Mercedes-Benz Announces Construction of First 'Service Center'
26 September 1997
Mercedes-Benz Announces Construction of First 'Service Center' Conveniently Located, Service-Only FacilitiesMONTVALE, N.J., Sept. 26 -- Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc. (MBNA) announced that it will break ground today in Sacramento, California, on the first of three pilot Mercedes-Benz Service Centers. The Service Centers are freestanding facilities which will be situated in convenient locations to provide top quality, competitively priced routine services and associated parts for Mercedes-Benz owners. The Service Centers will be built and operated by authorized Mercedes-Benz dealers but will focus solely on routine service (i.e., no vehicles will be sold at these facilities). A typical Center will contain between six and ten service bays, plus reception and administrative areas and will be specially designed to encourage interaction between customers and the technicians working on their cars. According to Mike Jackson, president of MBNA, "Over the past few years, we have essentially restructured Mercedes-Benz around the needs and expectations of our customers. We have exciting, innovative new products and a strong value orientation to underscore our commitment to market responsiveness. On the service side, we have realigned parts and service pricing so that our customers can be assured that choosing Mercedes means not only premium quality, but also good value. The Service Centers will enable us to keep customers in the Mercedes-Benz family long after the warranty has expired by making it a thoroughly convenient and hassle-free experience." The first Center to be constructed will be in Sacramento, California, located at 2810 Granite Court in Rocklin, California. It will be operated by George Grinzewitsch who currently owns Von Housen Motors, a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Sacramento, California. The Center will open for business by year-end. A second Service Center, this one located in Las Vegas, Nevada is expected to begin construction in the next few weeks and will be operational in early 1998. A third Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 1998. Based on the success of the pilot program, additional Service Centers will be added in the future. "These Centers will combine the quality of service, parts and technical training found at Mercedes-Benz dealerships with the convenience and feel of 'neighborhood service' offered by many independent repair shops," said Wade Hubbard, general manager of product management/service, parts, accessories and customer care for MBNA. "The Centers serve a dual purpose. Within this decade, we will have doubled the annual sales of new Mercedes-Benz cars in the United States and, obviously, we need to ensure that we have a service structure that meets the needs of an expanded customer base. Also, because of the durability of Mercedes vehicles the age of the Mercedes-Benz car population in the United States is steadily increasing. More than 80 percent of all cars retailed by Mercedes-Benz of North America in the last 30 years are still on the road today. Three-quarters of these are out of warranty. And, while Mercedes owners tend to be less likely to 'defect' to independent shops after the warranty runs out, the remainder is still lost business for us. We need to bring these people back into the Mercedes-Benz family." According to Hubbard, the Service Centers will be competitive with independent shops in terms of convenience and price but, he says, "Our Centers will be staffed exclusively with factory-trained technicians, the work will be done with Mercedes-Benz parts, and be backed by the integrity of the entire Mercedes-Benz organization." The Centers will also be open to customers whose cars are still under warranty and who simply need routine service. The Centers will be located in areas convenient to customers, near shopping centers, office areas and transportation hubs. Because of their relatively small size -- up to 8,650 square feet total -- the facilities can be situated in locations which might otherwise be unattainable for traditional-size dealerships. "We don't intend to reduce service and parts volume at existing authorized Mercedes-Benz dealerships," Hubbard said, "The Service Centers extend the dealer's service and parts reach to customers who might have felt that taking the car to a more distant dealership location was an inconvenience they wished to avoid." The Centers are part of a comprehensive customer care initiative Mercedes-Benz of North America has implemented in the U.S. to build and maintain strong customer relationships throughout the ownership cycle. SOURCE Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc.