A deer collision ended the extended life of my beloved Durango so I took to CarGurus to find a replacement. Three days of research allowed me to narrow things down to several Explorers across the Midwest. I sent inquiries out to all the dealers with vehicles of interest.
Immediately I received an email reply from Sarah. Before I finished reading the response, Dan Beckman emailed saying "Todd, Sarah isn't a live person, it's our digital assistant. How can I help?" Thus began the process of dealing with a real person.
Another dealership took 48hrs to respond. Still another followed up asking if I had questions. When I asked simply "what are the items in the back of the truck?" The response was "I'm not sure what you're referring to. It's a sharp one, Blue Metallic with heated front seats, remote start, third-row seating..." obviously an AI response system. Honestly I would have preferred leaving a number on an answering machine rather than having a machine imitating an interested human.
I called Metropolitan the next day, only to find out it was Dan's day off, but his sales partner, Tony, offered to get the Explorer detailed and ready for me. Since I was working 70 miles away I said I couldn't be there right away, he said he'd keep the truck handy if I wanted to drive up, so I did.
When I got there, Tony was with another customer, and had Christina Cole review the vehicle with me. She let me take it for a drive and answered all my questions. Afterwards she asked if Explorer was something I was interested in, pointing out the price had just dropped by $500 a few days ago. I said I needed to get confirmation from insurance and I would call the next day.
The next morning I called Christina and the first thing she said was "did you check the website?" I admitted I had not. She chuckled and said "they dropped the price by $1000 overnight, so you have another discount" I told her (jokingly) I had a problem with that as I already had the check cut and she responded "well, that's a good problem to have". I put a deposit down and told her I'd be up the next morning.
The truck was ready, full of gas, I plopped the check down, met with the finance person, got two keys, and was on my way in about 20 minutes. Oh, and Dan Beckman introduced himself, shook my hand and said "I'm glad you got the truck you wanted".
Another dealership had been trying to send me a video tour of one of the Explorers I was looking at, but the file never came.
In a time when we're increasingly distanced from each other through technology, I was treated like I mattered and I wasn't just a number. I know it's a sales transaction, but Christina, Dan and everyone I came in contact with made me feel Iike I was there for my needs, not theirs. A handshake, a smile, personal answers to questions and a total absence of pressure made me feel confident not only in my purchase but also in them as a business. I work 70 miles from Eden Prairie, and I live another 60 miles from where I work. With gas prices what they are and factoring in time, I'm not sure I saved any money by making two trips there and back, but I'm sure glad I did.
Thank you to everyone at Metropolitan Ford of Eden Prairie. And just to let everyone at Metro know, my wife's Escape won't last forever....