If I ever decide to buy another four wheeler, it will be from Whitefield Honda, a mid-sized Honda car dealer from Bangalore, India.
Six months back when I gave my Honda City for service, the Whitefield Honda service centre gave a shock of my life. Besides the usual issues, the car was making a terrible noise. Someone like me who is obsessed with having the lowest cabin noise while driving, this noise was unbearable. After a thorough check-up, the lead mechanic Manjunath told me “Sir, the A/C compressor of your car is making this noise. It needs to be replaced”. I asked him “How much would it cost me?”. His answer went through my body like a lightning until I held on to the rails at the customer waiting area. I need to spend Rs. 40K for this part replacement.
You may be surprised by my reaction. Someone who drives a top end model of Honda City worried about spending Rs. 40K for replacing a faulty part? You’re right, but you must know that I was saving money then to fund my venture which was scheduled to be launched in the next couple of months. Even a Rs. 1,000 bill is a lot when you are in that stage.
My car was more than 3 years old and completely out of warranty. Like any other Indian, I also checked with the Whitefield Honda team whether this can be done by claiming insurance. I had changed the windshield of my previous Maruti car (I wanted to change it as it had scratches all over) by claiming insurance - those service guys crushed it and helped me claim it. But the Whitefield Honda team refused my request politely and left me with no options but to pay.
I usually fight for customer rights (like an Indian again), but this time, I didn’t know what to do. But Manjunath gave me an option. He told me that they can try repairing the faulty part, but can't guarantee results. I said fine, but sadly it turned out that even repairing was also not possible.
For the first time, my City let me down. I was totally helpless.
Sensing my disappointment and helplessness, Manjunath asked for me to leave the car for two days in the service station. “I’m not sure whether I can surprise you. But let me try sir” he said. I went back home certainly not hoping for a surprise from him and arranged money to foot the bill. To me, it looked like another hurdle in front of a startup founder who is bootstrapping, but I took it positively and got myself prepared.
“Sir, we’ll replace the faulty part free of cost to you.” I was totally stunned when I heard this from Manjunath next day morning. “We’ve decided to do this because you have been servicing your car with us for the last 3 years. You are an important customer for us and please come and pick up the car in the evening, sir”. I didn’t know how to respond to this. I thanked him and kept the call.
Wasn’t that pure awesomeness? Why would any brand spend so much to take care of a customer when they have no obligation to service for free? If they had told me “Sir, you have to pay for the part. But we’ll waive off the service charges”, I can still relate to it. But both parts & service charges for free? Wow, I was blown away. I went to the service station in the evening and took the delivery.
I know many brands have budget to fulfil the customer demands for free replacement / services. But when customers get anything free after fighting for it, they do not feel great about the brand. Instead, they feel ‘yes, I won’ and going to talk about it with their friends. That story is certainly not going to be about how cool the brand is, instead how I fought and won!
But in this case, like my story, this is the moment of a brand winning a customer’s heart. The brand delivered promise when its customer was helpless and in need, but was not demanding. I must have told this story to at least 15 - 20 of my friends during different occasions. Some of them even started giving their cars to Whitefield Honda for service subsequently.
All marketers should realise how powerful these endorsements are. I would highly recommend them to keep a part of their budget for winning customer hearts like this.
Sure, go ahead and and give away discount coupons. But nothing is more powerful than stepping in and helping those needy & helpless customers at the right time like what Honda and Whitefield Honda team did.
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