By the way.... I called with a question the other day regarding changing brake pads.... i have a copy of your 101 Projects book...which states that if the Rotors are in Good condition and measure up to spec...then a simple brake pad change will be OK.

John told me flat out that i need to get the rotors resurfaced...100% of the time when doing brakes....he said "why would you want to put new brake pads on warped rotors.."

I inspected the rotors and they appear to be fine, the old brake pads are just getting low and could use replacing... why would your customer service person give out advice that is contrary to the chapter in your own book? was he looking out for me, trying to upsell on new rotors or both?

one final piece of advice: you have the best business model for auto parts on the web, bar none.

The ONLY reason that potential customers buy elsewhere is because they generally can get a lot of parts at 20-30% cheaper...same parts.

Why not just "play ball"...price down to their level and blow them all out of the water for good??

cegerer mentioned "Discount Tire" as an example... Id never use any other company for my tires: They have very competitive prices, give great customer service and they take extra special care of Porsches and sports cars.....thats a winner on all levels.

Wayne, I believe that your response after admitting initial irritation goes along way to creating a good customer experince. I am a Director of a large call center in Southern California and we stress with our employees that the positive customer experiance will yield a customer that your will retain regardless of price. I do not go along with the belief that just match the price of your lowest competitor and this will allow you to blow them out of the water. If your business is based on price alone you will die when someone comes along and beats your price. When you provide value, knowledge and professionalism regardless of the circumstance you gain a customer for life. Remember aquiring a new customer will cost you 5 times as much as keeping the ones you already have.

Some pretty good ass kissin' on this thread!

I would answer his questions gladly if I knew the answer. You are the expert and people look up to that and respect that. Nobody wants to talk to an irritated expert.

Whatever...

Nice, our host opens up and this is the response to those that care. Get some compassion.

The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer. It's simply a matter of whether or not you feel this customer's potential future business is worth putting up with what is probably an inappropriate request.

If yes, do what the customer asks. If not, don't. But don't take it personally, or you'll go crazy.

First off, let me say this is not me he's talking about... :D

Wayne, you need a holiday, a good relaxing getaway.

Had I bought a part recently from a competitor because I could save a couple bucks, I would not have felt it appropriate to have you deal with "tech support" for it.

But I am sure all intentions are good, and that this customer's past history will continue to be his future pattern, and this will only reinforce his faith in Pelican.

As for CSR's, I really think you need to get that telecommuter on-line quick. I've only ever not received a response one time, so I resent the question. It just seems to me that your popularity is expanding quickly, causing a heavy workload.

In my opinion Wayne, the way you handle the company is admirable, wanting to be hands on with everything, but this is feasible only to a certain point. After all, Bill Gates doesn't reply to me when I email Microsoft... ;)

Have you thought about some "volunteer" personnel from the board, or customer base? Seems to me you have a large group of supporters here with a lot of knowledge who would gladly offer their assistance to keep things running smoothly for you and to ease the workload. If it were possible to have a small pool of volunteers who would access a "queue" of general emails, they could filter these and deal with what they could, and send the others elsewhere.

Again, just my $0.02
Jim

Getting feedback, using surveys, and polls, studying conversion rates, ROI, and profit margins to improve business is what a CEO does.

On the other hand, most CEO's are more concerned about the shareholders than customer service issues.

77 911 targa $6,000 ....80 sc roller $1,200.... 83 sc targa $5,700
Pelican Tech bbs and classifieds.......PRICELESS!!!!!
The least I can do is buy my new parts from our host to show my appreciation for the wealth of info and tons of used parts purchased on HIS site...My last new parts purchase was shift coupler bushings I ordered on Monday and they were waiting for me on Tuesday when I got home from work ( Howd they do that? coast to coast ) A quick tech search revealed a lot of broken couplers during the rebushing further searching and I found the "best" map to getting the job done .. without this info Im sure I would have been one of those people looking for a new coupler to put my new bushings into... but thanks to the community of this board that Our Host keeps up and running for all to use ...this wealth of information at our fingertips.... The least I can do is buy my new parts from Pelican!

show him the door tell him to buy the parts same place he bought the axles you guys do agreat job

HUMM, I believe the guy has learned his lesson about buying parts in different places, you cant blame him for trying to save a few bucks, after all most of are not milliionaires, sounds like he was relying on Wayne to bail him out when the place that sold him the axles couldnt, his being upset was probably just the whole thing started out so easy and ended up a night mare, we have all been through, i say both move on, the perfect customer is one that never has a complaint, but this is real life we all get tight up around the collar sometime, Kevin

Fwiw I agree that you should dump email Wayne. Its been almost killed as a business tool by spammers and despite MS's legal action I seriously doubt anything will change with that soon.

As you no doubt realise there's only so much you can do stop stop your mail getting spam filtered, because you never know your opponent (the filter).

Two thoughts from me.

First, every "good" PP customer surely tries other vendors from time to time, in search of lower prices. When the other vendor disappoints, that's a great time to reinforce the customer's preference for PP. If you have good enough records to identify a "bad" PP customer (an unprofitable time-waster who frequently asks PP to bail him out on non-PP parts, etc), I'd gently encourage those to stay with the other vendor.

Second, email is great for routine things like the status of an order, but for working out a tricky part question I think nothing beats the phone. Some customers just don't want to talk on the phone, they can tie the CSR up in endless email exchanges and in some cases it's kind of a game - bored at work, I'll send another lengthy email to PP . . . I'd consider telling the CSR to identify those tricky questions early and to be firm that they have to be worked through by phone only.

Oh, I want to congratulate you for not engaging in deceptive pricing. I saw an ad in Excellence by a euro car parts place listing great prices on 911 parts - drilled Zimmerman rotors for $59, injectors for $37, etc. How can they be so cheap, I wondered. So I go to the website and there's no sign of those prices, the prices I find are actually higher than PP. I'm sure they are buried somewhere, but that pisses me off, so that's the last time I'll visit that store.

Wanye, this whole thread has caused me great anxiety, please send me a Porsche model ASAP.. 8-)

Gary, here's your "Porsche Model"

:D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1112557221.jpg

Here's one I like a little better...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1112557314.jpg