Nissan and The Art of Customer Service

I've noticed that my blog has started to reflect my mind....random and chaotic!  I have decided that I am going to embrace this instead of fighting it, and in the spirit of that decision, I am writing today about:
customer service and automobiles!!  :) I told you it was random.

For years now I have been lamenting over what I call the death of customer service.  I believe that great customer service is an art, and that this art is truly dying. The adage "the customer is always right" has become a thing of the past. It is now the age of "I can't do anything for you." Nothing lasts, companies are about the bottom line and not about quality products, and customer service "reps" are given no real power to actually help customers.  It saddens me, and frustrates me. So when I find a company that is actually trying to keep the "art" alive, I am always eager to give them my business, and to spread the good news! That is the main reason I now own a Mac, and why I tell people about it.  They are not perfect, but I believe that Apple has one of the best modern day customer service setups around.  For a long time it was the one and only company on my list.  But I am happy to say that Nissan has recently been added!

I have only owned 3 cars in my life, and 2 have been Nissan.  The little truck that was my first was as reliable as they come.  I sold it after about 8 years and well over 120,000 miles, and not ONE trip to a mechanic for anything other than a checkup.  I now own a Nissan Armada that has also been very reliable, save a recent issue with the brakes.  I won't bore you with the details, mostly because I have no  clue what they are, but I will tell you that when we took it to the dealer we discovered that it was a problem with the brake booster, and that we were only about 3,500 miles out of warranty (of course). The best part was that it was going to cost about $870.00 to fix.  Ugghhhh.

My husband decided to look online before authorizing the work and discovered that this was a common problem in Armadas, so he decided to call the national office and see if they would be willing to cover some of the cost.  Really??!!? I thought to myself, there is NO WAY they are going to help us.  I was wrong.

My husband got in touch with a very helpful "case manager" who took down our information and said that she would talk to the mechanic at the dealership and see what she could do.  Now, I will be honest, it took about 5 days to hear anything, during which I didn't have a vehicle, but the wait absolutely paid off.  We received a call from the mechanic stating that Nissan was going to cover 100% of the cost!!!!!  Seriously.  100%!

 The next day we picked up the car, fixed (including some minor recall stuff we hadn't had fixed prior) and sparkling clean, and we didn't even have to pay the diagnostic fee. I was amazed that a major car company would be willing to at least look at the situation and try to remedy it.  I am not naive...I realize that there was probably a manufacture defect involved, and that they took it seriously because brake issues = lawsuits, but I was still impressed by how little we had to fight for help.

 I will tell everyone I know to buy Nissan, and I will be a lifelong consumer because of this.  See, that is what companies don't seem to understand.  The real purpose of great customer service is to show loyalty...and that as a result, customers will be loyal back.  Everybody wins in the end.