GM’s Customer Experience Woes December 18, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in Customer experience.Tags: ACSI, GM, Saturn, John Quelch
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I read an interesting blog post about the leadership mistakes in the auto industry. It discusses the adversarial relationship between workers and management in the industry. There’s no surprise that the US auto makers are having such a hard time meeting consumers’ needs, given the 4th rule of customer experience: Unengaged Employees Don’t Create Engaged Customers.
According to the 2008 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), foreign car makers own the four highest customer satisfaction scores. Interestingly, GM owns the top three US brands (Saturn, Cadillac, and Buick). So I took a closer look at the ACSI scores for all of the GM brands over the last five years:
Customer Satisfaction Of GM Brands (Data Source: The ACSI)
It turns out that Saturn is not only one of the top GM brands, but it also made the largest improvement over 2007. As a matter of fact, it was the most improved of any car brand. Even with this surge in satisfaction, GM is considering shutting down Saturn. This is just another sign that GM is out of touch with consumers. Even GM admits that it is out of touch.
In a post called How General Motors Violated Your Trust, Harvard Business School professor John Quelch outlines eight reasons why GM failed as a marketer. The number one item on his list is: Focus on products, not customers. GM has become so out of touch with consumers that it is heading in the opposite direction of the first principle of Experience-Based Differentiation: Obsess about customer needs, not product features.
The bottom line: No company is big enough to ignore customer experience.
[...] (CustomerExperienceMatters) * Car Loyalty (TheCustomerInstitute) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (CustomerExperienceMatters) * What Gets Measured Gets Funded (ThePerfectCustomerExperience) * Trends in customer loyalty [...]
[...] scores highest on customer loyalty (brand repurchase) and it’s the same name behind Scion? GM scores poorly. It’s not just about having a cool idea or great marketing campaign but organizing the whole [...]
[...] * 43 Ways to Engage Gen-Y and Youth Culture (Greg Rollett) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matter) * PART 1: 50 Youth Marketing Trends for 2009 by Graham Brown mobileYouth.org (Slideshare) * World [...]
[...] If you want to see what what happens if you ignore youth customer loyalty then look no further than the fortunes of US Auto – burdened by debt and unfavored by even their own domestic customers because they had focused too much on dealers and not enough on those paying their wages (Newgeography.com). Take a look here (The Customer Institute) to get a feeling for whose getting it right in this sector. GM certainly isn’t so no wonder it’s finding itself without much goodwill in the market to keep the company afloat (Customer Experience Matters). [...]
[...] Lazarus suspects not… (Customer Experience Crossroads) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * Customer Experience Rankings 2008 (Logic+Emotion) * Bad News Travels Fast Via Twitter (AdPulp) * [...]
[...] Experience Matters) * Car Loyalty (The Customer Institute) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * What Gets Measured Gets Funded (The Perfect Customer Experience) * Trends in customer loyalty [...]
[...] * 43 Ways to Engage Gen-Y and Youth Culture (Greg Rollett) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * PART 1: 50 Youth Marketing Trends for 2009 by Graham Brown mobileYouth.org (SlideShare) * World [...]
[...] Lazarus suspects not… (Customer Experience Crossroads) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * Customer Experience Rankings 2008 (Logic+Emotion) * Bad News Travels Fast Via Twitter (AdPulp) * [...]
[...] Experience Matters) * Car Loyalty (The Customer Institute) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * What Gets Measured Gets Funded (The Perfect Customer Experience) * Trends in customer loyalty [...]
[...] trackback Given the current struggles in the auto industry, I revisited at a post called GMs customer experience woes. It referenced an article written by HBS professor John Quelch that outlined eight reasons why [...]
[...] Lazarus suspects not… (Customer Experience Crossroads) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * Customer Experience Rankings 2008 (Logic+Emotion) * Bad News Travels Fast Via Twitter (AdPulp) * [...]
[...] Experience Matters) * Car Loyalty (The Customer Institute) * GM’s Customer Experience Woes (Customer Experience Matters) * What Gets Measured Gets Funded (The Perfect Customer Experience) * Trends in customer loyalty [...]
[...] 15 minutes later, I went in to ask the service advisor about my vehicle. She was on the phone and ignored me until my car was brought up and I started toward it. Then her response was there must have been a back up at the car wash. When I questioned this, she [...]