How difficult is it to communicate effectively with Oliver Service?

[John E Davies]

Please post your experiences. I have had some trouble in several areas.

 

Online Service Request (website): I only used this a couple of times. Once it was answered by a phone call within a day. The other was lost in space and I never heard from anyone. I think it is an awkward setup, at best.

 

Email:  I used to send emails directly to Jason, the old service manager. He was pretty good about responding within a day or two. I did have some issues with him not sending me all the stuff I requested.

 

Telephone: I have called the general service number several times. Each time I had to leave a message. Response was variable. Lately I have not been getting anything back. When I have talked in person - I hate to admit this - I had a really hard time understanding either Jason or the new SM, who I can't recall his name - due to their very heavy southern country accents. Maybe that is my problem, I don't know, but I think the people selected to talk to the public should be easily understandable. (OTH I have hung up politely on more than one large corporation customer service rep from India that I just could not understand.) I will comment that nearly all of Oliver's buyers are older folks, many of whom might have hearing loss ;)

 

Here's what I think is the problem, and I am hoping for suggestions about what Oliver should do to fix it.  They are relying too much on old fashioned face to face communication which is obviously not working. They are just too busy now to be able to deal with issues and ship parts in an efficient and timely manner.

 

They need to set up a better system that does not require the SM to deal with petty details like sending a replacement widget. What that system would look like, I have no idea. I do know that it should include regular e-commerce standard features like email notification, receipt, and tracking information. Perhaps half of the parts shipments I have received were incomplete and none had a packing list or invoice of any type in the box.

 

They also need to add an About Us page to the website that lists the employees who interact with the Oliver community by department and position. I know the SM has changed, I still don't know his name and it should be so easy to find stuff like this since we are supposed to deal one on one with each other.

 

As they continue to grow this problem is only going to get more frustrating for us as owners. Please comment with your personal experiences and any suggestions for Ollie owners or for management.

 

I hope this isn't out of line, I thought a long time before deciding to start this thread.

 

BTW I am going to call Service yet again tomorrow to see if I can get a response to my broken drawer problem.... They sent half the parts I needed.

 

Thanks,

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Mainiac]

I, regretfully, have to agree. Sometimes the phone call gets answered by the sales office. It seems that someone has to start monitoring what they say. Maybe they are not as informed as they should be, or are reverting back to old ways. Calls seem to be getting lost there, or there is no follow through with their system.

 

Richie Carroll, the new service manager, called me and said the system they were using for UPS,  had lost my address to deliver to. I had been waiting for over ten days for parts to repair drawers. And, I had 3 showings, to potential customers. I am starting to feel a little embarrassed for them. Surely they have a folder somewhere with my address and other pertinent info. (One of the showings was to someone that had sold two Escapes, by showing his, and hopefully was upgrading to an Oliver {he also monitors this site}). A good thing I went and fixed my one damaged drawer on my own. I wasn't going to show a damaged product, at least not on my nickel...

[DavePhelps]

I have to agree with you John with many of your points. My biggest problems have been with email correspondence, where only one question in my email will be addressed and none of the others. My last email was about the fresh water tank retrofit. Jason asked if I was going to be around Tennessee (I live in Oregon), I said it might be a while, but do they offer a retrofit kit that I could install myself. Never heard back....

 

When I talk to Anita, or other office folks, it often sounds like we have a bad connection. Maybe they use headsets? Between the conversation cutting in and out and the accent (which I find lovely and have no problem understanding face to face), I have a hard time keeping up with the conversation.

 

It's good to bring this up because the good will of Oliver's customers is worth more than most anything else. I love their trailers and all the folks there that I have met, but they do need to polish up their Customer Relations a bit.  Better follow through correcting problems and clear and thorough responses to emails would be a good start.

 

Dave

[Mike and Carol]

I’ve had generally good responses from both sales and service. Always had timely answers and follow ups from Tommy and Jason. Accents haven’t been an issue either. They are in central TN and folks there have accents, just like we have here in south TX.

 

I like being able to talk directly to Oliver employees and would hate to see things get too sophisticated. I can tolerate an occasional delay knowing how busy they are getting.

 

I agree that a “contact us” tab on the web page with a list of names and phone numbers/email addresses would be helpful. Mike

[Spike]

I think that John Davies brings up important issues regarding Oliver communication channels. I also empathize with Mike and Carol's concern about things getting too "sophisticated."

 

I have communicated solely by phone since we took possession of our Ollie this past June. I have spoken to Anita, Heather, Jason, Richie, and Scott Oliver. All have been helpful, courteous, and friendly. (I too appreciate the "lovely" Tennessee accent, by the way, and haven't found it an impediment to communication.) Overall, I like the personal interaction, especially with those whom I have met in person. It does, nonetheless, seem to me that John is correct: As the company grows, it needs to grow in the way that it interacts with its customers. I would just hate to lose the "personal touch" in my interactions with company folks. The company, at least, needs to incorporate, as John puts it, "e-commerce standard features like email notification, receipt, and tracking information."

 

Dave is exactly right that "the good will of Oliver’s customers is worth more than most anything else." I hope that one or more faithful company representatives are monitoring this conversation and will be able to convey our concerns to company decision makers. Right now, it seems to me, we all retain that good will--along with our appreciation of and pride in the products we have purchased. There must be a way for Oliver Travel Trailers to improve communication efficiency and still retain their helpful, courteous, and friendly (and personal) interactions with their customers.

 

Thanks, John Davies, for initiating this discussion.

 

--Jeff

 

 

[ScubaRx]

Accents?

 

We don't have no stinkin' accents!

[KarenLukens]

They sent us a package with the drawer catches and some other new parts that we never knew had been sent... Turns out that FedX dumped it somewhere else. But Jason sent us out a new package and Richie made sure that we got the tracking# and we haven't had a problem with communication. They don't have an accent in Howenwald, we are the outsiders there. Having worked with people from many different cultures, we have had no problems with dialects except in Georgia where the English language was completely different :)

 

We haven't emailed in a while, but it was fine. Anita has had Richie call me back once and it was business as usual and I've had no problems talking with any of them. I grew up Blue collar and I would fit right in just fine even with my California accent if I needed a job there. I enjoy the person to person engagements myself and have talked to many of them like brothers and sisters and I really have no problem waiting for a call back even a few days later after the weekend.

 

Reed

[Hap]

Accents? We don't have an accent, Y'all do.

 

As far as communicating with the people at the OTT factory and getting a response, I have always found their response to my questions and concerns to be timely and helpful. As an example - When we first bought our current trailer, it developed a leak in the fresh water line. It turned out to be a hairline crack in a check valve in the fresh water line. Oliver set us up with a local shop for repairs and when their technician couldn't find the problem, one of the factory service reps got on the phone and talked them through the problem. OTT even sent pictures to the local repair shop. We were back on the road in a couple of hours. Over the years when we've had warranty work done while on the road, the shops that we've dealt with always seemed stunned (and quite pleased) with the quick response and helpful attitude from OTT .

 

Sometimes at our home in Florida, currently in Salem, Ma. and headed to the higher elevations for leaf peeper season.

 

 

 

Hap

 

Hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. LOL

[Mainiac]

Have to stay in Salem for Halloween?

[Overland]

This is a timely conversation for me, given that just Friday I had a small dust up with Oliver's sales staff that stemmed entirely from poor communication and not following up on commitments.

 

Emails not returned, phone calls not returned, promises to follow up that aren't kept - it's a surprise when I don't encounter any of that.  Like Dave, a regular theme I've run into is that I'll ask three questions in an email but only one will be answered, and often so minimally that it requires an additional string of emails to try to tease out the information I need.  It's bad enough and common enough that I often wearily decide it's not worth the effort.

 

I also find I have difficulty on the phone with them.  I was born and raised in the south but even so, I thought at first it was something oddly cultural that we almost just weren't using the same language.  But I've decided that the problem is simply that when I talk with someone there I'm just not receiving their full attention.  There's often a bit of a pause after I've said something that makes it seem like they're doing something else instead of listening to me.  And often their replies seem like they weren't listening to the question.  I have to say though that Anita is always the exception to this - she is invariably attentive, helpful and professional - and when I do get Jason the phone or face to face it's obvious that he's giving me his full attention.  (Jason I think is just being pulled in too many directions to be as responsive as I'd like.)

 

And I can say that 100% of any frustration that I've had with Oliver could have been prevented with decent communication and follow up, either between Oliver and me, or among themselves.    There's a point in every small company's growth at which they're forced to transition from being small but accommodating, to being big but professional, and Oliver hasn't made it through that transition yet.

 

And of course, despite the above, we are on the whole pleased with Oliver and remain thoroughly excited about receiving our trailer someday.

 

 

[KountryKamper]

Accents? We don’t have an accent, Y’all do. 

 

I have to agree, Y'all have the accent. :-)

 

Part of the problem is they wear headsets now and there is a delay when talking to them. I keep asking if they are still on the line because sometimes it seems like we have lost the connection.

 

 

[John E Davies]

. Like Dave, a regular theme I’ve run into is that I’ll ask three questions in an email but only one will be answered, and often so minimally that it requires an additional string of emails to try to tease out the information I need. .

I should not laugh since this is a very serious subject. This happened to me over and over again, such that I intentionally started numbering my questions, so that it would be easier to ask for more information about specific sections. OTH this is not at all isolated to Oliver, I see it frequently with other companies whenever you have more than a couple of questions.

 

When communicating by email, I think it is important for you as the customer to present a well organised letter with definite spaces between each subject so that it is obvious for the receiver, who maybe distracted or tired, where the “breaks” are. Numbering does highlight them!

 

I have never done telephone customer service work, but my suspicion is that to do it really well, one must be alert and focussed to a single task. A quiet and separate office or cubical would be mandatory, I believe. Full noise cancelling headsets that filter out background noise should work great if they are comfortble enough to be worn full time. Small wireless handsfree headsets just encourage multi-tasking, which is exactly the opposite of what is desired.

 

IMHO of course.

 

Thanks for the comments. I am not sure if we are accomplishing anything, but at least I know that I was not alone in feeling frustrated.

 

In the past I have recommended to Oliver reps that they send out questionaires to all their customers, asking for feedback and suggestions. Do you folks think that would be appropriate?

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[topgun2]

I have never had a "long term"problem communicating with the folks at Oliver.  Yes, there have been times when an email with a number of numbered items on it have taken more than one follow-up to get all items taken care of, but, they were taken care of.  When I have had the situation of employees not calling me back or returning my emails I have asked for the intervention of my sales rep - Anita -  and that, in turn, was all it took to get the situation back on track.  For those that are continuing to have problems I would suggest taking a look back at the Oliver Family posting on the Forum from June 9, 2017 which read in part:

 

"we kindly ask that if you have a problem or concern with your Ollie, please call us directly so we can help you. This will provide us the details we need in a timely fashion and expedite our course of action."

 

Keep going up the ladder until you get the help you need.

 

Bill

[Hap]

Have to stay in Salem for Halloween?

 

Thanks, Canoe 12

Salem is really getting geared up for Halloween. We stayed at the county-owned park Winter Island Park for several days. What a great place with wonderful scenery and a great location to tour the surrounding area and visit Boston for a day. Today, we moved up to Freeport, ME for one night and for my wife to shop at L. L. Bean and then to visit Kennebunkport.  God, what a beautiful part of the world. Were heading to the White Mountains area tomorrow.

 

Hap

[rideandfly]

Overall had good results dealing with Oliver's service department.

 

Like Bill said go up the ladder if you can't get desired results. We used to install 50 and 60 series Detroit Diesels in industrial applications years ago. Really liked it when Roger Penske owned Detroit Diesel. From the first call to DD, if the issue was not corrected in a certain amount of hours, it ended up on Penske's desk. No one at DD wanted that to happen, so they were motivated to take care of service issues.

[Spike]

In the past I have recommended to Oliver reps that they send out questionaires to all their customers, asking for feedback and suggestions. Do you folks think that would be appropriate?

 

Since John asks, I will chime in with my 2 cents: Yes, questionnaires seem appropriate. However, I would be much more inclined to fill one out if it were online. Perhaps something like an online "suggestion box" would also be appropriate.

 

In addition, as I mentioned before, it might be wise of OTT to have someone like an ombudsperson monitoring these forums and reporting issues to the decision makers. (ANYONE OUT THERE? If so, have you taken notice of these comments on communication issues? If so, can you let us know?)

[JWalmsley]

John E Davies wrote:

In the past I have recommended to Oliver reps that they send out questionaires to all their customers, asking for feedback and suggestions. Do you folks think that would be appropriate?

Since John asks, I will chime in with my 2 cents: Yes, questionnaires seem appropriate. However, I would be much more inclined to fill one out if it were online. Perhaps something like an online “suggestion box” would also be appropriate. In addition, as I mentioned before, it might be wise of OTT to have someone like an ombudsperson monitoring these forums and reporting issues to the decision makers. (ANYONE OUT THERE? If so, have you taken notice of these comments on communication issues? If so, can you let us know?)

 

I have sent out an email to our support staff about this topic.

[Overland]

Just to follow up, I got a nice phone call from Scott yesterday.  We mostly talked about some specific issues with our trailer delivery (solved), and chatted about Oliver in general, but we did talk briefly about the customer service issues. I know that they’re committed to solving all of these problems, it's just that those of us in the 200-club have had and will have our patience tried while Oliver finds a way through their growing pains.

[Foy_Mirna]

While I agree with many of the comments made here, I do see the problem very clearly.  Oliver the company we all love, is growing faster than they planned or expected.  Having started a small internet business that Amazon purchased in 2008, I know these problems all too well and there is no quick fix. Oliver will need to rethink its communication processes and that will require them to look up from the day to day business.  It is painful but very necessary for the long term success.

 

I learned this first-hand.  I was forwarded a customer email by Jeff Bezos. His email to me had one simple letter in it "?"  I later learned this was the worst email you could ever get from Jeff.  Not only did he want the problem solved, he wanted plans & process in place for how this problem would not happen again as we scaled our business for 10 times the current number of customers.  It took me months to address the issue to Jeff's satisfaction, it touched every part of the company and required new thinking of what customer service is and how we would single-mindedly deliver it.  Clear processes, chain of command oversight, retraining of existing employees and integration into the fabric of the company where the corner-stones.  It was one of the best business lessons of my career.

 

I truly hope Oliver's management is aware and thinking about the bigger picture for it's customers.

[DavidS]

I did not plan on posting when John Davies started this thread. Yes, I have had a number of emails that weren’t responded to, but I didn't think my personal experiences would seriously contribute to the discussion or to solutions. But Spike’s recent post about an ombudsperson monitoring these forums made me stop and think. So I decided to respond and now my response has turned into a speech, although some might consider it more of a screed.

 

First, the Oliver is a great trailer, and the people who work for Oliver are talented people who are trying to deliver a truly quality product. More important for me, and maybe you, is how this forum was instrumental in my purchase decision and also in enriching my camping experience. There are so many smart and creative people on this forum who come up with imaginative ways to improve the Oliver and to enhance camping. And they take the effort to share their ideas, often with clear descriptions and photos!

 

Point 1. Oliver needs to designate an Ombudsperson.

 

Serious issues have been brought up in this forum, and the only way we know what Oliver’s position is when an owner posts that “I talked to so-and-so at the factory and they said…” That is not enough. When we need information, Oliver needs to respond.

 

Many of you have probably seen TripAdvisor reviews where the hotel manager responds to EVERY 5-star review with “Thank you for your positive comments. We appreciate your business.” Oliver does not need to reply to everything, but THERE ARE TIMES when a response is needed. Three examples:

 

1. Maverick’s post on Negative Battery Connection issues comes to mind. Maverick did a great job describing how to test with a multimeter, but if my trailer needs a fix, the descriptions of the fix are not sufficient for someone like me with less technical expertise. I would like Oliver to tell us whether all trailers likely have this problem or only some. Are there production dates (hull numbers) that are likely to suffer this problem? I think most of us are willing to fix this ourselves, but Oliver needs to post specific, detailed instructions, with photos.

 

2. The problems of the fresh water tank, from Dave Phelps. Karen and Reed, Raspy’s solution, and Topgun. Oliver should respond! What are our options as owners to get this fixed, especially for those of us who live far away and don't have Raspy’s exceptional skills.

 

3. Oliver had an online video on winterizing, but they took it down a year ago, just when many of us were getting ready to winterize. I posted that Tommy Staggs told me that “We took the video off because something wasn’t right in the video.” Buzzy posted later that Matt said that “We have taken the winterizing video down and had a professional shoot a new video last week. It’s being edited now and should be available this week.” Uh, it has been a year, and to my knowledge there still is no winterizing video from Oliver. This is the type of thing where the Ombudsperson should respond. We should not have to depend on second hand reports from owners.

 

Point 2. Oliver needs to improve the communication, which was John Davies’ original point in this thread.

 

My experience has been like others, in that more recently emails are not responded to, but phone calls still do get answers. I had a question about tank capacity, so I used the Service Request/Question link that Jason Walmsley has in his signature line. No response. Zilch. Nada. So I emailed Jason. No response. So I phoned, and got transferred so Scott Oliver. Scott did not know the answer, but he found out and got back to me.

 

I have dealt with a number of people at Oliver, and I think they are all really good. They are knowledgeable and caring, and they are dedicated to making an outstanding product. Why don’t they respond to an email or pass it on to someone who can answer? My expectation is that they are getting too many emails, and don't have the time to deal with all of them. I think Oliver needs to hire more people to deal with customer support. When I was first looking at buying an Oliver they had made something over a hundred trailers, based on hull numbers. Now the hull numbers are in the high 200’s. If there are a lot more trailer owners, they need more staff for customer support.

 

Oliver has a reputation for making great trailers, and for outstanding customer support. While they invested in ramping up production, they also need to invest in customer support to maintain that reputation for customer support.

 

Point 3. We need improvements on this forum. As has been commented upon many times, the search tools on this forum are pitiful.

 

This forum contains critical information, both for current owners and prospective buyers. The search tools need to be improved. The technology is out there, in that we see it on other forums.

 

Oliver doesn’t have a sales force outside of Hohenwald; we are their sales force. I enjoy showing my Ollie to prospective buyers; I have one looking at my unit later this week. I did a lot of research on trailers before we made our purchase, and I think the Oliver is one of the best trailers made, and I try convey to prospective buyers my pleasure in the Oliver’s engineering and quality workmanship. I know I have sold at least one trailer.

 

I hope that Oliver will make some positive changes.

 

End of speech.

[Kayrae51]

I have mixed feelings on this subject. Both of us have hearing problems so errors in communications are often our fault. I tend to rely on email or text due to those issues. All in all, we have been treated fairly, with respect, and we have met some wonderful people. Our face-to-face conversations and experiences have been exceptional. I believe they care about their customers but we did experience a few problems with communications along the way.

 

Now that we have our Oliver we have had a few minor issues getting thru to people per phone when we are on the road. I have had good results when texting Richie, he normally gets back to us ASAP, whereas others have not made return calls.

 

Our problem right now is the fact that we are at the point where we need to make an appointment to get a few of those first year things taken care of at the factory (the fresh water tank fix, a minor drawer issue, etc.) but we are not sure who we need to contact these days. Do we contact a certain person in Service or in Sales to get a work order made up and schedule an appointment? Right now the old movie line “Who you gunna call - Ghost Busters!” is running thru my mind. ???? - ????

 

I think most of us were given personal contact cards on our Ollie pick up day but should we be calling those people every time we have a problem or question (for us - that is Richie who has been wonderful to us) or should we be following a proper chain of command? Does the fact that we phone the person that treats us well with all of our needs add more confusion on their end of things?

 

My suggestion - Post a contact list online - maybe in a “for owners only” section - Date the list and update it whenever there are personnel changes. Part of growth is moving people around in the organization and that should be expected. Keeping owners aware of those changes is necessary. I think we could actually be helpful if we know who to contact first.

[Mainiac]

But here in may lie the problem. No where in here is listed the ladder. Who's in charge? What is the structure? Who reports to who? Everyone seems to do their own thing, without any consequences...

[SeaDawg]

So, I may be responding from a different place, but in the good old days, the forum was paid for by Oliver, but rarely visited by anyone at Oliver

We looked at this place as our "sandbox".

I appreciate it when an

Ollie rep chimes in. I don't, however, expect it.

Sherry

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Iow,

Don't expect an answer here for your personal issue. Imo.

Take that to the factory.

In the history of our forum we've literally asked the factory people to bug out.

I don't think it's fair to ask factory people to not have a voice, but be available for responding.

???

Sherry

My opinion.

[KarenLukens]

And honestly, whenever we bring something to light here on the forum, the next thing you know, Oliver is overwhelmed with phone calls from everyone wanting that part of their trailer fixed anyway, so they do know what we are talking about in a wildly roundabout way sometimes... It would be nice if they had someone on here but that's why they have the "Service Bulletin" section that they alone post in. They are just a phone call away when needed and I do like having this as our own forum where can talk about anything, just like this.

 

Reed