Quote:
Originally posted by JPM
I think Ducati have to take some of the blame to a degree and their marketing though, look back to last year and at Laguna WSB they launched the 05 bikes, and suddenly no one wanted an 04 999/749 and dealers had to discount bikes heavily to shift what was effectively old stock then. |
True. That must've been a big shock to the dealer system, having bikes on your showroom floor that nobody wants unless you give them away.
I think it's sad whenever a small business closes it's doors, having been involved in this sort of thing myself I would say that all small businessmen are acutely aware of their customer needs. Like all other walks of life though some people are better catering to the customer than others.
You actually need much more than good customer skills. It's easy to make all your customers happy by giving them huge discounts and bending over backwards to chuck in little sweeteners, but to stay in business your first duty is to make a profit. Any idiot could make customers deleriously happy for a while by giving the shop away, but they wouldn't last long.
Another thing about customer satisfaction is that it's hugely variable. Some people are satisfied by going into the shop and paying the ticket price if they know that they're going to get a hassle free deal, other people would be ****ed off if they paid more than cost. We all know that some people are too easily satisfied and there are others who will never, ever be happy regardless of what you do for them.
The other reason that some dealers may be less willing to do deals is what their cost base is DLS and DLC, by definition have LONDON in their titles and we all know that you have to pay premium prices for London premises. If you're obliged to run a big glossy solus type showroom as well your costs are much, much higher than the small independant who tend to be in cheaper premises or where they might own the freehold of a family business that was bought and paid for long ago, by definition, there's less fat in every deal for you to give away.
The main reason is linked to the "Is the UK in recession" thread that BDG started. Perhaps not exactly, but nearly everyone I know has surfed the credit boom driven by cheap remortgages and loans and now finds they're nearly maxed out. Buying big ticket items like bikes is not on everyones shopping list right now, we're the lucky few and have you noticed from the market place forum that even we're not buying bikes as quickly as we did a few years back?