GM - in the dark feeling for customers

B4Real said:

Hopefully, this doesn't come off wrong. I am excited about the Hummer EV and what's about to happen for a lot of us. I'm also happy with my Chevy Bolt (2nd one) even though it may catch on fire, lol.

What I'm kinda blown away about is how GM is keeping us all in the dark on our reservations. We picked up a Ford Mustang Mach-E earlier this year, and from the reservation phase, to the order phase was handled in a pretty transparent way. I could log into ford.com and see my reservation, what I put down during the reservation phase, options to cancel, then the same thing when it moved to an order. I had a dealership I picked and a sales rep assigned to me all displayed through their website during the entire process. I at least knew that Ford knew I had a reservation.

On the GM side of things, I see that they are moving to a centralized accounts.gm.com web portal. I applaud them for that, but I think they missed a key item in their site features, a reservations/orders section. It would be nice to at least check on it say once a month just as a warm fuzzy that it's still there. As we all know the rollout of the website launch for the Hummer reservations was a catastrophe. As a software engineer myself, I can't imagine the stress levels of their team when that didn't go off well. I think a reservation/order feature added to the current accounts.gm.com interface would kind of help heal customer skepticism in their ability to write software or deliver a good customer experience.

Instead of some clear information from gm, we're all on here trying to pick the brains of a few awesome folks with some inside knowledge as to what's going on. They could have and can still make this process better.

Thoughts?

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I think you are looking at this the wrong way... As for the website crashing on reservation day, they got millions of hits to their site, and frankly did not expect that, and were not prepared (no big deal) Tesla has also had their website crash during the model 3, Y, and Cybertruck unveiling. As for the Mach E comparison, Mach E did not have near the interest the HummerEV did, just look at click counts on online reviews (the only way to get high clicks on a Mach E video is do a Tesla Y comparison in the title or thumbnail) Mach E has also had its share of controversies and problems with last minute delays, and dealer gouging. Fords website did struggle on the Lightning unveil, which got far more interest than the Mach E, and on the Bronco, they crashed totally. Personally I did not like Ford's reservation system and had trouble logging in for the Lightning. I got errors and disconnected a few times and gave up.

As for Communication, GM has been about as transparent and clear as any OEM I have seen on the Hummer Ev status. GM guided when they started taking Hummer Ev reservations that first deliveries would be in the fall of 2021, AFAIK that has not changed. GM has publicly reiterated this guidance in press release after press release, and has shown videos of their test program, and factory setup almost weekly.

As for GM's online accounts, you should write to them with suggestions, this is all new territory for GM and they are winging it a bit when it comes to this style of reservations system. Post on the GM twitter account, and they will reach out to you via DM for suggestions. I think GM can get better in this area, and the integration between the dealer, and Corporate could use improvement for sure. The way GM is doing it now is taking the reservations, then transferring it to the dealership along with our deposit.

Well, my post did come off the wrong way then I didn't mean to have the focus on the site crash, that wasn't my intention at all. also think the Ford site needs a little love (mostly their use of .css) I run a site that has over 1.6 million users, with about 10% of them logging in daily, we built in spike tolerances and it's a challenge both on the hardware assets and on the software side of things, so I can relate. Not at all where I was going. Maybe I should have just said, hey I wish the last communication from them to me directly about my reservation wasn't Oct 21 of 2020, 305 days ago, and wish it was part of my current account. Thanks for the suggestion on social media, all of the companies we've worked with, including ourselves, outsource that stuff to marking/PR companies, so I just assumed they would as well.

B4Real said:

Well, my post did come off the wrong way then I didn't mean to have the focus on the site crash, that wasn't my intention at all. also think the Ford site needs a little love (mostly their use of .css) I run a site that has over 1.6 million users, with about 10% of them logging in daily, we built in spike tolerances and it's a challenge both on the hardware assets and on the software side of things, so I can relate. Not at all where I was going. Maybe I should have just said, hey I wish the last communication from them to me directly about my reservation wasn't Oct 21 of 2020, 305 days ago, and wish it was part of my current account. Thanks for the suggestion on social media, all of the companies we've worked with, including ourselves, outsource that stuff to marking/PR companies, so I just assumed they would as well.

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Ya, I think the online account is a good idea, especially moving forward with a more order based system for vehicle sales and upgrades. Tesla has by far done the best job of implementing this, and is the shining example, Tesla has a great backbone system, but still very poor communication with their customers. GM is in the process of rolling out something new for this, and it was discussed at the Barclays investor conference, but not sure how robust it will be. I will post a link to the presentation slides and you can scroll down to Ultiffi

As for our reservations, I have been contacted 3 times by the dealer in the days since my reservation was placed (all generic sales related contacts). Less than optimal, but again, no biggie. I know we will not get our HummerEV's any sooner by monthly communications, and know they are working as fast as possible to get our trucks to us. I am not sure what they would say in a months communication, "We are testing and still on schedule" Maybe put in a picture or 2, or links to video they post online? My problem with GM communications is that they are too scripted, and seem overly rehearsed. I like how Ford's CEO, and communications director are active on twitter and engage in FUD, but GM is not that kind of company culturally, and they tend to say only what needs to be said, and let FUD be what it is.