I have been in technical sales since '85 as an engineer for a manufacturing company. The one mantra that I hate repeating is, "the customer is always right". It is a "glad hand" way of doing business. Schmooze them with food and drink, take them to games, etc.. All just to get them to buy your product. It gets old...

I can tell you, there are days that I wish I could reach across the table and swap some of them up across the head and back to reality when it comes to common sense.

Tech Sales is a roller coaster of emotions. You have great days and then bad days. It's the game we play. Hats off to you Jeff for venturing into the lions pit of sales.

 

I cant read this whole thread as my eyes are going to close soon.. I met Jeff hes a cool guy so go fukc yourselves if you have a problem with his product, or your trying to cheat him.

No really right now go look up **** and jerk off and well your at it go post some of it so you can get banned, k thx.

Anyway in about 8 years after everyone is out of warranty and we've all moved on to whatever car were going to get next that's when the fun begins. People will have to stop acting like children expecting dealerships to provide to them all the time. They will have to accept facts and understand how small operations work. I'm seeing the BHR team/crew expanding their operations over the 5 years. I hate to bring in the z community again but look at jim wolf technology or stillen they started off just like BHR did and people had to turn to them becuase the dealers couldn't do anything they weren't trained to work on the z's anymore. I mean when was the last time you saw a FC pull into the dealership

Personally I've been in the non profit 3 years and I was self employed for 2 years prior to that. From what I've seen people generally only care about themselves and what they are going to get out of the situation it sickens me.

If we want to survive as a people we need to co-operate and understand that things aren't always going to work the way we want, there has to be comprise. That's more of a global POV.

To bring it grounded into day to day reality yea sometimes your not going to get 100% satisfaction or things wont go your way... hey you could get hit by a car tomorrow and lose your whole car and bang its over. so all that scamming and dumb ish will be worthless.

Now I'm going to bed sorry about the scattered reply I might edit it tomorrow..

Please refrain from making stupid retarded comments about my post It will distract me from work.

Thanks

 

Now this is funny
followed by followed byI think Ray you should just give up. The square peg just won't fit in the round hole. Stop pulling your hair out and Let Jeff do what he does best, that is work his mechanical magic. Let someone else worry about customer service. The whole will work much better than the individual parts.

 

Now this is worth a chuckle too (and I don't mean it sarcastically)Sweet dreams
You're welcome

 

 

So who is the Hack?

 

+1... the glass is just as opaque from the inside as it is from the outside. hence business ethics being the big hot buzzword in business colleges today.

 

Uh, that would be me.

 

If one is so good at what one does that one is able to be selective about the clientele, who should one blame when the clientele behaves poorly?

 

Would you take a million dollars from a rapist?

point is money is money dealing with ******** is a by product.

 

Ah hah.

 

Disclaimer: I've not purchased a thing from MM or CRH. That doesn't mean I won't buy from them, and here's why. I identify with them.

I'm coming up on ten years in the business most people love to loathe at the drop of a hat, and they carry a sombrero for the occasion. I work in the technical support section of a cable ISP. Yeah, I'm the guy who you call and &^*% on when your email mysteriously won't work after you installed that "Fun Icons!" package. When your cable modem glitched at 3am while downloading that **** DVD, yeah, that was me, I live to do that.

Never mind the reality that the "glitch" was a maintenance window we *cannot* announce, because the self-absorbed ignorant clowns will call us with every trivial burp their overloaded Dell ever generated, because *WE* did something to THEIR computer when we updated the core router's IOS in the dead of a Monday morning, 3am. Yep, I'm shivering in that wind-tunnel ice palace they call a server room at at o'God o'clock to specifically inconvenience YOU and no one else.

I thank the architects who designed our building that they didn't put up a clock tower, and I curse them for omitting the charnel pit with a trapdoor in the parking lot. I eat Tums(tm) like other people dive into a jar of peanuts, the sound of a phone ringing sets off a Pavlovian response of pure, unadulterated rage I have to choke back before I answer with a cheery "Good day, this is ___ in technical support, how can I help you?". Our average customer should have kept to what they do best; follow a horse across an endless field with a plow between them. There are five current "customers" who should thank their respective deities that this state forbids 'concealed carry' and will never allow open season or a high 'bag limit' on ********. Three of them I'm pretty sure have a heart-to-heart each day with their God while looking in any available mirror. They make my life a living hell, but I signed a contract to do my best, and I keep my word. Those customers get my best, and not a jot more than the contract demands.

Yet when anything goes wrong, the true customers call for me by name. They get value, because I won't lie to them, and they won't lie to me. I'll go way past the basics, the extra mile is a jaunt, it gets fixed or you don't pay. The secret to personal service, your part of the bargain? Act like a "boomer's parents", and everything's Jake. The customers who "get it", are the same ones who know why that light is on in the third-floor office long after 4pm on Friday. The guy in the office is looking after them, because they'll honor a handshake contract. They know the world doesn't owe them a damn thing, they let me know they appreciate what I do for them, and I will shake the roots of the world for them in return. The most valuable things in my office? A couple of "Thank You!" letters from true customers.

Paychecks let me pay my bills. Those people are why I go to work.


The rest of the vermin are why I don't carry weapons.

 

Striker I completly understand your viewpoint. I am one of several data center admins for a rather large website company here in Phoenix and while I don't deal directly with customers I have years of experience doing so. It's true that the one thing that keeps people in the technical field going are those few people who take your help and are truely thankful for your service.

We've rehashed this time and time again and we're going to keep coming back to the same conclusion. That is, that MazdaManiac chooses to run his accessPORT service in the manner that he chooses. People go to him because of the results he provides not because of how he makes them feel after the purchase. Tuning an RX8, even more so over the internet, is a very intimate process and results mean the difference between your car running well and it running like crap.

Here's another example to think about. If I was the owner of a race team and I needed to hire myself a guy to build/wrench on my race car I would look for the most qualified guy I could afford. If he turns out to be a total jerk I could care less because he's hired to work on the car and not to make friends.

All I would care about is that Mazdamaniac tunes my car as best as it can be.

 

It seems that some customers think that this is a full time job for Jeff. It is NOT. He and the BHR crew all have other jobs and lives to attend to. The service is done as a favor to our community and should be looked at as a privilege, not a right.
If it takes 6 weeks to get an AP, and have it done properly, it is a great value.
If you screw up the logs, like I did you will be put at the back of the line for your next calibration, so expect it.
That is all.

 

wow,

and that to some extent covers it.. you fail you go to the end of the line.

i dont have, but i do follow..

great post.. covers 97% of the duh factor.

beers

 

You can be selective about clientele, but as time goes most of those clients will seem to forget the terms of the deal. ;-) So I usually give them a reminder, and than if it continues, well lets just say we part ways. :-)

 

MM:
I've asked you numerous questions, and I've requested quotes for products of yours several times. Truth is, the only product I've yet purchased was a MM Accessport. I feel like I can identify with the problems you've had in my own life.

When I was like 13 - 16 or so, I used to fix people's computers for them. My grandma, my neighbor, my aunt's and uncles, etc. It used to be no big deal, but then they started referring their friends to me, and things started to go south. People would call, asking when their computer was going to be fixed, 2 days after I PICKED IT UP FROM THEIR HOUSE, 10 miles away. Then, when I'd bring their computer back to them, they'd give me $10 and say "thanks," neglecting the hours upon hours of work that I put into them, and the little tweaks that the majority of people knew nothing about. It started ruining my relationships with friends and family, because I couldn't deal with the "customer service" aspect of a job where the customers weren't really paying for anything.

I ended up deciding to start telling people "I'll fix your computer but it's on my own time so call me on Monday and if it's not done then, call me next Monday."
A lot of my "customers" weren't willing to deal with that and went to geek squad (at this point, there was a geek squad. before then, there were mom + pop computer stores)
The ones that stayed ended up giving me more money for the job I was doing, and I started telling them what software I'd need to buy to do the job, and asking for the $ for that. Now, it's transformed into a much better experience for me, and them. I fix their computer and they give me $ for the time I'm actually working on their computer (I tell them how much $ I want for it, usually like $50). On the tough cases, I'll tell them how long it took, and ask for a case of beer on top of my fee. My customers often now give me a little bit extra on top of what I ask, and let me tell you, that extra $5 or $10 makes me feel a whole lot better about working my *** off doing something I don't really want to do for them.

My suggestions would be this:
1. Remove the "48 hour turnaround" from the website. Don't guarantee anything. You're not doing this as your sole business, and there is no contract with you, so why should you have deadlines that are unreasonable and only give the customer more to complain about.
2. Leave a tip jar out --- Put a link to your paypal account in your emails when you send someone a log. Remind them that you're doing this for FREE and that, while not mandatory, you really appreciate any extra people are willing to give you. I guarantee that people will tip you for your services, and even if it's only $5 here and $10 there, those $5 or $10 will make you feel a lot better about doing this work for them.

 

Good post surfer. I've said for a long time that the biggest problem with people getting frustrated and upset is missed expectations. If you tell the customer, I'll have it done tomorrow and you finish it 4 months later they are going to be pissed. If you tell them, hey I'll have it done as soon as I can, average turn-around time is X days but I can't promise anything it gives them a more realistic expectation. The other big issue is lack of communication. Because it's not Jeff's primary job, and he is out of town a lot, he has a very hard time responding to queries. An automated system for tracking how far you are through the tuning process, how many people are in front of you, or what state your order is in would go a long way to helping. Finally an assistant is really important, and he has already gotten that. Basically, take every "customer service" element out of the picture for Jeff, let him focus on tuning (and building turbos *shakes fist*) and get better response and expectation to users. Jeff is an amazing tuner, so even if the end result is advertised to take longer a lot of people will still choose to use the service.

 

good point. My post is really directed at MM. BTW, Jeff, thanks for all the help you've given me

 

i imagine your garage the way my robotics shop was in high school - tools all over the place, random scrap metal and lots of wires and grease on everything.. and safety goggles laying all over the place collecting dust, because nobody uses them!

 

It does, however, result in hefy alcohol consumption.

 

If mine would keep getting filled up with random stuff, it would be a lot easier to keep it orderly.
Its also in motion nearly 24/7 these days and Hund can only do so much!

On a calm day:

 

I wish my garage was that big.. Mine barely fits my mom's Z3 in it!

 

mm is the best.. can you become my sensei??? hahaha

 

I have no desire to do any work for anyone anymore for the reasons stated here. My goal wasn't even to make a living out of it but rather to help others out and just be compensated for my time. When you have a main job to deal with, getting even small projects done for others can be taxing. After I ported Ray's motor a couple of years ago, I said I was done and I haven't done any work for anyone since. I'm glad he was patient and I felt bad for being so slow. I can't imagine it being easy as a full time job. There are lots of people out there that try to screw you over. There are honest ones that don't. The problem is that they all look alike. The same applies to businesses too though. If I'm dealing with an honest company, I don't mind if they are a little slow. All I care about is honesty. Don't bs me. Just tell me what's going on. It's the ones that make excuses and change their stories that **** me off and I have little patience with. On the other side of that, I hate customers that are impatient. The worst are the ones that try to email you one time and when you don't respond within 5 minutes they get online and publicly bash you.. The ones that jump to conclusions without even attempting to hear an explanation or reason annoy the hell out of me.