I walked into the Lexus dealership, where they were having a slow day. I was just one of less than a handful of people walking the main show room. I would be the only one walking the outside two lots, looking at cars.
When I first got there, I walked into the showroom, where someone said “hi” to me. But that would be the only interaction for another bit of time.
I would spent a total of 20 minutes wandering about the place. I was inside the main showroom, where I walked past a few people working in an open-office desk space. Not one of them asked me if I needed help.
Then, I spent some time outside, in the SUV lot, where no one was there but me. Afters several minutes, I returned to the building. There was a second, smaller showroom, where they had pre-owned vehicles. I spent my time reading the tags and sitting in the cars. Two women, who looked like employees, pulled a car into the showroom not more the 30 feet from where I was, exited the vehicle, and walked back towards the main showroom.
Annoyed at this point, I walked back into the showroom, where the receptionist, seated in the middle, made eye contact with me. Then, I visited the second outside lot, divided by the building. I spent another 10 minutes looking around, reading the tags. During this time, two sales guys walked right past me without saying a word. Just as I was about to leave because of the lack of customer service, a couple walked out with a sales guy.
Being Ignored…
Yes, I will likely never buy a Lexus because they ignored me. When I see a customer reading one of our spec sheet, guess what? I ask if they have any questions and actually speak with them. I don’t ignore them. Now, I might have looked young, and there is still age bias. But to treat someone like that in the Silicon Valley, where a large amount of wealth flows, is just plain bad business.
I wrote a scathing review on Google Maps. The owner of the franchise saw it, apologized, said they try to strive the right balance between giving customers their space and helping them, and asked me to call him so that he can make things right. I thought that was laughable.
Why didn’t I think about that? I could have just gone up to someone while I was at the dealership and asked for help. He missed the main point I was making. It was being treated as if I wasn’t even there that made me mad. If anything, the manager should have made attempts to reach out to me. I could have done that at the dealership. The owner took the easy way out.
Now, some well-meaning friends have suggested that maybe I just didn’t look like a buyer. Perhaps, they suggested, I needed to show up dressed better than just an untucked polo shirt and blue jeans with canvas shoes. I’m sorry, but I don’t play politics, especially when I’m a customer. I’ll dress how I want.
I know sales people have stereotypes and don’t want to waste their time with people who aren’t serious. That time could end up as a missed opportunity with a real buyer. But when you have someone wandering about the place, reading the tags, shouldn’t that say something to you?
Money Energy Blockage: If you ever decide to run your own business, and you really should, as it’s the best way to create wealth, don’t do what Lexus did. Find your ideal customers and treat them with respect. After all, if they are happy, they will give you more green papers (money, for those of you whose money is not green).
Money Energy Blockages
From a financial standpoint, my going to the Lexus dealership was a big deal. It was a good first step.
You see, I was prepared to buy another Corolla or Mazda 3. I was shooting for the same goals I had 14 years ago, when I bought my first car, a Mazda 3. Now, I don’t believe in wasting money either. I make wise spending decisions.
In actuality, I would have bought a certified, pre-owned Lexus, spending no more than $30,000. From a personal viewpoint, I’ve been driving a bumpy, noisy, basically uncomfortable car for all those years. You see, I was choosing to be miserable because I thought this was what wise people who have wealth do.
I might have been a good money saver, pinching every penny. But I sure didn’t know how to enjoy the wealth I was building.
Contacting Lexus Online Customer Service
I also wrote Lexus’ customer service through their online customer relationship management system but they didn’t care either. If anything, Lexus approaches the whole matter with a passive-aggressive attitude and teaches their employees the same. From the first moment I received the auto-responder email, I knew this wasn’t going anywhere.
For a Japanese company, I was surprised by just how poorly they handled the entire situation. C-Level execs in Japan have been known to come out in public and apologize personally to their customers. When a train is running late, they also publicly apologize. The same goes for a train being a few minutes early!
There’s context and subtext to every communication. The context of the messages from Lexus was they cared about their customers and want them to be satisfied. The subtext is they don’t really care.
Not surprisingly, that was the attitude I got from the online rep who handled my complaint.
I gave them not one, but three chances to fix this cock-up. I actually called back in to complain about the online rep who handled my case even poorer than the owner did.
I never did get a response after speaking to someone over the phone, who assured me he would file an incident report. A report? That’s how you treat the situation? Why didn’t I think to file a report?
Guess what? They lost a customer. I’m going to buy a BMW.