Real Marketing 5.

2 and then return it when the maintenance is fin-

ished. And the car comes back spotless, thanks
to a complimentary cleaning to remove bugs
and road grime from the exterior and smudges
from the leather interior. You might even be
Lexus: Delighting Customers after the Sale surprised to find that they’ve touched up a
to Keep Them Coming Back door ding to help restore the car to its fresh-
from-the-factory luster. “My wife will never
buy another car except a Lexus,” says one sat-
Close your eyes for a minute and picture a typ- happy after the sale is the key to building last- isfied Lexus owner. “They come to our house,
ical car dealership. Not impressed? Talk to a ing relationships. Dealers across the country pick up the car, do an oil change, [spiff it up,]
friend who owns a Lexus, and you’ll no doubt have a common goal: to delight customers and and bring it back. She’s sold for life.” And
get a very different picture. The typical Lexus keep them coming back. Lexus believes that if when a customer does bring a car in, Lexus re-
dealership is, well, anything but typical. And you “delight the customer, and continue to de- pairs it right the first time, on time. Dealers
some Lexus dealers will go to almost any length light the customer, you will have a customer for know that their well-heeled customers have
to take care of customers and keep them com- life.” And Lexus understands just how valuable money, “but what they don’t have is time.”
ing back. Consider the following examples: a customer can be; it estimates that the average According to its Web site, from the very
lifetime value of a Lexus customer is $600,000. start, Lexus set out to “revolutionize the auto-
Jordan Case has big plans for the ongoing ex- Despite the amenities, few Lexus cus- motive experience with a passionate commit-
pansion of his business. He’s already put in wire- tomers spend much time hanging around the ment to the finest products, supported by
less Internet access. He’s adding a café. And he’s dealership. Lexus knows that the best dealer- dealers who create the most satisfying owner-
installing a putting green for customers who ship visit is the one that you never make. So it ship experience the world has ever seen. We
want to hone their golf skills while waiting for builds customer-pleasing cars to start with— vow to value the customer as an important in-
service. Case isn’t the manager of a swank ho- high-quality cars that need little servicing. In its dividual. To do things right the first time. And
tel or restaurant. He’s the president of Park Place “Lexus Covenant,” the company vows that it to always exceed expectations.” Jordan Case
Lexus, an auto dealership with two locations in will make “the finest cars ever built.” In survey of Park Place Lexus fully embraces this philos-
the Dallas area, and he takes pride that his deal-
after industry survey, Lexus rates at or near the ophy: “You’ve got to do it right, on time, and
ership is, well, the antidealership. In addition to
top in quality. Lexus has topped the list in make people feel like they are the only one in
the café, putting green, and Internet access,
seven of the last nine annual J.D. Power and the room.” Proclaims the Lexus Covenant,
customer perks include free car washes and
Associates Initial Quality Study ratings. “Lexus will treat each customer as we would a
portable DVD players with movies loaned to
waiting service clients. Park Place Lexus’s pas-
Still, when a car does need servicing, guest in our own home.”
sion for customer service even earned it a Mal- Lexus goes out of its way to make it easy and At Lexus, exceeding customer expecta-
colm Baldrige National Quality Award, a painless. Most dealers will even pick up the car tions sometimes means fulfilling even seemingly
business-excellence honor bestowed by the U.S.
government, making it the first automotive
dealership ever in the award’s history to win the
award. “Buying a car doesn’t rank up there with
the top five things you like to do,” Case says.
“So we try to make the experience different.”

For many people, a trip to the auto dealer

means the mind-numbing hour or two in a plas-
tic chair with some tattered magazines and stale
coffee. But JM Lexus in Margate, Florida, fea-
tures four massage chairs, in addition to its Star-
bucks coffee shop, two putting greens, two
customer lounges, and a library. At another
gleaming glass-and-stone Lexus dealership
north of Miami, “guests,” as Lexus calls its cus-
tomers, leave their cars with a valet and are then
guided by a concierge to a European-style cof-
fee bar offering complimentary espresso, cap-
puccino, and a selection of pastries prepared by
a chef trained in Rome. “We have customers
checking into world-class hotels,” says a dealer-
ship executive. “They shop on Fifth Avenue and
they expect a certain kind of experience.”
To delight customers and keep them coming back, the Lexus Covenant promises that its
Lexus knows that good marketing doesn’t dealers will “treat each customer as we would a guest in our home” and “go to any
end with making a sale. Keeping customers lengths to serve them better.”

Continued on next page

156 Part Two | Understanding the Marketplace and Consumers

outrageous customer requests. Dave Wilson, once again ranked number one in the Ameri- store. An owner of a late-model Lexus LS
owner of several Lexus dealerships in Southern can Customer Satisfaction Index, which mea- sedan, Speak says there is no doubt he will
California, tells of a letter he once received from sures customer satisfaction with the overall come to the Palm Beach store for a new vehi-
an angry Lexus owner who spent $374 to repair ownership experience. Customer satisfaction cle in a year or two. “My wife and I are going
her car at his dealership. She’d owned four prior translates into sales and customer loyalty. Lexus to be fighting over who gets to take the car in
Lexus vehicles without a single problem. She is the nation’s number-one selling luxury car. now,” he says over the chair’s hum. “You’re
said in her letter that she resented paying to fix Once a Lexus customer, always a Lexus not kidding!” Jane Speak chimes in from the
her current one. Turns out, she thought they customer. Just ask someone who owns one. store’s other massage chair. A Lexus executive
were maintenance free—as in get in and drive “I’m telling you, this is class, buddy,” says cus- puts it simply: “Lexus consistently delivers an
. . . and drive and drive. “She didn’t think she tomer Barry Speak while reclining in a vibrat- exceptional ownership experience.”
had to do anything to her Lexus,” says Wilson. ing massage chair at the Palm Beach Lexus
“She had 60,000 miles on it, and never had the
oil changed.” Wilson sent back her $374.
Sources: Adapted examples, quotes, and other information from “Lexus and Prius Star for Toyota,” Birmingham Mail,
By all accounts, Lexus has lived up to its
June 19, 2009, p. 44; Mac Gordon, “He Runs the Largest Lexus Store,” Ward’s Dealer Business, February 2008, p. 64;
ambitious customer-satisfaction promise. It has
Neil E. Boudette, “Luxury Car Sellers Put on the Ritz,” Wall Street Journal, December 18, 2007, p. B1; Julia Chang, “At
created what appear to be the world’s most Your Service,” Sales & Marketing Management, June 2006, pp. 42–43; Steve Finlay, “At Least She Put Fuel in It,”
satisfied car owners. Lexus regularly tops not Ward’s Dealer Business, August 1, 2003, http://wardsdealer.com/ar/auto_least_she_put/ Michael Harley; “Lexus Leads,
just the industry quality ratings but also Hyundai Improves, While Infinity Drops in J.D. Power 2009 Initial Quality Study,” June 22, 2009, accessed at www
customer-satisfaction ratings in both the .autoblog.com; “Automobiles & Light Vehicles,” American Customer Satisfaction Index,” www.theacsi.org, accessed
United States and globally. Last year, Lexus March 2010; and “Lexus Covenant,” www.lexus.com/about/corporate/covenant.html, accessed December 2010.

Author Here we look at some

Comment special considerations in
The Buyer Decision Process
new-product buying decisions.
for New Products (pp 156–158)
We have looked at the stages buyers go through in trying to satisfy a need. Buyers may pass
quickly or slowly through these stages, and some of the stages may even be reversed. Much
depends on the nature of the buyer, the product, and the buying situation.
New product We now look at how buyers approach the purchase of new products. A new product is a
A good, service, or idea that is perceived good, service, or idea that is perceived by some potential customers as new. It may have been
by some potential customers as new. around for a while, but our interest is in how consumers learn about products for the first time
Adoption process and make decisions on whether to adopt them. We define the adoption process as “the mental
The mental process through which an process through which an individual passes from first learning about an innovation to final adop-
individual passes from first hearing about tion,” and adoption as the decision by an individual to become a regular user of the product.37
an innovation to final adoption.
Stages in the Adoption Process
Consumers go through five stages in the process of adopting a new product:
Awareness: The consumer becomes aware of the new product but lacks information about it.
Interest: The consumer seeks information about the new product.
Evaluation: The consumer considers whether trying the new product makes sense.
Trial: The consumer tries the new product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of
its value.
Adoption: The consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product.
This model suggests that the new-product marketer should think about how to help con-
sumers move through these stages. For example, during the recent recession, Hyundai de-
veloped a unique way to help customers get past evaluation and make a positive purchase
decision about a new vehicle.
Hyundai discovered many potential customers were interested in buying new cars but
couldn’t get past the evaluation stage of the buying process. Consumers worried that