The New York herald., 1921-02-06
MOTOR CAR MAKERS
IMPROVE SERVICE
Manufacturers Making Efforts
to Take Better Care of
Owners.
ny A. II. GUNNER.

Chairman ScrUiee Committee, National
Automobile Chamber. of Commerce.
Service" as applied in the automobile
field. has generally been considered sy-
nonymous witlN"maintenance" or up
keep" but now it is taking op a much
broader meaning than merely taking
care Of cars. The real significance OF
service is taking care of the owner.
Putting and keeping his car in correct
mechanical condition Is merely the
means TO the end of making him satis-
fled with his purchase so that he Will
be repeat customer himself and en-
courage his friends also to buy the car
that, has pleased him.
During the year there were two con-
ventions of service managers from the
factories that arR members of the Ma
tional Automobile Chamber OF Com
merce, one at indianapolis In May and
one in Cleveland in November. At both
of these the service problems OF the
industry were considered and means Tor
decreasing the cost and improving the
quality of service were discussed The
Cleveland meeting crystallized the con-
vfction that the human problem is a
greater one at present than the mechani-
cal one in the rendering OF service
thai is, the instilling in the heart Of
of all kinds what was called the spirit
OF service" or, at another time. service
with a SMILE" and It was determined
az this meeting that each would go back
to his job determined to put this smile
to work in his own department and COM
mend 1t to the distributors and dealers
throughout the country as deserving
, their urgent cultivation. Courtesy Is
fundamental to the selling Of anything
and service has come to be regarded in
the light Of a commodity for sale just
as much as anything else tangible or
intangible for which the public has use.
That being the case. we must treat our
customers more courteously in order to
sell them service and thereby sell more
cars.
But the manufacturers service men
are not the only ones that have had
meetings. The service men Of dealers,
distributors. independent repair shops.
garages and service stations for cars,
parts and accessories also have had
meetings in the automotive service as
sociations In the twelve cities where
they are now active. Meetings held
monthly or oftener have afforded the
opportunity to discuss the problems Pc
culiar to the locality of each. and re-
suits have been evident in reduced labor
troubles. improved ways of doing work
and all the other advantages that go
with the exchanging of experiences and
the getting better acquainted with those
engaged in this field Nearly all of these
have come into being within the calen-
dar year, and only one of them is over
two years old.
This getting together. as have doc
tors. engineers. lawyers and those of
other professions. to advance their own
iznowledge, standardze practices and
earn the respect of the public for their
calling will accomplish for service SINH
lar benefits realized for medicine, an
gineering and law.
The Seruice Bulletin OF the n. A. c. G..
has grown from a single multigraphed
page to an eight page printed publica-
tion of constantly increasing usefulness
to the service managers OF the factories
who constitute it's primary mailing list
and to the service associations, automo-
bile schools and other companies and In
dividuals now INCLUDED on the secondary
mailing list The major part of the
Bulletin is given to the Service Digest,
which is an index to articles relating to
service that appear in current automo-
nishes an interesting measure of the in
creaSing Importance of service.
The people responsible for improving
service are awake to the Importance of
improving il and It can be anticipated
with all confidence that In the not very
distant future service will take it's place
as a respected and respectable grand di-
vision of the automobile industry.