We just enjoyed the internet-intensive pleasure of buying our first MINI. Other than driving our MINI off the lot, our favorite parts of the process were:

• Interacting with and learning from everyone here who was sharing the same experience and,
• Tracking the ship that carried our MINI to Oxnard.

While at the dealer picking up our MINI I was surprised to learn that our MA had no idea how his customers knew more than he did about where their MINI was while in transit. Later, the dealer’s finance manager admitted that she had never visited the MINI web site.
There appears to be a significant difference in how MINI dealers use the web. Some dealer websites are current and useful; others are good for little other than a phone number and address. Some dealers respond to email promptly and can communicate documents via email; others ignore email and insist on faxing.

• What are your experiences with and impressions of your dealer’s use of the web?
• Is there something we could and should be doing to recognize and reward the good ones and encourage improvement from the luddite-prone?
• Can we lobby to have MINI include an internet and email-proficiency component in their MA certification?

 

Dealers are what dealers are, I'm afraid! The Mini of Pittsburgh folks are good, take service appointments over the web, and in general get back with us pretty well. Unfortunately, there are areas with Mini dealers who are perhaps a little more "traditional".

 

As in every other field of human endeavour, those who learn to use the WEB are those who will be more likely to succeed. But to be fair, buying a car via the internet IS a rather odd thing to do.

-B

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Odd, yes. But oh so cool!

 

Not so with the MINI. I think a GOOD number of folks buy at a non local dealer and drive it home. I would have liked to have done this with my MINI but I found mine local.

I think that MA's really need to embrace the internet and the advantages that goes along with knowing what your customers want and how they want to buy it.

 

So what do you consider the advantages of dealing with a non-local dealer over the internet?

ta

-B

.

 

I agree. I think a big percentage of MINIs sold are ordered via the web, and even a bigger percentage of MINI buyers are tech-savvy. MINIs front-line needs to keep up.

 

I've interacted with the sales department at Long Beach MINI since 2002 and know that the MAs are familiar with this site, among others. I'd go in and chat and ask various questions and they'd say "Clover! Come on...you know you know more about MINIs than we do!" And we'd laugh because we knew that I spent hours a day on NAM with my pals, all of us obsessing over every little detail of our ordered MINIs.

They are so busy with customers and handling deliveries that it doesn't leave them much time for the internet. Remember, there are a lot of customers who require extra hand-holding. Subsequently, they call and ask lots of questions. Believe it or not, there are also plenty of customers who don't use computers yet. They go into the dealerships and buy MINIs off the lots, or work with the MAs to put their specs together in the dealership.

 

Dealer preferred methods of communication.

1. Face to Face
2. Phone
3. Fax
4. Email

Most dealers don't use email as a primary form of communications because the data can be lost, or the MA is having a busy day and often doesn't get to email until the end of the day. Even a Fax sits there on their desk demanding to be seen.

In person or phone calls get communication done then and there.

 

I think you are setting the bar a bit low. I see no reason why the MAs can't work their email as aggressively as they work their voice-mail. MINI has set a pace by encouraging use of the web as the starting point for the purchasing process that some of the MAs are not maintaining. If the MAs could better integrate into the process, in my opinion they'd be more effective and have more credibility.

 

But what if the customers' prefer email, phone, fax, face to face?

 

Pretty much too bad for the customer, really.

The reality is if you want to ensure communication, it is up to the customer to choose the best way to do that. They are one out of many customers an MA is dealing with, along with all the other things they do. No email will ever get anyone's immediate attention.

I might look at my emails at few times a day in my business, and if any of them require any kind of research for an answer, I might not respond until a day or two later. It just takes a back seat to a hundred other things on my desk. And the customer that is there in person, gets first priority, followed by the person who is on the phone.

What is convenient for one person, is inconvenient for another.

 

I had the same problem with my MA. I prefer to communicate via email, as I am in meetings most of the day, and my MA would not respond, or leave me an incomplete email, with a "call me" message.

 

My MA thanked me when i picked up my MINI for all the information I sent his way when I was waiting for delivery. He said it will be helpful for in helping clients that follow me. I think when you are buying you are a lot more interested in researching and discovering things about your purchase as opposed to someone who goes through it everyday. If an MA is at work all day selling and helping when would they have time to go online and browse this site for example? After work? Would most people who get off work go home and do more work related stuff? As someone who is online most of the day because of work, web stuff is pretty second nature to me. But for others it's just another time consuming event that takes them away from doing other things. Yeah it would have been nice for the MA to know more, but he was enthusiastic through out the process and was interested in everything I found and asked him about. It was still so much better than buying a.......(insert almost any car name here).

 

While my MA is very informed on what goes on in the MINI community and sites about the MINI. If it weren't for his social skills I would not have purchased from him. Anyone can click and read on a computer to gain information. Not everyone can be such a good salesperson and person in general that they actually become a good friend. That, imo, is what makes a good MA.

 

STEELERS!!!!!!!! I need a magnetic badge with the Steelers emblem on it, know anyone making one?

My F-150 truck has the 12" round one on the back.

 

Birdman,
This isn't exactly what you asked for, but it is a Steelers' badge:
http://www.mikefeinbergcompany.com/stauem.html

And here is the bracket for it:
http://motorswag.com/outmogrbaho.html

Watch out for those Giants fans!
m

 

Giants?? I don't follow hockey!!!

 

You should try it. I hear they have a right winger named Manning who is pretty good on skates.
m