What makes (or breaks) a tuning company in your mind? Fantastic service? Well-priced products?

Or is it something as simple as geographical convenience?

Just looking for your thoughts on this.

 

all of the above.

 

I agree with your points but here are a few more.

An ideal tuner has excellent listening skills. We are all somewhat different customers in terms of interests, wallet size, short-long term car goals, driving styles, even personality-ego stuff, etc. A really good tuner listens to where you are at- to work with your custom needs/interests. You should never hear critical comments of one type of driving and or car versus another. Your car is what is the focus. Bad mouthing drives customers away - you could easily be the target next time.

An ideal tuner works develops a plan with you and only sells you products that fit all your needs and budget. If they don't know something they let you know and find out for you. BS and overselling kills a business.

An ideal tuner repeatedly but casually lets you know you are a valuable loyal customer and your business is appreciated.

An ideal tuner can only be as good as a good customer. Treat each other with respect and go out of your way to be flexible for your tuner when you can. They will return the favor when they can. You are only one of many customers so work with them - sometimes they have crazy days.

If you find an excellent tuner, stay with them, send them business, and think yourself lucky. Remind them why you keep going to them. Same with detailers.

K.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Kafka said it perfectly. ^^

 

I agree with Kafka997. There is one more thing though. The ideal tuner needs to know what they are doing. Anybody can open up shop, hire a couple of mechanics and call themselves a tuner. You really need to know what the tuner did before opening up a shop and how much real tuning, racing experience , and knoweldge they really have.

 

Kafka997's input can be said for any sales position. Listening is the most crucial point. If you don't listen, how will you know what to offer your client? Asking questions helps you determine what your client is looking for. If someone says, "I want more power out of my Turbo", you'll shoot yourself in the foot trying to offer him a turbo package when his needs could have been met with a simple exhaust install. It may be cliche', but there's a reason why we have two ears and one mouth...

 

My dad always followed that cliche up by saying, some people have two mouths....one for when they talk out of their ***.

 

LOL that's true...and you can smell the bull**** from a mile away!

 

This is a great topic, nice to hear all the feedback....subscribed.

 

Really valuable thread... subscribed.

I will assume you are asking what makes an ideal TUNER (as opposed to retailer), and will give my opinion.

A lot of the tuners we work with don't sell directly the public. So keeping that in mind, I would say these are important to us when we choose a tuner:
-Reputability. Will they stand behind their products?
-Comprehensive solutions with the customer's needs in focus. OK, you sell a kit that makes 800RWHP on race fuel. But what about the other 90% of my customers? Do you care about them, or do you care about customers that think like you? Do your solutions and offerings serve what my customers want?
-Quality of components: Nobody cares how well it performs if they aren't pleased with the fit and finish. Our goal is to deliver maximum improvement with minimum compromise, every time.
-Service, Selection of dealers, and cooperation with the dealer network. We have removed countless lineups from our catalog despite the product having impeccable quality. Why is that? Because nobody is interested in waiting 15 weeks for even the best of products. A tuner has to work with us and make it possible for us to provide the best service possible to the customers we share with them. Furthermore, if there are 18 "fly-by-night" dealers selling your product, that will undermine the reputability of the product, and offering it will undermine OUR reputability. We are an established industry player - we only want product lines that are as established and respected as we are, if not more so.

There are a lot of other factors that play in to our decision (originality of product, overall tuning philosophy, and of course, being able to work with their people!), but those are the biggies.

 

everyone here has great points...

justin@cec
im amazed at how many companies you talk to dont use the ears to mouth ratio.


im glad i subscribed to this thread!

 

Principle #1 of marketing is this:
"The goal of a company is to delight customers at a profit."

I think far too few companies forget the first part. They try to make a profit, and often use tactics to delight them simple as the means. Instead, the focus has to be to do everything in your power to please your customers - and then, eventually, to do that in a profitable way.

And I concur with all of you - knowing your customer and understanding his or her needs is the ONLY way you can ever hope to create positive experiences.

 

i use farnbacher loles and couldn't be happier. i can tell you that owning a tuned car requires a lot of communication and trust with the guys doing the work. but perhaps more important is the tuner has to consider every change you want to make vs the other mods and basically vs the entire performance package. everything from the suspension set up to the aero to the aesthetic will need to match for u to have a truly hot ride. the possibilities are endless but the regrets are very expensive. one change can upset the balance and then you spent a lot of money for nothing. so i'd suggest u make sure the tuner u choose keeps your end goal in mind and spends your money wisely like my guys do.

 

Again, these responses are more than I expected.

Thanks guys.