All too often a manger gets that dreaded e-mail or phone call telling him/her that the service provided to a customer was the worst they have ever had and that for the amount of money they are spending on a motor home they deserve an equal amount of service in return.

Well this is not one of those notes!

I just purchased a 2005 Coachman from Leslie Buchannan at your Tucson store and am now safely home in Colorado to my family’s delight. The transaction from beginning to end was just terrific and I have Leslie to thank.

Here is what she did right and what the other did wrong.

1. The Internet Mystery--I was familiar with your company because I have been looking to upgrade my motor home for over a year, so I have been surfing the internet for quite some time. All too often I would enter my information in the area that said “Contact Me” and either NEVER hear back from them or I would get a canned e-mail in return with no follow up phone call. This was not the case with Leslie. She contacted me immediately and then spent over 45 minutes on the phone searching your inventory for what I needed. She spent the better part of the day e-mailing me pictures of the motor home that I eventually purchased. This was especially helpful because my wife really wanted to see the set up of the coach and my kids wanted to see the cool paint job and especially the bed over the cab!
2. Be an Advisor, not a Salesperson—A motor home purchase is a pretty tough task especially since it is a transaction that you hopefully only do every ten years. As my clients tell me…”Bob, you do this every day for a living, you tell me what I should do.”…Well, while dealing with other dealers, I would pose the dilemma that I was in…growing kids, need for sleeping space, not too long, not too expensive, gong from a class A to a class C, yadda, yadda, yadda! They would not ADVISE me on what choice I should make, BUT they were really good at trying to SELL me what they wanted to or had easily available!! Again, this was not the case with Leslie, she heard what I needed, balanced them in her mind and then paired me up with a few select coaches that she thought would suit my needs…she does this everyday, not me.
3. The Dreaded Sales Manger!—Everyone goes through this scenario…”Well, let me go see what the Sales Manger has to say”…flashbacks of the movie Fargo jump into your head when the Salesman goes into the Sales Manager’s office and has a cup of coffee, talks about the upcoming Gopher hockey game, never discusses the customer, yet he goes back and tells the customer that the Sales Manager is not budging on this one!! Fortunately this was not the case with Leslie even though I had a trade-in, needed to complete the financing and get the coach in a short amount of time. I dealt only with her even when she was home with a sick little girl. I made the deal with Leslie the mom, sales person, advisor, all around nice person!
4. Go in for the KILL!—Once I got the details closed and the paperwork received it was time to drive 13 ½ hours to Tucson in my coach to pick up the new one. I pulled 650 miles in one day and then another 250 the next so I could get to Tucson by 9 a.m. to pick up the coach. When I arrived I was tired and hot…a perfect time for the “Finance Person” to start sticking me with extra taxes, service plans, warranties on my warranties, under carriage spray, or for the Sales Manager to come out and tell me that the original offer on my trade-in was going to be dropped because of the small scratch in the bumper of my 1989 Rockwood etc, etc…again, not the case with La Mesa, I simply dropped off the old one, did my walk-thru with DL, signed my papers and I was off!

Lee, the service I received at La Mesa was excellent and Leslie is your best ambassadors.

Thanks to you and the rest of the La Mesa family for making my purchase a seamless experience!

Have a good weekend.

B Herrfeldt, Colorado