Email to Lotus customer service Manger - ref colour photos

[VL3X]

Regardless of it being “for the drivers” - the demand is essentially a direct result of how the Emira looks - and that’s why it’s so important customers are confident and happy with what they’re getting, aesthetically.

Otherwise we’d all have evoras

That and the price point... and the whole "final ICE Lotus" thing (except for the Emira S, Emira GT, Emira GT4, etc.).

 

[torstin]

I drive an Evora GT and I may or may not be offended 😩😁

🙈 no offence intended lol

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

That and the price point... and the whole "final ICE Lotus" thing (except for the Emira S, Emira GT, Emira GT4, etc.).

i think you have just talked me out of buying the first edition!

Very valid point, i was a first adopter on this because of the last ICE thought - but you are right, there will most likely be FINAL FINAL First editions or alike

 

[FederGigant]

i think you have just talked me out of buying the first edition!

Very valid point, i was a first adopter on this because of the last ICE thought - but you are right, there will most likely be FINAL FINAL First editions or alike

True, but if sound is important to you, only this years V6 FE will give you the full experience.

 

[SlavaUkraini]

i think you have just talked me out of buying the first edition!

Very valid point, i was a first adopter on this because of the last ICE thought - but you are right, there will most likely be FINAL FINAL First editions or alike

Yeah, but how long do you want to wait? If you skip out on the FE, you are probably looking at 2024 at the earliest for one of the other models. Who knows what can happen in that time. You could always trade your FE in for that one anyway...

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

True, but if sound is important to you, only this years V6 FE will give you the full experience.

im just throwing my dummy out of the pram, i'll never back out of my purchase - especially for that reason - the V6 Manual too

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Yeah, but how long do you want to wait? If you skip out on the FE, you are probably looking at 2024 at the earliest for one of the other models. Who knows what can happen in that time. You could always trade your FE in for that one anyway...

Exactly, im too scared to change my colour now, despite not being given the choice to see the additional colours on the updated configurator before being "locked in" , as i would be heavily delayed.

Im going ahead as planned, early delivery, im sure it will be great, even if the Comms havent been...

 

[Eagle7]

@TomE it's both sad and sobering to read all your comments in this thread. It's now pretty evident that the goal of being a world-player which Matt has stated is their goal, was and is mostly focused on designing and building cars. Lotus has never had to be more than that for the most part, and taking aim at Porsche seems to have been purely focused at the car more than anything else. At least at this stage.

It seems odd to me that Matt, Russell and Gavan would actually go around with the gray car in the U.S., talk to and listen to what people are saying about it, then come back and seemingly take almost no action towards the customer side of everything, except for what it would be like to drive and use the car once they have it. They've focused on the driver experience, "For The Drivers" which is fine and all, but clearly weren't ready at all for the customer experience which is very much a part of being a world-class player.

It looks like their focus has already shifted to the Type 132 and whatever else is in the works in that regard. That's fine, and certainly needs to be done, but I hope they're adding improvements to the customer experience or they're going to have real problems. Once negative impressions (real or imagined) make it into the press, it becomes very very difficult to overcome the perception that creates. It's fine to be a quirky boutique company when you're small, but that doesn't work if you're trying to move up into the bigger leagues. Alfa Romeo was already a bigger player than Lotus was/is, and even they forgot to learn that lesson. It's cost them, badly. The Achilles heal for Alfa wasn't the car, although there were some negative reviews about the reliability, what did them in was the dealer network and customer experience there.

The one you need to talk to is Matt. Changes of this type and magnitude need to come down from the top, because they also need a budget and the authority to use it to make the necessary changes. That's what killed Alfa. FCA put people in charge of the customer experience, but didn't give them the budget or the authority to spend the money to fix the problems.

If they don't have it already, Lotus needs to add (as an internal slogan if nothing else) "For The Customers", and put the same amount of attention to detail into that as they have into designing and building the Emira. If they can create and provide a customer experience that works the way the Emira looks, then they would become the world-class player they say they want to be. In the meantime, while the car has made great progress, the customer experience seems to be at the Goodwood reveal stage.

 

[Eagle7]

I am giving Lotus about 3-4 more weeks to start giving us some serious information and communication before I let go of my FE deposit and go full throttle with my Cayman GTS deposit. If I had any shred of self decency, I would have left ages ago, but I want to have a Lotus Emira in my garage. I love the idea behind Lotus, and this machine they are building. With that said, I can only take so much bullshit. We are coughing up 100k to be treated like a nuisance.

It appears their main focus right now is getting production going and getting cars out the door, which at this point, I'm okay with. I realize this is the first car under their new investors, the first time they've used the new production facility, and there's a boatload of non-Lotus specific issues that have been, and are going on in the world that have made things more difficult than they otherwise would be. I get that, and I'm giving them a lot of consideration for that.

At this point, I want the car and I want it to be great. If it wasn't the last ICE Lotus, if it didn't have the manual trans, and if it didn't look like it does, then I'd probably be right there with you. I'm not a multi-millionaire, so a $100k purchase isn't a trivial thing for me. While the product may be worth it, and I believe it will be, the experience at this point hasn't reached the level where it feels like we're $100k customers. It feels more like we ordered Playstation 5's from Best Buy. It'll be great once you get it, but in the meantime...

March is going to be a very important month for the company and for the brand.

 

[BeHappy]

Exactly, im too scared to change my colour now, despite not being given the choice to see the additional colours on the updated configurator before being "locked in" , as i would be heavily delayed.

Im going ahead as planned, early delivery, im sure it will be great, even if the Comms havent been...

Which colour did you plum for …

 

[Leonard]

The one you need to talk to is Matt. Changes of this type and magnitude need to come down from the top, because they also need a budget and the authority to use it to make the necessary changes. That's what killed Alfa. FCA put people in charge of the customer experience, but didn't give them the budget or the authority to spend the money to fix the problems.

This is the thing. Good Customer Experience does not cost money. Not relatively speaking anyway when you are looking at building X amount of new car models.
Which ultimately makes it all the more galling that we are all getting such a 💩 Experience...
All they need is one person to drive it and a small team to execute it in conjunction with their existing Marketing Team.

 

[SlavaUkraini]

It appears their main focus right now is getting production going and getting cars out the door, which at this point, I'm okay with. I realize this is the first car under their new investors, the first time they've used the new production facility, and there's a boatload of non-Lotus specific issues that have been, and are going on in the world that have made things more difficult than they otherwise would be. I get that, and I'm giving them a lot of consideration for that.

At this point, I want the car and I want it to be great. If it wasn't the last ICE Lotus, if it didn't have the manual trans, and if it didn't look like it does, then I'd probably be right there with you. I'm not a multi-millionaire, so a $100k purchase isn't a trivial thing for me. While the product may be worth it, and I believe it will be, the experience at this point hasn't reached the level where it feels like we're $100k customers. It feels more like we ordered Playstation 5's from Best Buy. It'll be great once you get it, but in the meantime...

March is going to be a very important month for the company and for the brand.

The thing is, you don't have to be a business expert to communicate with your customer. We aren't asking them to talk to us every day, but give us something every few weeks. Some photos, some updates, come on. Every company in this world is in the same pandemic and most of them have been able to communicate just fine with their clientele. Why can't Lotus hire ONE person to do that?

 

[vision]

As with a lot of us we have been agonising for hours over which colour to choose and there is lots of debate on this subject in the forum For people that will not have the luxury to see cars before locking in order. I am not happy spending such a significant amount £ on second guessing which colour ( between Magma & nimbus) it is such an important feature of the car especially when you are spec’ the car.
I have a concern the configurator will not be 100% accurate representation of what will be getting delivered and also when you look at the disc colours v’s the ones on the small car they all don’t look the same, even the blue cars some seem to be lighter than others ?
What is adding to the frustration is Lotus do have the cars in all the colours but are not willing to share these photos to customers. Having waiting circa 15 months I do then not want to be in the position of delaying my order further by potentially changing my mind once cars released and we get to see them. Therefore I have requested that my request to see these photos of two colours is passed onto the customer service Mgr.
if anyone else feels as passionately on this subject maybe the more requests they receive they might start listening to their customer 🤞🤞
I know I’m a pain in the butt 🥴

Go buy a Porsche, simple

 

[Leonard]

Go buy a Porsche, simple

I do love a nice Porsche 🙊👀

 

[SlavaUkraini]

Go buy a Porsche, simple

Come on man. We all are here because we want to have an Emira. We are talking a lot of money for silly uncertainties, which shouldn't be at this point. It's insane we are bickering over this because Lotus is too lazy or above its customers to release minuscule information on their product, but have no problem taking the deposits...

 

[Eagle7]

This is the thing. Good Customer Experience does not cost money. Not relatively speaking anyway when you are looking at building X amount of new car models.
Which ultimately makes it all the more galling that we are all getting such a 💩 Experience...
All they need is one person to drive it and a small team to execute it in conjunction with their existing Marketing Team.

Actually it does cost money. You need a department for it, workspace, furniture and equipment, and have to pay people to staff it. Then there's the operating expenses and the cost of developing and creating all the materials that have to be approved before being released.

They don't need just one guy at a desk to send us some photos or news, they need a department to handle global marketing and communications for everyone; customers, dealers, press, etc., as well as whatever sources they either create themselves or contract to produce things.

That's just at the corporate headquarters. They need to create and establish a standard, then extend that to a marcom approved look and feel for every dealer, every official representation, whether permanent or temporary. That extends to every single item, whether printed or a sample, so there's brand and presentation consistency. Right now it looks a lot like a fan club operation. At least apart from design, engineering and production. They need to take what they're doing in those 3 areas, and replicate that level of quality and professionalism in communications and the customer experience.

 

[TomE]

They already have teams of people in those functions, responsible for what you're describing. Marketing, customer care, PR, collateral design and production, social media, branding, dealer comms, direct channel comms etc etc.

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Which colour did you plum for …

Yellow all over,the safe eccentric bet.
But the magma red took my eye after seeing it on the latest configurator...

Ah well,stunning either way

 

[xen]

Yellow all over,the safe eccentric bet.
But the magma red took my eye after seeing it on the latest configurator...

Ah well,stunning either way

I’m stuck between Seneca and Magma. It seems to not be a typical red and it’ll be a thin line, depending on shade, between love and hate for me.

As I type this i see a deep red F8 Tributo drive by…

 

[Eagle7]

They already have teams of people in those functions, responsible for what you're describing. Marketing, customer care, PR, collateral design and production, social media, branding, dealer comms, direct channel comms etc etc.

Well then, what are they doing? I'm not normally a 'people should be fired' type of guy, but considering how important this car and launch is, there needs to be an explanation as to why there's this big hole in the image of the company in that area. With all those people and resources in place, there should be some kind of enthusiasm for the customer interface experience. Somebody is dropping the ball here. I don't know who it is, but this just seems bizarre to be this close to production launch, and have all the things you described in your previous post.