07 July 2019

I need to apologise in advance for another blog about my own experience with franchised retailers. I’m apologising because once again my experience wasn’t positive.

Nearly 18 months ago I bought a three-year old BMW.

A few months ago I had an MOT and a service at my nearest BMW retailer because I wanted to keep the full BMW service history and had a very good experience. A while-you-

wait service and no hidden costs meant a happy customer; me.

Two weeks ago, the car develops a small issue with the door lock – it’s a known problem and an easy fix. So I call my local retailer and ask how much the fix will cost and when they can fit the car in. And by way of a price check, I also call the next nearest BMW retailer and talk to the service desk and make the same request.

Both say they’ll find out and get back to me.

After a few days with no response I call a local independent BMW specialist. He says he’s busy but has the parts in stock and tells me how much the job will be. He adds I can book the car in for early July or he can call me if there’s a cancellation.

This I opt for.

Monday just gone I get a text to say that if I can drop the car off that morning, he can get the work done. This I do and I now have a BMW with working door locks.

But the story doesn’t quite end with two franchised dealers missing out on work.

A day later, I get a phone call from the original franchised dealer. When I answer the phone I think, ‘well at least they haven’t completely forgotten about me’. But no. The call is to follow up on some amber work from the MOT and service.

Needless to say I was not impressed and will probably go to my new-found independent for those jobs.

The point you have to ask here is, if you need more servicing work and want to improve your absorption rate, have you thought about checking you’re getting the very basics right before looking elsewhere? And if you have, well done, why not keep that improvement going by joining us for the next Auto Retail Live Profit Briefing on Tuesday, which focuses on aftersales.

Tristan Young

Editorial Director

Auto Retail Network

Tags: aftersales, BMW, customer service