Seems the big "aha!" has finally occurred. Jim Lentz, executive vice president for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., told industry leaders gathered in Traverse City for the annual Management Briefing Seminars that "auto companies must do more to improve the customer experience in showrooms" in this report. The big message: Consumers dread car shopping.


Huh? How is this really big news? The fact that this is just now becoming an important message for automakers and their dealers that improving the dealership experience will impact profits gives us a glimpse as to why things have been so bad for so long.
What I want to know is, how do these automakers negotiate, pay for and receive their vehicles? Clearly they don't go into some small manager's office where they have to pass a piece of paper with a sales number back and forth until a sale price is reached. Clearly they don't have to embark on a crusade to get a fair price for their trade in. Clearly they don't have the hassle of financing or delivery or feeling like they were dropped like a hot potatoe the minute they drove off the lot. Clearly none of these things have happened to them.
Maybe they should.
Perhaps if automakers had to go through the process of buying a car themselves than they wouldn't have to wait for the survey results and Gallup data to inform them of the obvious. Note to self automakers: put your feet in your customers' shoes. There's nothing like experiencing what your customers get from you to motivate action faster.
A radical idea: rather than sending people to conventions, send them out to dealerships incognito to have them pick, purchase and finance a vehicle. THEN, bring them back together to work out the bugs in the experience.
Now, that's a retooling I'd love to see!
What are your thoughts?