In 2008 there was an economic crisis and especially acute on the crisis reacted to the economy level clients, they began to save money and maintenance and repair of economy class cars began to shift to garage workshops where prices were lower than the dealer auto center. And I made a decision to change the class of clients, to move to the luxury segment and accepted the invitation of Infiniti Auto Center (luxury sub-brand of Nissan). As it turned out it was the right decision, the financial crisis had much less impact on the purchasing power of wealthy and affluent customers accustomed to quality service. And since there were many entrepreneurs among the clients of the premium brand, some of them were able to see in the crisis new opportunities for their businesses.
Working with Infiniti customers, I saw the difference in the approach to the same processes as Toyota customers, Infiniti customers valued comfort and convenience, their time and efficiency of business processes more, for them convenience and comfort were much more important than the cost of the service or product, i.e. they were much easier to make a decision on urgent orders for spare parts with an additional markup for urgency, were willing to pay for a replacement or rental car, so as not to remain mobile in situations when their car requires long-term repair. As entrepreneurs, they understood the fairly high added value for brand and convenience.
Working in Infiniti I began to understand why some people fly business class and order a Mercedes cab, buy food in Azbuka Vkusa, it’s about the quality of service and product and high standards of service, which you quickly get used to.
Since I tried to be as efficient as possible at work I quickly enough found a large number of regular customers and at the end of 2011 was recognized as the best master-consultant. The criteria for evaluating this recognition were the following percentage of customer returns, percentage of customer satisfaction, fulfillment of sales targets for car service and spare parts and accessories for the car.