Hello everyone.

I gave a talk last year at UXWeek ("UX" = user experience) in San Francisco called Cars, Castles, & Spas. It was a presentation that covered my Porsche Euro Delivery experience, as I had travelled in May to pickup a new 991 CS2.

It's about a half hour... Figured you guys may enjoy it.

Best,
Rob

https://vimeo.com/52173465

 

Hey Rob great post! It hit home for me on many levels. I worked for Disney many years, and my second Porsche is about to be on a boat here to the US, so I could easily relate to the brand message for both products. What was great to watch was how you described not only your experience during the purchase but your frustration with the lack of involvement from Porsche during the build and subsequent transfer from Germany to the US.

If you search the forums here I think you will find many threads with people frustrated over not knowing what stage their car is in production or if its on its way to port or if its on the ship yet or when it hits our shores or why it's still stuck in customs. Many of us have said that with the level of techology Porsche has, adding more personalized communications should be fairly easy for them. I'd love to know what stage of production my car is in, even better would be a picture from that day! That could easily be included in some form of a mobile experience where you feel much more involved in the birth of your car. You pointed out several opportunities for those communications in your presentation. What I've found is that there are long spans of time where there is no communication at all from Porache which can be very frustrating.

The cars are just plain amazing, and the company has such a rich history, you just want to be as involved as you can be when you purchase on of these great cars. Thanks again for posting this, and congrats on your your car. ED is something I've always wanted to do, maybe next time. Here's hoping Porsche sees your video and makes a few changes because of it!

 

Oddly enough, I met Detlev von Platen at a party back in November. Afterwards I sent him a link and he watched and we had a really great correspondance discussing it.

He seemed genuinely concerned and not at all unaware of the issues. We talked about me heading to Atlanta to sit down with him there, but it has not been scheduled yet.

From my vantage, I think Porsche needs to be a brand of aspiration. No one should be left out, especially those who won't be able to afford their cars until later in life. They definitely have the opportunity to be The Lifestyle Brand. All the pieces are there, they just need to be assembled and followed through on.

 

I'd love to hear if you make it to Atlanta for that discussion and the outcome. Would be interesting to see how receptive they would be to your ideas.....

 

Thank you for posting the link to your video, Rob!

I really enjoyed your talk. I am planning to take European delivery of a 991S in September. Despite the downsides that are clearly present in the process of euro delivery, I am also hopeful that the Factory/Museum tour as well as the Car itself and driving around Europe will more than make up for it!

I agree with what you've said. It really doesn't seem like it would be THAT difficult for them to create an easy but very exciting interactive experience from the time of the order through the time of American delivery. So disappointing!

Maybe they know our wives, and if they did this, they would never get us off the computer....

Thanks again!
(BTW, do you recall how far in advance you ordered before your Euro delivery date? I am planning to order around 4 to 4.5 months prior, and wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing it!)

Kevin

 

Great Idea thanks! I am collecting my white/red CS2 from the factory in May and really looking forward to watching it over the weekend.
It's clear that Porsche are not as keen on factory collection as the other German OEM's as they don't incentivize and now charge dealers extra.
They know we'll still come.....
Oh, to have an exclusive brand!

 

Thanks for the post Rob.

By and large the issues you highlighted hold true when purchasing a Porsche. The online experience does not live up to or adequately represent the actual product. That is a shame and clearly a missed opportunity for all concerned. In my case the things I found to be so frustrating were tracking/status of the order and then having to bother the dealer with questions that could so easily have been answered by an online system that could be preemptive.

You are quite correct to state that the car (the product) delivers an experience that generally lives up to the customers expectations and does enhance brand loyalty. I hope that Porsche do not rely on that to offer or accept a sub-standard customer experience in certain areas.

Like most here, I'm a Porsche addict and comment only to make things better... for all.

Thanks again for your post and sharing your experience.

 

Kevin -

I finalized my order about 3.5 months out, got delivery confirmation 2 months out, paid 1 month out (you have to buy, not lease). I have the most amazing salesperson here in LA and he did a great job taking care of everything he could on this end.

Rob

 

I think I got more information (VIN, emails when it was complete, some calls with ship info, etc.) than you did, but that was my sales guy following up and looking stuff up through his system, nothing I could track, and a couple of updates were my doing because I wasn't patient enough to not call.

It would be great if PAG would set up a tracking mechanism for customers to track stages of the build & delivery process, ideally with an option for alerts, and even more ideally with some webcam shots of the car at various stages (after hours if needed if workers don't want to be in the shots, for that matter). Maybe the 'Porsche Delivery' app, showing all the build info, photos, etc., with a way to export the whole thing as a PDF at the end of the process? A map with timestamps/locations of the shipping so you have a fun memento of the shipping?

Aaanyway, my car happily arrived 2 weeks ago, hopefully you get more information shortly!

 

Rob,

I am truly impressed with your presentation.

You have embodied exactly what I felt months before receiving my 991S.

When the dealer told me that my order was postponed (translation: They sold my delivery slot to a more important customer), I called Porsche NA and they told me that 'each dealer is independent'. I stressed the fact that it's their name that goes on the dealer...

Anyway, really to the point, in a pleasant and entertaining way.

Congratulations on the 911, if you pass by NY let's grab a drink!

Alessandro

 

Rob,
Great presentation! I worked with my dealer and Porsche Exclusive on my build and it did seem like there was a huge information void between PCNA and the dealers. Most of the time, I could only get certain information from PCNA.

Imagine how much Porsche could make if they added another option on the build sheet of having a DVD of your car being built. I can safely say that most of us would pay a decent amount to have that DVD or a real time webcam access to see the car being built.

 

Excellent and perceptive presentation - thanks for sharing!
I've been in sales and marketing all my life and know how important and difficult it is to get this stuff right. And more so in the internet age when marketing, media and experience are all merging - which is the point you were making.

Seems P has the design and manufacturing down
But the marketing and customer experience are not on the same level.

Little things like paying in full 5 weeks before you get the car......plus another 20% sales tax bond (to make sure it's exported from Germany) - stick in the craw a bit. And yes the warranty starts the day you collect, even though it's going to spend 8 weeks being shipped back to you....

Nevertheless I'm counting the days until I collect mine in May!
Paul

 

Hey Rob,

Great presentation-Now I really wish I did the Euro delivery with two young children it was not an option this time around. Your description of the purchase experience was right on the money. Once the order is placed there is virtually no connection to the process. Porsche needs to do better. We are a obsessive bunch why do they think we all love Porsches so much. The excitement of learning that a VIN was created was a great day for me. IF they had a better connection to the build process I am sure many of us would appreciate it. Great job with the presentation! It looks like you and your wife had a great time on the trip. All the best!

 

Rob, I could really relate to your presentation at many levels. I waited for over 4 months, and knew that although the car was ready, it was deliberately not being picked up and sat in Germany for over a week...and then in Sandiego for a week to...no explanation...no justification whatsoever...mine relatively cost a lot (over 170k drive out) and having experience with ordering process with other brands like BMW, i was expecting exclusive treatment for six figures vehicle...but nothing of that sort! It turns out that my delay had something to do with freaking launch date of 4/4S in USA. Towards the back end, I got so frustrated with lack of info about the logistics (I work for a largest high tech in operations and we have total control of every bit of everything when it comes to logistics), that I was on a verge of giving up and going for another brand (yes it is my first Porsche)...but man, as soon as I saw it and sat in it for the first time, I forgot everything instantly!! What you mentioned towards the end of the presentation is so sad yet so true! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Edit: by the way, I've learned that starting beginning March'13, Porsche is updating their system where information to dealerships would be vastly improved with real time updates...again, not for customers and not at par with what BMW shares with their customers comparing to when I got mine about 6 years ago...in this regard Porsche is ages behind.

 

Rob,
nice presentation. i enjoy watching it.

u point out the obvious with Porsche. being a long time loyal customer of Porsche i feel more frustration beyond just the ordering process. but at the end it is still my favorite brand because of the product. one could definitely feel the ''German Superiority'' when dealing with Porsche. that's all i can conclude.

btw, i've done back to back 2 European Deliveries with BMW so far. the experience is absolutely perfect. in terms of service they always try to go out of the ways to please the customer. seems like getting the accommodations from Porsche is always more difficult than other european brands.