My intent here is not Nissan-bashing, as it seems they are doing the best with the laughably primitive system they are stuck with for the time being. Think about it: dealers can get certain reports (if they can figure out how) that they are supposed to communicate to their customers. Relying on dealers for anything like this is just asking for trouble. We can all flood someone (like ZISME) with emails asking him to check on our orders, to the point where we burden a key person with mundane look-up work.

Hello? Internet age, anyone? How hard could it be for Nissan to set up a web or email server that would kick the VIN, delivery info, and any other relevant data directly to the customer? Some passcode could be issued at the time of pre-order (or keyed to personal info like SS#, Tel #, etc.) and this could be used to access the info. It's not hard, except for the fact that they probably have an old creaking beauraucracy and they're too busy making great new cars to change it. That's OK ... for now. I hope if they ever do this again, a new system will be in place!

I would say something like "are you listening, Nissan?", but I would like to think they have already been working on a system like this for some time and are ready to implement it any day. (Too late for us 350Z pre-orderers, unfortunately.)

Has anyone had experience with other manufacturers who have some kind of reasonable system in place for online communication with the customer?

 

You do raise a great question.

I do this type of stuff all day long for a living- just not in the automotive industry- (I work in Information Management for one of the largest and probably the best known health care companies in the world). Trust me, this type of stuff is defintely harder to do than you might think. Although I am unfamiliar w/ Nissan's IT infrastructure, here are some general factors (non-inclusive list) that would likely contribute to the complexity of such a system:

* "middleware" connection between legacy manufacturing systems & web publishing
* security/encryption (protection of sensitive customer & company information- you don't want to just put all of this stuff out on the web w/o protecting it...!)
* system performance / load balancing
* archiving / storage of old data
* high availability - system redundancy
* training of internal users
* on-going support / upgrades / maintainance
* data model creation & database management
* user acceptance & integration testing

There are probobably more experienced IT people here that could add to, or refine the above list, but I think you get the point...

Ethan

 

I spoke to NNA's Customer Service yesterday and was told they were working on a website as described above. When it will be available is anyone's guess.

Boomer

 

Ethan,

"Tough to do" isn't a good answer for a company. If all companies believed that, we would still be stuck in the dark ages. Many companies think they should stick with what they have because they "it's always been done this way before."

There are many technologies, such as Microsoft's WebServices, that makes this transition quite a bit easier, especially when legacy code is involved.

Good points, but they should not be show-stoppers for any company.

I would guess that Nissan is probably already working on this anyway.

Regards,
Todd

 

I totally agree with you. I just wanted to point out that such a system is a bit more complex, and would take more time / money than most people (who don't work in IT) realize.

Ethan

 

It painful to realize the NNA organization in the U.S. hasn't caught up with the new spirit abroad of Nissan Worldwide. Their pitiful systems response has pointed out their flaws and lack of expertise in the worst possible area, Customer Service. The infrastructure needed to support the preorder process was not in place and it still isn't in certain areas of the country. I think some dealers are going to be history soon if they can't or won't respond. They are being sorely tested now.

Boomer

 

...and you're absolutely right, Ethan.

In your list, "user acceptance," is a very big hurdle to overcome.

Todd

 

I don't need any state-of-the-art system, and I don't need to follow every step of the production (although many other car manufacturers like BMW make that info readily available to their pre-orders) ...

... just send a f!@#ing fax to my dealer informing him of the production month/expected delivery date/VIN# god damn it ...

HOW DIFFICULT IS THAT?

 

Hey, Ethan, I'm a Senior Software Engineer -- I understand that stuff like this is hard to implement. But people like you and I make hard stuff like this happen every day, so Nissan can hire people like us and make it happen just like every other company can. But I get your point, I might have over-simplified the task in my original message. (Actually the phrase "how hard could it be?" is kind of a joke around here, because that's what people that don't know any better always say for any new feature.)

 

Dark Ages? NNA?

Whatever you might call it, perhaps it rolls downhill...my Nissan dealer doesn't even utilize email for customer - dealer contact. Biz cards have no email contact info, no email address info at all for this dealer.

In talking with this dealer some months back, it seemed a fools-errand asking them to check out a web site to confirm for themselves that there was in fact a "confirmation letter" sent out to pre-order customers. Internet? What's that?

Stellar.

 

I guess I am lucky. I haven't even set foot into my dealership and it's only 1.5 miles from my house. I e-mailed thm initially and their "Internet Salesman" got right back to me. We traded about a dozen messages, he faxed me the proper forms to sign and I signed and faxed them back to him, including the charge slip for my deposit.

-Plucky

 

That is pretty sad....

NNA doen't even have that information. You call them up and they supposively have to call the dealer who has to call the middle guy who communicates the information to an interpreter in Japan who relays the information to the foreman who asks the shift manager about the progress of your car. The shift manager takes the sheet of paper, hands it over to the janitor who takes it the bulletin board when Yoshii the head computer guy at the plant enter the data to be sent to the dealer....the dealer takes that information calls NNA....the technician takes the message, then relays the information to the head technician that call you back.

It can't be that hard to put together a system like this....the information is not top secret...just leave private info like ss numbers and stuff off of the system.