# Communicating with Tesla.



## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

What would be the best way for Tesla to communicate with customers?

Customer Service
Twitter
Service Centers
Mobile Service

Which solution would be best for Tesla?

Which solution would be best for its customers?

Which solution would be best for you?

Question: Is anyone willing to be on the other end of their suggested avenue of communication?

Question: What is the most effective way that other car companies CEO's communicate with their customers?

Lastly - Should Tesla Care?

Here is an attempt.

Tesla is hiring people to address complaints to Elon Musk on Twitter - Electrek


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

Maybe the mailbox portion in the app?

How do other manufacturers do it? By salespeople, until you buy the car, at which time they no longer care about you. Except for spam mail to upsell service or buy another new car.


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

Ed Woodrick said:


> Maybe the mailbox portion in the app?
> 
> How do other manufacturers do it? By salespeople, until you buy the car, at which time they no longer care about you. Except for spam mail to upsell service or buy another new car.


Great point about the upselling. I hate that.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

I would say any and all communication, as long as one particular kind isn't excessively required. You know, like when a government agency mails you a letter to acknowledge that you accessed their web site.

I think Tesla can go a long way with communicating by implementing a sort of ticket system built into the app, complete with current status display:

- You could book a service appointment with the app, and the status says "Pending". Then when one of their techs communicates with you, "Waiting for Response" (so you know to check your texts/emails/voice messages). Then "Appointment Scheduled". If it's mobile service, the status shows the estimated ETA. Finally, if it's at the service center, the app should give you daily updates to what the tech did today - it's not additional paperwork for them, since the tech has to enter that information anyway for the company! And finally, if it's at a service center, you will get a "Ready for Pickup" status and a combo summary of everything they did.

- If you have a bug report or suggestion, that should appear in the app, and be eventually updated with a status like "Duplicate" or "Please supply more info", or "Sent to Software Team". If Apple can have update their bug radar for hundreds of thousands of submissions, Tesla can handle it too.

- Roadside assistance (emergency) should appear like a service appointment does, with an ETA for the tow arrival.

Additionally, Tesla should allow anyone to visit the web site or app to order parts, and cross-reference _safe_ interactive documentation on replacing the part. Note I said _safe_ - obviously they couldn't provide instructions for hazardous or dangerous procedures. But changing the 12 volt battery, replacing plastic pieces inside the car, even replacing your own damaged bumper cover, headlights, or taillights shouldn't need to be off limits.

What's the benefit to Tesla? Why should they do this? To be forefront on the Right to Repair movement for one. For another, keeping people who are otherwise handy with repairs out of the overwhelmed service centers. In fact, I would bet an overloaded service center actually loses money in the long run - because they have to hire way more mechanics than normal. Since repairs can sometimes come in overwhelming bursts, and then nothing for a while, in the long run that could be more expensive. Not requiring _everything_ to be done by Tesla service might flatten that out a bit.


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## victor (Jun 24, 2016)

No e-mail option, seriously?


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I think Service Center Service Advisors, or whatever Tesla wants to call them answering phones at the local service center would be a huge start. I know there are still some small gotchas and legal reasons in TX that things are scheduled as they are, but I think 98% of the issue could be solved if we could just call and talk to someone in person to get good answers.

There is the flip side to this, scheduling on the Tesla app and the app already knowing, at times, what you are scheduling service for due to the errors the car has logged, is brilliant. This is a huge thing that no one else does (that I'm aware of.) However after that point, we are human, we have lives, schedules, etc and we need communication about what is happening with our cars and when.


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## android04 (Sep 20, 2017)

This is going to be largely service center specific, but I have no issues communicating with my nearest SC issuing their email or texting their service advisor.


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

I look at that is a two pronged questions. Communicate in what regards? If it's in regards to your vehicle, personally I like email. Social media and/or phone implies a fast response which the service centers aren't likely to be able to keep up with. In person is not the best use of anyone's time (especially with the ongoing pandemic). Email (directly to the local service center, not HQ) which gives a day or two to respond and offers a great tracking method.

If the communication is in regards to the company itself, well then I'll just go with none. Just like any other company, there are far too many customers to be able to realistically review/respond. Social media I suppose is the best way for customers to give feedback, but with ZERO expectation of response.


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## skygraff (Jun 2, 2017)

No offense but the premise seems flawed and the poll seems limiting.

As a stand-alone question, the poll is missing options such as e-mail or web form or monitored bug reporting system.

However, when put into context by the post explaining the poll, I don't think how Tesla communicates with us is much of a concern since they have the bully pulpit of our apps, MCUs, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and, of course, if necessary, mass media/marketing. Now, how we communicate with Tesla and keep (or re) open lines of communication such as service ticket text numbers (Tesla shuts down when they decide to close the ticket) is very interesting to me.

I wholeheartedly disagree with shareef777's notion that the size of a company somehow limits its ability to review/respond to customer feedback. They make departments and tools for just such tasks and they are scalable. A company with IT roots and cutting edge NN can certainly lead in that area. Hopefully, they beat alphabet and apple to the punch (with far less data mining) because the always connected and OTA upgradable cars should give Tesla that same early edge those smartphone OS/hardware designers have in that arena.

No question, those paragons of communication don't always respond to or act upon customer feedback but, if you're under warranty or pay for the privilege, you can certainly go around in circles with somebody whose job is to placate and thank you for being a customer while completely misunderstanding your concern but assuring you it will be passed along. All of that without having to use social media.

Hey, but I'm an old curmudgeon and am tolerant of Vogon poetry. See if I don't.

-yes, I'd be willing to be on the other end of a system with sorted e-mails/voice-to-text phone messages and bug reports.

-don't think how other CEOs communicate _to_ customers is an issue; Elon is fine at communicating (too bad he usually responds rather than starts tweets so following him isn't sure-fire). Bigger question, in the mass dissemination side of communicating, is when was the last time Tesla used their newsletter/blog capability?

-yes, Tesla should care because they have a mission and it takes more than fanboyz to achieve that goal.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Ed Woodrick said:


> Maybe the mailbox portion in the app?
> 
> How do other manufacturers do it? By salespeople, until you buy the car, at which time they no longer care about you. Except for spam mail to upsell service or buy another new car.


Dealers aren't owned by other manufacturers. So no, they don't do it by salespeople. Sales people at traditional MFG dealers have ZERO connection back to the mothership. Really only the Owner or General Manager would.

Service Director would have a pipeline to the mothership service.

I voted for the app, and also phone, but the poll should also include email. As an example, if you go on Porsche North America website, and go to contact, here are all the ways that you can get in touch with them. And it works.










BMW:










Contrast to Tesla:


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

skygraff said:


> No offense but the premise seems flawed and the poll seems limiting.
> 
> As a stand-alone question, the poll is missing options such as e-mail or web form or monitored bug reporting system.
> 
> ...


There are a million+ customers right now who own vehicles that each gather an insane amount of data. No company can be expected to be able to communicate with one customer about their one car and how it reacted to one situation! Read the threads here, the number of times our vehicles phantom break, fail to avoid an obstacle, or AP doing any number of other incorrect responses. I'm sure Tesla is collecting all this data (it's why AP/FSD is continually improving), but having back and forth communications with EVERY customer is futile.

Speaking of IT companies, The two biggest (Google/Apple) currently have an issue. Latest version of MacOS and Chrome browser has a defect with USB-C hubs. Breaks the use of cameras/mics/speakers connected via USB-C hubs, and in the age of work/school from home, that's a pretty big defect. Multiple people have posted about it and reached out to them with zero feedback. Either they're aware of the issue and are working on it, or they don't think it's an issue that warrants any resources. Regardless, to expect them to communicate with the million people impacted by this on an individual basis is unrealistic. How many times has Apple ignored defects only to come around after a class action lawsuit? This isn't anyone being "fanboyz" of Tesla, it's just realizing the world is large and we're not owed any more special attention than the person next to us.


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## skygraff (Jun 2, 2017)

shareef777 said:


> There are a million+ customers right now who own vehicles that each gather an insane amount of data. No company can be expected to be able to communicate with one customer about their one car and how it reacted to one situation! Read the threads here, the number of times our vehicles phantom break, fail to avoid an obstacle, or AP doing any number of other incorrect responses. I'm sure Tesla is collecting all this data (it's why AP/FSD is continually improving), but having back and forth communications with EVERY customer is futile.
> 
> Speaking of IT companies, The two biggest (Google/Apple) currently have an issue. Latest version of MacOS and Chrome browser has a defect with USB-C hubs. Breaks the use of cameras/mics/speakers connected via USB-C hubs, and in the age of work/school from home, that's a pretty big defect. Multiple people have posted about it and reached out to them with zero feedback. Either they're aware of the issue and are working on it, or they don't think it's an issue that warrants any resources. Regardless, to expect them to communicate with the million people impacted by this on an individual basis is unrealistic. How many times has Apple ignored defects only to come around after a class action lawsuit? This isn't anyone being "fanboyz" of Tesla, it's just realizing the world is large and we're not owed any more special attention than the person next to us.


Not to get into a dialog but, clearly, we're on the same page.

Just like with those other companies, I have no expectation of individual responses to wide spread issues. Do I want them to post a (vetted by legal, of course) advisory message stating that they're aware of and working on such issues? Absolutely but I don't expect it from their entrenched corporate structure which is where I hoped Tesla would outshine (provided the FCC doesn't get bent out of shape).

In the meantime, as our decaffeinated friend pointed out, there are old-school (large) companies in the auto sector who do receive and respond to individual questions and concerns as do the tech companies (even if they charge for the privilege). Sometimes, the response is as simple as a thank you for your feedback and other times it gets routed to a department that can lump it with other data and put out one of those advisory messages. Even if it ends up in a black hole, the end user at least feels like they were heard. When appropriate, of course a company with all that data and all the tools to analyze it could, if necessary, communicate with one customer about their one car and how it reacted to one situation (if it was a critical situation worthy of direct communication).

Until I was snapped out of the illusion, I thought our bug reports were regularly pulled and organized (by key words and data snapshots) each time the cars connected to HQ. Later, I thought opening a service ticket would result in them pulling the bug reports and actually providing a response rather than refusing to do anything unless a ranger visited. Not so since I have a summarily canceled appointment and dead text thread regarding the still broken ability to change radio/TuneIn stations in a safe and hands-free way using voice commands. I don't see the point in rescheduling that appointment when they'll just say it'll get fixed in an update (someday) and I certainly don't think it's worth going to the CEO regardless of whether I want to tweet.

I thank you for your insights. As I said before, I have high hopes that Tesla will surpass the bar set by other tech and automotive companies considering the scope of their mission and the semi-integrated status they have with other communication, energy, infrastructure, and transportation companies chasing similar goals.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

skygraff said:


> In the meantime, as our decaffeinated friend pointed out.....


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

skygraff said:


> Not to get into a dialog but, clearly, we're on the same page.
> 
> Just like with those other companies, I have no expectation of individual responses to wide spread issues. Do I want them to post a (vetted by legal, of course) advisory message stating that they're aware of and working on such issues? Absolutely but I don't expect it from their entrenched corporate structure which is where I hoped Tesla would outshine (provided the FCC doesn't get bent out of shape).
> 
> ...


Suppose Tesla just digitized the "illusion" that the legacy manufactures had. My old 2018 Honda CRV had a oil dilution issue (some fuel would fail to combust and would leak into the oil instead). China, literally, forced Honda to recall all their vehicles because of this issue. When I reached out to Honda they "acknowledged" the issue and said they're working on it ... for TWO YEARS! In the Tesla world, felt the same as submitting a "bug report" :tearsofjoy:

Wound up trading it in for a 2020 Honda Pilot and that vehicle has electrical issues (dashboard/radio would completely power off mid-drive and there'd be random crackling/popping sounds coming out of the speakers, even when the radio is off). Lets just say I submitted the bug report for THAT issue a year ago.

Also submitted multiple issues for my Mac with the LG 5K display they sold me, again "bug report" filed and zero feedback.

Maybe it's just me, but this "black hole" feels the same with every large company. Gone are the days of local shops that you get to become more personable with.


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

skygraff said:


> No offense but the premise seems flawed and the poll seems limiting.
> 
> As a stand-alone question, the poll is missing options such as e-mail or web form or monitored bug reporting system.
> 
> ...


Do you have an example of a car company that communicates well with its customers?

Or any large company?


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

skygraff said:


> Not to get into a dialog but, clearly, we're on the same page.
> 
> Just like with those other companies, I have no expectation of individual responses to wide spread issues. Do I want them to post a (vetted by legal, of course) advisory message stating that they're aware of and working on such issues? Absolutely but I don't expect it from their entrenched corporate structure which is where I hoped Tesla would outshine (provided the FCC doesn't get bent out of shape).
> 
> ...


Which tech company are you referring to? Apple? Google? Amazon? GM?


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

Needsdecaf said:


> Dealers aren't owned by other manufacturers. So no, they don't do it by salespeople. Sales people at traditional MFG dealers have ZERO connection back to the mothership. Really only the Owner or General Manager would.
> 
> Service Director would have a pipeline to the mothership service.
> 
> ...


I'm looking for a similar company as Tesla with similar volume and such.


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

My apologies everyone.... I lumped email in with social media. 

I'll break it out.


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## Garlan Garner (May 24, 2016)

One of the reasons for the original question is because of all of the complaining about how Tesla isn't communicating or listening to their customers. 

I really had hopes that there would be more examples of other car manufacturers or businesses that are doing it right by this point.


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## skygraff (Jun 2, 2017)

Not going to use reply and have a bunch of convoluted quotes as I respond.

The tech company I am most familiar with is Apple in the sense that, if I pay for service or am still under warranty, I can chat or speak with a human being about specific issues and, if said issues are known, will get fed a personal line of bull about how it will be addressed in a coming update. In fact, having just received my new phone due to the 5 year old one no longer connecting to cellular, they sent me a standing offer to have a one-on-one session to learn about things my new phone can do. Of course, after swapping the battery in my old phone because of a forced recall, the only thing they ever wanted to do to fix hardware problems out of warranty was to sell me a new phone; car should be a bit more repairable even if it is more expensive and the spludger-ready third party types fewer and farther.

Oh, yeah, Amazon. As much as they undermine the local merchant and small business community (while also supporting that same community while taking a cut) and as much as they exploit their workers, I have always had fantastic customer service experiences with them and they are amazing at responding to both specific and general questions as well as keeping people advised of systemic issues. Not saying they're perfect and I'm not a fan of the data mining either but, from a communication standpoint, they've seemed pretty good.

To the question of other car companies, I'm a cheapskate who stuck with one car for 21 years which had been purchased used from a non-brand dealer. My car didn't get updates or even have many recalls in the time I owned it so I rarely communicated with Acura or Honda about anything. That said, others have reported on car companies with, at least, some semblance of a direct line of communication even if it resulted in an analog black hole.

There are plenty of very large companies which do a great job of communicating and receiving communication from their customers. Just the same, there are plenty of companies (large and small) which fall flat in that area (*cough* LG appliances *cough*). But, honestly, that's not fair. Tesla is a new kind of company with a new kind of mission. They aren't a traditional automobile manufacturer and they're proud of that distinction. They were born out of a Silicon Valley startup mentality and grew to adulthood under the watchful eye of tech entrepreneurs who understood fast-paced, responsive UI design.

It is my personal opinion that limiting our expectations to what's been done before by other companies is both disingenuous and possibly even insulting to what Tesla strives to be. I personally think they want our feedback on these matters and they truly want to find that perfect balance between effective two-way communication and cost effectiveness which will help them foster in the new paradigm. Whether that model includes individual owners or users of a vast autonomous fleet, feedback from the end-user is pretty important even if it's only based on stars and reviews. Until the new tweet team figures out how to recommend that or Elon hires Zac and Jesse, I'll just stay cautiously optimistic and keep filling out "what are you hoping for" surveys on TOO.

Hey, my turn: I'm out.

**Elon's just this guy, you know**


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

Garlan Garner said:


> One of the reasons for the original question is because of all of the complaining about how Tesla isn't communicating or listening to their customers.
> 
> I really had hopes that there would be more examples of other car manufacturers or businesses that are doing it right by this point.


I think that there are two aspects to this one.

First, don't make assumptions based on Internet forums. The number of people on an Internet forum is very low, (probably less than 1%) than the actual userbase. And the Internet forum is usually only joined by those who love and those who hate a product.

Second, there really isn't much comparable to Tesla. In the auto industry, they don't use dealers, who are commonly the only communications with customers. In the Tech industry, well there are basically no other products like a car, where a commodity item is $30,000.

And what do you mean by communicating? You'll hear more reality from Elon's tweaks than most other car vendors, who put out press releases that are generally full of fluff and FUD. 
That's especially true in the EV industry where we have so many announcements, but very few follow ups. GM introduces a Hummer EV, but it is barely more than a clay model. They've introduced hundreds of other prototypes for other vehicles that were so much more functional.

Or do you mean service? I've never see anything besides a recall.

Ever seem another company implement a feature because a user makes a tweet? Welcome to Tesla.


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