard the ones that do not. "Pain now is part of happiness then and that's the deal". Let's rejoice!

Permalink Reply by NANCY SIMMONS on January 5, 2011 at 2:59pm

WOW!  Great take on the technology side, Joe!  May I ask what you do?  What is your opinion regarding the balancing act of when to still include the personal element of a live person in the process?

Joe Tareen said:

The problem is not too much technology, problem is too much irrelevant and not well thought out technolgy that brings about no real value added solutions to the end users and organizations. We are now entering a phase of our economy where most of the technology that was invented in the 90s is now becoming more value oriented. I firmly believe that the next decade is going to be the decade of technologies that bring about pragmatic, utilitarian and value added solutions that make a diffrence at the micro and at the macro level. Business optimization will be the key word in this regard. However please keep in mind that the process is and always has been organic and evolutionary and the current plethora of unwarranted and zero value added applications are precursive and apriori to the filtering of the ideas and tools that work and discard the ones that do not. "Pain now is part of happiness then and that's the deal". Let's rejoice!

Permalink Reply by Joe Tareen on January 5, 2011 at 3:38pm

Thanks Nancy! I am a founder of a company called Drive Alliance. We are building an end-to-end multisolution service platform. I see Fixed Ops as a multidimensional structure and certainly car dealerships as a whole a multidimensional organization. Our platform which will sit on top of the DMS system will combine elements of Business Process Management, Revenue Management and Customer Relationship Management to bring about high levels of business optimization for our clients. As you must know that OE franchised service centers are wrought with inefficiencies and lost revenues and against the current economic headwinds they must adapt or perish. I believe that any solution to be a value added solution for a service center it must address all aspects and phases of customer fullfillment order. For instance Appointment Management, RO Management, Menu Management based on performance, group, dynamic and econometric pricing, follow up, real-time communication between all stakeholder and etc. It must also be process driven in nature in order to prevent double entries and finally it must be real-time in nature and of course web based as well as complimented by a mobile tablet version extension. We are stll in R&D, however planning on attending the NADA next month. Stay tune for more specific details as we move pass our development phase and enter the delivery phase.

 

As far as my take on the live person concept. Machine will never replace humans completely because they do not register emotions and there are many tasks that can only be effectively optimized via human beings. I beleive that we need an in-depth study to determine particulars for specific situations. However i know this that the Gen X and Gen Y are not so hung up on human touch as long as tasks get done within an acceptable period of time with optimal information distribution on demand. They do not necasarily view the human element as the most honest or effective way of communication. They want data and they want it now. They do no want to be over sold and they do not want to be under sold. They beleive what the Web cumulatively will advise them to believe. I am afraid more of this is only an inevitable thing.

Regards

Joe

Permalink Reply by Joe Tareen on January 5, 2011 at 4:24pm

Thanks John. I prime example of what you mentioned on the phone analogy is nowadays when you place a call into a callcenter you have an option to punch in your number where you would recieve a call back without losing your place in the queue. That's briliant to me. I used to be part of a Nortel's global callcenter in the early 2000's but we didn't offer this feature. With this feature a caller or a client may go about doing other important tasks without wasting time on the phone while they wait for the next available service agent.

Regards

John Skelton said:

Joe, I completely believe what you said and believe the balancing act between man and machine has been taking place on limited basis for a while but ..it is full steam ahead this year 2011.This is the year they come together and are embraced like never before.

 

I also believe it will improve our lives. For an example, years back we use to be on the phone all day talking to one person at a time, with a large percentage of it wasted time. Today we are able to help others on the phone or in person who has entrusted us, whereby we naturally provide them with a much higher level of attention and service. Ending with a much greater percentage of both parties getting what they want and or need quickly. Technology has cause this by allowing people to use the phone and face to face less by providing all of us the tools to not only filter the chatter but also the ability to speak to the masses at one time.

 

I am thinking the next big step to create big economical change ..is to start now to and prepare our youth ..with high level vocabulary. From what I read ...most of us ..this include me ..can not say it well in the least amount of words allowing people to get it and understand it.

 

Ok! enough said for now and means I do not have to be on the phone all day. I am stepping out for a few minutes of fresh air and do something I like to do, which is think.

 

And of course, like always, Nancy great post. Thank You!  

 

Joe Tareen said:

The problem is not too much technology, problem is too much irrelevant and not well thought out technolgy that brings about no real value added solutions to the end users and organizations. We are now entering a phase of our economy where most of the technology that was invented in the 90s is now becoming more value oriented. I firmly believe that the next decade is going to be the decade of technologies that bring about pragmatic, utilitarian and value added solutions that make a diffrence at the micro and at the macro level. Business optimization will be the key word in this regard. However please keep in mind that the process is and always has been organic and evolutionary and the current plethora of unwarranted and zero value added applications are precursive and apriori to the filtering of the ideas and tools that work and discard the ones that do not. "Pain now is part of happiness then and that's the deal". Let's rejoice!