Renault South Africa has just come out with a “press release” about a national campaign to improve its service delivery. What it seems to boil down to however is just a massive add campaign and a lot of hot air. The claim is that they are targeting exceptional levels of service and extraordinary long term customer service. That’s a lot of extra adjectives.

It is apparently a response, almost a thank you, for Renault’s apparent improvements in market share and sale volumes. Or it is an attempt to retain and build upon those numbers through idle talk and keeping themselves in the public eye, but that isn’t in the press release.

The promotion is being dubbed the “110% Campaign”, and the aim, believe it or not, is at providing 110% in everything they do. A well named campaign then. And apparently it’s not just the staff selling and repairing Renaults that will be operating at those levels, even the corporate men are compelled to operate at 110%.

According to Tim Marriott, Vice President of Quality and Service at Renault South Africa, “Customers expect 100% in terms of service delivery, and rightly so, we want to go one step better, the 110% Campaign is aimed at ensuring that our dealerships deliver even more than expected.”

He then goes on to say, “Good is no longer good enough, especially in the current, tough economic climate. We need to exceed the customers’ expectations to such an extent that every aspect, be it a simple sales enquiry, a vehicle purchase, a service experience or a vehicle repair, leaves the customer 110% satisfied.”

It’s almost too much, you want to believe that a company is more interested in their customers than their profits but that is never really the case, and when you read a press release that goes on and on about the same promises it makes it seem a little put on.

If you told your wife that she did not look fat in that dress two or three times without her even asking your opinion, she probably wouldn’t take it that well, and that’s what this campaign comes across as.

Regardless of whether the campaign will last past their next set of sales figures, there are a few things you can take advantage of in the meantime.

If you request a test drive and they don’t honour it within 12 working hours, you will receive a R1 000 accessory voucher and courtesy cars will be provided if they cannot repair your Renault in three days.

The Ad Campaign begins this week and hopefully Renault will prove their commitment to customer service by actually serving its customers rather than just throwing millions of Rands of advertising in our faces promising customer service.

If you would like more information you can contact Renault’s Customer Service Consultants on 0861 736 2858 who will be answering 110% of calls or sending them an e-mail at frontoffice.za@renault.com, or visit their website www.renault.co.za/customerservice.html, its running 110% faster.

By Nicholas Krige