Imagine if Lotus did business like Brett and ForcedFed?

[X000000101]

As I read through the multiple ForcedFed threads I can't help but think how awesome it would have been if Lotus and its representatives had customer service and responsiveness to consumers like ForcedFed and Brett! Our questions are answered, our interest is energized, and as long as the product has documented quality, performance and affordability, you'll likely be turbocharging a decent percentage of '05 Elise's (and don't raise the price based on some exchange rate! For that matter, lower it and you'll sell even more).

For many months many of us beat up, and got beat up, by Lotus and its defenders over lack of...well...many things. HERE'S an example of excellent, proactive, responsive customer service...bravo!

I understand this is 'apples and oranges'...Lotus is making cars and ForcedFed is making cars go faster, but on a smaller level this is what customer service is all about. Lotus should hire Brett for $1,000,000 a year to be their US PR guru!

Thank you,
Dave

[fzust]

No No No, not trying to defend Lotus AT ALL, but I guess I have missed what the big complaints are about. Is it the MSRP increase? I had nothing but a great experience with Dan at Scottsdale Lotus here in AZ. For over 1 year, he was responsive and only asked for $1k deposit, fully refundable until the colors and options were ordered. Then when it came in, he was fast, courteous and did everything he spent 1 year promising. We had a verbal agreement for MSRP for 14 months and he stuck to it as promised.

My only involvment with Lotus was 1 question I left voicemails about with 2 people at Lotus US about the weights of the LSS vs. standard wheels. Both guys got back to me with that information within a couple of days( posted it too).

That is my experience, what are the big negatives?

Thanks!

BTW, I do agree about ForcedFed, Looks like they are trying to do everything right!

[Lotus F1]

You can't possibly expect a large company (by comparison) to be able to give the immediate customer service of a small mom & pop operation like ForceFed. I'm not saying Lotus has no room for improvement but the aforementioned comparison is not really a fair one at all.

On another note... You really can't say much about customer support until you see how they handle problems. That is the test. It is not in promoting and selling the product...that is the easy part.

[BrettP]

[quote= Lotus should hire Brett for $1,000,000 a year to be their US PR guru!

Thank you,
Dave[/QUOTE]




The best post ever....I am surprised that none of you guys have figured out that I am really............................... X000000101!!! Seriously thank you for the kind words and I do have to agree that a large company like Lotus cannot be compared to a smaller company such as ourselves. I do appreciate that you guys like what we are doing and I hope to make a lot of happy customers this year with our products.

[sleepless]

I disagree that a large company cannot give high quality customer service. I recent dealt with a sticky issue with Safeco and their service and responsiveness was astounding. A few weeks ago I dealt with Verizon; again, superb service. And then there is Lexus; best auto service on the planet.

A company just needs to have 1) money and 2) desire to do it right.

I can give you lots of small company examples where service was horrible.

[ChrisB]

Originally Posted by sleepless

A company just needs to have 1) money and 2) desire to do it right.

And a good way for a company to get the money is to have the desire to do it right.

Reminds me of the days when the concept of quality management first hit our shores. Most of the companies I talked to "couldn't afford to build higher quality products". The companies that are now financially successful ones eventually realized they couldn't afford not to build quality products.

[EdHahn]

It does beg the question: how well would Forcefed, etc. do if they had ~2500+ people with deposits down, had to certify their kits before they could sell them, had to deal with suppliers to make parts in sufficient volume while maintaining quality standards, etc...all at the same time (No offense to Forcefed & co - just pointing out that what may doable at the scale they are doing it may or may not scale up.)

ed

[Lotus F1]

Originally Posted by sleepless

I disagree that a large company cannot give high quality customer service. I recent dealt with a sticky issue with Safeco and their service and responsiveness was astounding. A few weeks ago I dealt with Verizon; again, superb service. And then there is Lexus; best auto service on the planet.

A company just needs to have 1) money and 2) desire to do it right.

I can give you lots of small company examples where service was horrible.

You are mis-quoting me. I never stated that you can not get high quality service from a large company. I stated that a large company may not really be able to give the immediate feedback and service that a company that is smaller. They need to be different to be able to deal with its rather large difference in customer and product base. Brett can speak to most of his customers in a few phone calls in a few hours. Lotus cannot not feasible do this. They are a large corporation with many big projects and many different departments. You really can not compare them directly that was all my point.

[sleepless]

Okay, we still disagree.

Let's see how FordedFed is doing in this regard after they start shipping some products. Right now, they are in a position where they need to prove themselves so of course they are going to be extremely responsive. Lotus doesn't have to prove a thing, the lines are long for their stuff, they've got better things to worry about than whiny customers

[charliex]

i wrote to group lotus engineering via the webpage, a few days later i got a response from the us rep via email and had a few back and forths, with great information and fast turnaround, for a company that size, i thought it was great.

called forcefed and got a friendly chappie while brett was out sick who gave great information too.

[X000000101]

Like 'abortion or choice?" or 'Ginger or MaryAnn?', this is just one of those topics people will always debate!

Dave

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by X000000101

... 'Ginger or MaryAnn?', this is just one of those topics people will always debate!

Dave

In my world, you don't have to choose. You get both.