Mr Grumpy Pants

[Leonard]

Just wanted to take a moment to apologise to my fellow forum members. I've recently realised that I've become a TOTAL whiny barsteward on here and thats really not me.

I did genuinely start this Emira buying journey as a happy exciteable bunny who could not wait to see what was instore over the next 12 months. As a Customer Service professional my positivity levels are generally set pretty high, but over the past 8 months my enthusiasm has waned to the point where I'm not really bringing anything positive to the forum party.

The trouble with being a CS professional is you spend your whole day proactively trying to give everyone else a positive experience and in you private time you hope that may be reciprocated in some small way. In most cases you can shrug off a poor purchase/after sales experience, but with the Emira being such an emotive purchase I've definitely gone down the proverbial emotional rabbit hole and come out the other side a more bitter human being.

Even though I know this forum is a place for general discussion both good and bad. I dont want to add negativity to the forum and in some small way possibly detract from other members having a more positive and exciting experience. So from now on I will be keeping to the mantra of "if you havent got anything nice to say, then say nothing at all"

Not looking for attention here and I'm not drunk or unstable (no more than normal anyway).

Genuinely just wanted to say that I am not the negative person that my recent postings/ramblings may have made me out to be, I hope this Emira malarky all pans out for the best and I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person at events in the future.

Cheers

 

[EspritGuy]

Just wanted to take a moment to apologise to my fellow forum members. I've recently realised that I've become a TOTAL whiny barsteward on here and thats really not me.

I did genuinely start this Emira buying journey as a happy exciteable bunny who could not wait to see what was instore over the next 12 months. As a Customer Service professional my positivity levels are generally set pretty high, but over the past 8 months my enthusiasm has waned to the point where I'm not really bringing anything positive to the forum party.

The trouble with being a CS professional is you spend your whole day proactively trying to give everyone else a positive experience and in you private time you hope that may be reciprocated in some small way. In most cases you can shrug off a poor purchase/after sales experience, but with the Emira being such an emotive purchase I've definitely gone down the proverbial emotional rabbit hole and come out the other side a more bitter human being.

Even though I know this forum is a place for general discussion both good and bad. I dont want to add negativity to the forum and in some small way possibly detract from other members having a more positive and exciting experience. So from now on I will be keeping to the mantra of "if you havent got anything nice to say, then say nothing at all"

Not looking for attention here and I'm not drunk or unstable (no more than normal anyway).

Genuinely just wanted to say that I am not the negative person that my recent postings/ramblings may have made me out to be, I hope this Emira malarky all pans out for the best and I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person at events in the future.

Cheers

View attachment 3623

And the Candor Award goes to ........

All is forgiven.

 

[NicolasB]

I'm with you, trying to not trend too far downwards myself. I get it though.

 

[Leonard]

And the Candor Award goes to ........

All is forgiven.

Lol cheers

 

[Leonard]

I'm with you, trying to not trend too far downwards myself. I get it though.

Stay strong Ultimately its all good!

 

[JohnHoward]

Just wanted to take a moment to apologise to my fellow forum members. I've recently realised that I've become a TOTAL whiny barsteward on here and thats really not me.

Cheers

I understand exactly how you feel. Before I retired, I was a Customer Service Manager and I share your disappointment in the overall Customer Service experience.
I went to the Manchester Airport Emira reveal and asked one of the Lotus senior execs why they were cutting out the dealers and handling everything themselves. He explained that this was the 'modern way'. I said that in the past, a big part of the enjoyment of getting a new car was the relationship with the dealer and the whole visiting the showroom experience and haggling about the price, trying to get extras thrown in, or the dealer phoning you with some snippets of new information.
I left the roadshow feeling like an old man that was out of touch with the 'modern way' a dinosaur slowing turning into a fossil (I am 58 by the way). I realised that the purchasing experience was going to be truly awful and had to decide did I want a very good looking car that was wonderfully engineered that I would have great pleasure in owning or just put up with the very poor experience prior to ownership.
I was put in my place by the Lotus Exec there is no doubt and I was very tempted to remind him I had £80K in my pocket ready to give to his company, but I felt that this would be pointless as he wasn't listening to me really, the 'modern way' was either drummed into him or he really believed it.
I remember my father complaing that nothing was the same as it used to be, but I suppose many of us turn in to our fathers/parents! Some would say that this is called progress.
So far Lotus have met all my expectations in the buying journey and have easily achieved my expectation of awful.

 

[Leonard]

I understand exactly how you feel. Before I retired, I was a Customer Service Manager and I share your disappointment in the overall Customer Service experience.
I went to the Manchester Airport Emira reveal and asked one of the Lotus senior execs why they were cutting out the dealers and handling everything themselves. He explained that this was the 'modern way'. I said that in the past, a big part of the enjoyment of getting a new car was the relationship with the dealer and the whole visiting the showroom experience and haggling about the price, trying to get extras thrown in, or the dealer phoning you with some snippets of new information.
I left the roadshow feeling like an old man that was out of touch with the 'modern way' a dinosaur slowing turning into a fossil (I am 58 by the way). I realised that the purchasing experience was going to be truly awful and had to decide did I want a very good looking car that was wonderfully engineered that I would have great pleasure in owning or just put up with the very poor experience prior to ownership.
I was put in my place by the Lotus Exec there is no doubt and I was very tempted to remind him I had £80K in my pocket ready to give to his company, but I felt that this would be pointless as he wasn't listening to me really, the 'modern way' was either drummed into him or he really believed it.
I remember my father complaing that nothing was the same as it used to be, but I suppose many of us turn in to our fathers/parents! Some would say that this is called progress.
So far Lotus have met all my expectations in the buying journey and have easily achieved my expectation of awful.

Very true John. A lot of companies think cutting out the middle man and bringing everything in house to improve profit margin and brand image is the future for both profitability and a consistent CX and of course it probably is!

However it is certianly not easy and a D2C business model only works if you have done considerable research, planning and investment beforehand. Otherwise it falls flat pretty quickly and you end up achieving the opposite of what you set out to.

Plus when you are at your most desperate you find that you have burnt your bridges with your dealer/retailer network that you spent so many years courting and training and no longer have them to fall back on for help.

I'm not saying this is the case with Lotus but when everything is centralised there also tends to be a retisence for in house criticism of the D2C service offering. I dont mind admitting that I am guilty of this myself from time to time and it is why customer feedback and reviews are so important as part of the reflection and future planning process.

 

[andrew6382]

Very true John. A lot of companies think cutting out the middle man and bringing everything in house to improve profit margin and brand image is the future for both profitability and a consistent CX and of course it probably is!

However it is certianly not easy and a D2C business model only works if you have done considerable research, planning and investment beforehand. Otherwise it falls flat pretty quickly and you end up achieving the opposite of what you set out to.

Plus when you are at your most desperate you find that you have burnt your bridges with your dealer/retailer network that you spent so many years courting and trianing and no longer have them to fall back on for help.

I'm not saying this is the case with Lotus but when everything is centralised there also tends to be a retisence for in house criticism of the D2C service offering. I dont mind admitting that I am guilty of this myself from time to time and it is why customer feedback and reviews are so important as part of the reflection and future planning process.

Just wanted to take a moment to apologise to my fellow forum members. I've recently realised that I've become a TOTAL whiny barsteward on here and thats really not me.

I did genuinely start this Emira buying journey as a happy exciteable bunny who could not wait to see what was instore over the next 12 months. As a Customer Service professional my positivity levels are generally set pretty high, but over the past 8 months my enthusiasm has waned to the point where I'm not really bringing anything positive to the forum party.

The trouble with being a CS professional is you spend your whole day proactively trying to give everyone else a positive experience and in you private time you hope that may be reciprocated in some small way. In most cases you can shrug off a poor purchase/after sales experience, but with the Emira being such an emotive purchase I've definitely gone down the proverbial emotional rabbit hole and come out the other side a more bitter human being.

Even though I know this forum is a place for general discussion both good and bad. I dont want to add negativity to the forum and in some small way possibly detract from other members having a more positive and exciting experience. So from now on I will be keeping to the mantra of "if you havent got anything nice to say, then say nothing at all"

Not looking for attention here and I'm not drunk or unstable (no more than normal anyway).

Genuinely just wanted to say that I am not the negative person that my recent postings/ramblings may have made me out to be, I hope this Emira malarky all pans out for the best and I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person at events in the future.

Cheers

View attachment 3623

All good mate.... some days we up... some days we down...... some days we just have to say WTF

 

[eclat2emira]

Just wanted to take a moment to apologise to my fellow forum members. I've recently realised that I've become a TOTAL whiny barsteward on here and thats really not me.

I did genuinely start this Emira buying journey as a happy exciteable bunny who could not wait to see what was instore over the next 12 months. As a Customer Service professional my positivity levels are generally set pretty high, but over the past 8 months my enthusiasm has waned to the point where I'm not really bringing anything positive to the forum party.

The trouble with being a CS professional is you spend your whole day proactively trying to give everyone else a positive experience and in you private time you hope that may be reciprocated in some small way. In most cases you can shrug off a poor purchase/after sales experience, but with the Emira being such an emotive purchase I've definitely gone down the proverbial emotional rabbit hole and come out the other side a more bitter human being.

Even though I know this forum is a place for general discussion both good and bad. I dont want to add negativity to the forum and in some small way possibly detract from other members having a more positive and exciting experience. So from now on I will be keeping to the mantra of "if you havent got anything nice to say, then say nothing at all"

Not looking for attention here and I'm not drunk or unstable (no more than normal anyway).

Genuinely just wanted to say that I am not the negative person that my recent postings/ramblings may have made me out to be, I hope this Emira malarky all pans out for the best and I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you in person at events in the future.

Cheers

View attachment 3623

Hey, totally get it mate - I'm in CS too, work extremely hard to make everyone else happy and feel the same as you on the odd occasion when I'm the customer and the service is sub-standard or just plain poor - it reeeeaaaalllllyyy rankles!!!!

 

[TXEMIRA]

Plate idea? GRUMPY

#ForTheGrumpy

 

[Eagle7]

Kudos to you Leonard for having the courage and maturity to recognize you wanted to change something about yourself, and being willing to make that change, as uncomfortable as it might be at the moment. You are and will be the better man for it in the long run.

Having worked in customer service myself, I know what it looks like from both sides of the counter. I know good customer service when I see it, and a bad customer when I see it. I'm not seeing either here. There are only a few who've been complaining a lot, but their complaints are generally coming from wanting the product and process to be great. The design of the Emira has already checked off that box. Lotus already has a brand image of being exclusive and somewhat exotic. People now want it all to be magical, and it's just not there... yet, but the truly important part is the car itself.

After watching everything coming from Lotus, I can see where Matt's focus is. It won't matter how many photos you publish, or how much you talk about it, or anything else, if the car itself isn't great. He knows above and beyond anything else, he needs to make the car great and get it into production. It's a case of the proof is in the pudding.

We're all participating in the pioneer stage of a transition from the small town, wild west, to the major city type of change in the automobile industry. We've been used to working with a local dealer, but now it appears the industry is going away from that to the big city corporate process. Stellantis is going that way with Alfa Romeo; build to order instead of cars on dealer's lots. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

Once we start seeing Emiras in FE colors, and they're the final production cars, all this will fade away. We'll have memories of what it was like to be a part of the great transition from small and quirky, to a world brand for Lotus. Things like this always seem like a struggle at the moment, but hindsight quickly puts things into perspective. No matter what, you can always say "I was there" for this historic change.

I'm 70. That sounds like a long time when you're looking forward, but looking back, it's surprising how fast it seems to have gone by.

 

[BeHappy]

Great post Leonard I also have been guilty of being a grumpy pants. My one vice is cars and motorbikes and if I want a car go out and get it so I know I suffer from lack of patience. We all work hard to be in such a position to spend significant on fabulous car so we have high expectations. I think what has made it worst is having endured 2 years of COVID I really was in need of getting back to normal and something exciting going on outside of never escaping confines of home office. I think I’m now over my grumpiness and I am also going to try and be more positive and get back out into real world. But I must say this forum has provided great reading and entertainment reading everyone else grumps we’re all in the similar boat - it has been a chuckle also on here.

 

[SJR202]

Fair play, I think the frustrations are coming out on the forum, there is some whinging and complaining out there on most threads which is a bit of a shame but probably due to being like children and told Christmas is moving, but not going to tell you when!
I've seen some comments/people who I constantly wonder why they are even buying the Emira if they are so dissatisfied, but havent thought that about you mate.

 

[andrew6382]

Hey, totally get it mate - I'm in CS too, work extremely hard to make everyone else happy and feel the same as you on the odd occasion when I'm the customer and the service is sub-standard or just plain poor - it reeeeaaaalllllyyy rankles!!!!

CS.... very hard job in todays world...... Sorry off topic

So today I thought I treat myself to Mc D's breakfast, As I do once a week last week they got my order wrong it happens,
It did a few weeks ago. I normaly dont go back..... but last week i did.... no big.. they sorted it.... I had a moan... but guess what today..... It was wrong again so went back.... twice in two weeks, in two meals they get it wrong... explaining I was unhappy, and said I felt it was incompetent...

So next thing the young lady starts at me I should not be using nasty words about her staff ......... WTF

Is that what it comes to

 

[Pegasi]

@Leonard does this mean you will change your Avator and stop scaring the hell out of everyone.

 

[Leonard]

CS.... very hard job in todays world...... Sorry off topic

So today I thought I treat myself to Mc D's breakfast, As I do once a week last week they got my order wrong it happens,
It did a few weeks ago. I normaly dont go back..... but last week i did.... no big.. they sorted it.... I had a moan... but guess what today..... It was wrong again so went back.... twice in two weeks, in two meals they get it wrong... explaining I was unhappy, and said I felt it was incompetent...

So next thing the young lady starts at me I should not be using nasty words about her staff ......... WTF

Is that what it comes to

Got to be able to own it when you are wrong! Transparency and accountability is key. Otherwise you won't improve your service offering and the customer won't trust you.
It's getting harder and harder to maintain CX standards tho. If I'm being kind customers are "getting more and more entitled" if being unkind "they are borderline sociopaths"!

 

[Leonard]

@Leonard does this mean you will change your Avator and stop scaring the hell out of everyone.

Fair that was only supposed to be temporary and I should update to something more in keeping with my relaxed and positive persona

 

[Pegasi]

Fair that was only supposed to be temporary and I should update to something more in keeping with my relaxed and positive persona

DUDE! My favorite.

 

[Eagle7]

Got to be able to own it when you are wrong! Transparency and accountability is key. Otherwise you won't improve your service offering and the customer won't trust you.
It's getting harder and harder to maintain CX standards tho. If I'm being kind customers are "getting more and more entitled" if being unkind "they are borderline sociopaths"!

I can echo that. I retired last August after 20 years, and I noticed the same. The pandemic and lockdown certainly didn't help customer attitudes and expectations, but there's been a slow and steady change in customers. They want everything to work like their phone; instant gratification. They're used to instant feedback on social media with likes or whatever, so they expect it to work like that everywhere. When you tell them they may have to wait for something, they're instantly disgusted and start accusing.

Having worked in a retail environment, I'm now extra empathetic to any worker whenever I go out for something. I notice when they're trying to do a good job, and I make sure to compliment them. If the service is good, I ask to speak to a manager and praise the employee. The change in their facial expression is amazing once they realize I'm saying something positive and praising them. Their face literally lights up, so it's clear this is not what they're used to hearing. It makes a difference in how I'm treated the next time I go there. They remember you.

 

[4GIV8M3]

Cool post. I am definitely ashamed of things I have said on here. We all want the Emira to be incredible and admittedly I am not good at finding out it isn't. Life is too short for that though.