Which companies have great customer communications that Tesla should use as a blueprint?

[Frieda’s Boss]

I’m so dumbfounded how a company like Tesla that has such good engineering can have such poor communication with their customers. Being able to update a customer about an order status seems so much simpler a task than building Permanent Motor Magnets or FSD!

That being said, there are plenty of companies who are excellent at communicating with their customers, especially when it comes to the status of orders.

Just wanted to see what experiences Tesla customers have had with other companies that might be able to provide a ‘blueprint’ to jumpstart an improvement in customer communications.

For my experiences: Safelite Window Repair & Dominos Pizza have very detailed status updates for customers. It seems they have a notification sent out at every critical point in the product delivery process. I’m convinced if Tesla could mimic some of these basic techniques, pre-delivery customer satisfaction would improve almost immediately.

 

[TT97]

I think you answer your own question with "such good engineering can have such poor communication."

 

[ewoodrick]

I’m so dumbfounded how a company like Tesla that has such good engineering can have such poor communication with their customers. Being able to update a customer about an order status seems so much simpler a task than building Permanent Motor Magnets or FSD!

That being said, there are plenty of companies who are excellent at communicating with their customers, especially when it comes to the status of orders.

Just wanted to see what experiences Tesla customers have had with other companies that might be able to provide a ‘blueprint’ to jumpstart an improvement in customer communications.

For my experiences: Safelite Window Repair & Dominos Pizza have very detailed status updates for customers. It seems they have a notification sent out at every critical point in the product delivery process. I’m convinced if Tesla could mimic some of these basic techniques, pre-delivery customer satisfaction would improve almost immediately.

Don't be confused with a desire to have good communication and the ability to implement one. When you essentially go from the smallest manufacturer overnight to one of the largest, there's a lot of growing pains. You just can't go out and hire everyone that you need overnight. It's really hard to hire folks, you generally are begging to hire satisfactory people.

Once the pressure lets off, I'm sure that they will return to pretty close to their previous levels of service. Probably won't be quite the same, they are just so much bigger now.

 

[stupidlazydog]

I imagine they had a plan to increase production, they should have been able to foresee, at least somewhat, a need for communication and logistics experts. I guess they're finding out now that the throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach doesn't work all that well.

 

[SpudLime]

As an old IT joke, if you like to see how an engineer envisions communication, look no further than the Lotus Notes email and workflow server.

Microsoft came up with their own. Look who won.

 

[Frieda’s Boss]

I imagine they had a plan to increase production, they should have been able to foresee, at least somewhat, a need for communication and logistics experts. I guess they're finding out now that the throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach doesn't work all that well.

I agree that it felt like Tesla was ‘winging it’ since the Model3 launch and definitely over the course of 2018 with the production ramps, so that’s where I thought they could learn from other companies that excel in customer communication so they wouldn’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in terms of keeping cust-sat high, not just with the product alone but with the overall experience.

Maybe they’ll give out Tesla-branded “Jump to Conclusion” mats for Day 1 Model Y reservation holders to make up for it!

 

[Frieda’s Boss]

As a concrete example, here’s the communication I received when I used Safelite. It’s the LEVEL of communication that really impressed me...I was never in the dark as to the status of my order, which is where I think Tesla is really dropping the ball.

As for the ‘system’ in place at Safelite, it looks like there’s an automated portion that’s generic, but there’s also the direct portion with the tech, and lastly the follow-up.

Here’s what we’re planning to do
Here’s when we’re planning to do it
Here’s how we’re planning to do it
Here’s what we’re doing
Here’s what we did
Here’s your receipt

 

[tomas]

Safe lite has been doing the same thing for decades. This is tesla’s first foray into mass production/distribution, and also the first for any company to do in autos with make to order model and without dealer network. Cut them some slack. If they don’t demonstrate significant continuous improvement, then there’s cause for concern. Let’s see how customer communications evolves in aftermath of first true volume quarter.

 

[Frieda’s Boss]

Safe lite has been doing the same thing for decades. This is tesla’s first foray into mass production/distribution, and also the first for any company to do in autos with make to order model and without dealer network. Cut them some slack. If they don’t demonstrate significant continuous improvement, then there’s cause for concern. Let’s see how customer communications evolves in aftermath of first true volume quarter.

Tomas, as a customer who only received 1 email from Tesla regarding the status of my order (the one asking to pick a delivery date), I feel like a did, in fact give Tesla a LOT of slack, like many others on this forum, and their execution just left a lot to be desired.
I wasn’t trying to start another ‘venting’ thread, but rather, probing ideas from the community to find a low-resistance path to resolution by copying successful techniques used by other customers.
It’s true that Dominos & Safelite have been in business for decades, but the (digital) Customer Notification Systems they have in place are very recent, likely <2yrs, which is why I think Tesla can hit the ground running on these types of communication improvements by mimicking other companies’ successful tactics.

 

[tomas]

Tomas, as a customer who only received 1 email from Tesla regarding the status of my order (the one asking to pick a delivery date), I feel like a did, in fact give Tesla a LOT of slack, like many others on this forum, and their execution just left a lot to be desired.
I wasn’t trying to start another ‘venting’ thread, but rather, probing ideas from the community to find a low-resistance path to resolution by copying successful techniques used by other customers.
It’s true that Dominos & Safelite have been in business for decades, but the (digital) Customer Notification Systems they have in place are very recent, likely <2yrs, which is why I think Tesla can hit the ground running on these types of communication improvements by mimicking other companies’ successful tactics.

Agree there are models, and I like the thread as long as it stays constructive and doesn’t become another delivery carpfest. I don’t believe the underlying problem was communication as much as (purely my guess)... the “matching” system that decided who got what car was a mess, and constant overrides and new last minute programs to push at quarter end fouled up worse. In my case, I took delivery on sept 30. If anything, I was over-communicated with. I got conflicting emails. But the good news was the local delivery manager was very responsive and sorted things out.

You have have predictable, bulletproof delivery processes to have “safelite” type communications. They have to solve that first. I trust they will, but that doesn’t reduce pain of some current customers.

 

[Sg911]

I had my windshield changed on 2016 Genesis and safelight was awesome! They understated, and over delivered!

 

[OutofThyme]

Customer service techniques and systems is not new. You hire the right people at the top to build the people up from the bottom and you'll see greater success. Tesla's boots on the grounds are not well-trained enough before getting thrown to the wolves. The managers are better, but overloaded to the max. Tesla winging it with manufacturing, deliveries, and service during the rush before EOY. They would do well to learn from Singapore Airlines. Always innovating, iterating and has tremendous customer service and they deal with way more customers per year than Tesla ever will.

 

[Frieda’s Boss]

@OutofThyme That may be a good approach for Tesla right now: in the Customer Satisfaction War Room, they should be compiling a spectrum list of ‘Best of Breed’ (Singapore Airlines + Changi Airport) all the way to ‘Worst of Breed’ (Comcast - purely a personal note ) and if they can see where they fall in the spectrum, it’s a visual way to see how much effort is needed to get to the top!

Agreed @tomas, if Tesla can improve the underlying delivery process system, I can see it easing the burden for the Scheduling team, Delivery team, and ultimately the Local team who handoff the product to the customer.

 

[Marian424]

I definitely agree there're a lot of companies out there that don't put extra effort in communicating with their customers. I have had couple of bad experiences myself. if i talk about my own company although things are not perfect however we have come a long way. we're using Microsoft teams now maybe they can try it out as well. Microsoft teams