If there’s a list Tesla is probably OK with not being at the top of,
it’s ‘Best Car Salesmen’. The company boasts about its distribution and
servicing model being unlike any other in the industry and the latest
mystery shoppers study by Pied Piper, a real consultant and market
research firm (not based on the HBO series Silicon Valley), kind of proved that it is the case by placing Tesla dead last.
The study sends “mystery shoppers” to dealerships across the US in
several different locations per brand to measure “how well dealerships
follow sales processes, such as asking qualifying questions and
ultimately asking for the sale”, according to Ward Auto.
Apparently, Tesla doesn’t follow standard sales processes in the
industry because Pied Piper placed the company last with 86 points, 10
points behind the second “worst”, Volvo with 96, and 28 points behind
the highest ranked, Infiniti with 114 points.
Here’s the full ranking via Pied Piper:
Pied Piper CEO Fran O’Hagan said that while staffers at some Tesla
stores were found to act more like car salesmen, and to be fair a lot of
Tesla store employees were previously employed at other dealerships, he
says that at most Tesla stores, employees tended to act like “museum
curators” because they were knowledgeable about the product, but they
never asked for the sale, which is actually probably more in line with
Elon Musk’s vision for Tesla’s retail experience.
In a 2012 blog post,
Tesla’s CEO explained the company’s approach to distributing and
servicing cars. He described the goal of Product Specialists, Tesla’s
equivalent of salespeople:
“They are not on commission and they will never pressure you to buy a car. Their goal and the sole metric of their success is to have you enjoy the experience of visiting so much that you look forward to returning again.”
While Tesla scored the lowest in almost every single category in Pied
Piper’s research, like giving out printed materials for shoppers to
take with them, the automaker received the highest rating for discussing
features unique from competition.
Tesla doesn’t use a franchise dealership models like most automakers
in the US and instead owns all of its stores. It is still struggling to
instate its distribution model in several states where the auto dealer
associations are pushing back and trying to force Tesla to use their
model through legislation preventing automakers to own auto dealerships.
The main issue with Tesla using the franchise model is that
dealerships make most of their profit on servicing the vehicles they
sell, while Tesla aims not to make a profit on service. Musk is on
record saying that he thinks it’s “terrible” to make a profit on
service.
SOURCE: Elektrek
If you're considering implementing a mystery shopper program for your company, or would like to join us as a mystery shopper, we'd love to have you join us!
Learn more by clicking HERE!
SOURCE: Elektrek
If you're considering implementing a mystery shopper program for your company, or would like to join us as a mystery shopper, we'd love to have you join us!
Learn more by clicking HERE!