We’re In This Together
I recently read a post that I wanted to share with you. It reminded me of the last car I bought (several years ago). Went to the dealership. Picked out the car. Negotiated the deal. Agreed to pay cash. (Yes, that’s right…cash.) When I returned with the money, I had to wait 2 hours. Everyone was so busy selling cars they couldn’t stop to accept my dough. I wonder if they would do that now.
What captured my attention in this post was the collective feeling, by both the blogger and the company she was writing about, that we are in this together. “This”, of course, being what’s going on with our economy, jobs, etc.
While we’ve all been commiserating about the state of the economy, this is one of the first times I’ve seen a company reaching out to tell consumers, “Hey, we don’t want our customers to fail.”
Right now, many businesses are in survival mode. That means slashing headcount and services. But, it also means being cognizant that you’re not taking things to the extreme. For example, if you’re a company that prides itself on customer service but you slash headcount to the point you can’t offer good service any longer…are you sure those critical measures helped in the short run? Then the question becomes what will you do in the long term to regain consumer trust?
Companies like Hyundai realize that this economic recession isn’t going to last forever. They’re making sure that consumers know they are one of the good guys. If times get tough and customers have to return cars, does that hurt Hyundai?…of course it does! But at least Hyundai gets the car back and can possibly sell it again. And when times are better and people need cars…where are they going to go? To some company that will take their money and run or one that understands the lifetime value of a customer.
Way to go Hyundai.
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