Leaf reaches 20,000 reservations, to shut reservations 9/23

[johnr]

+1 (both emails).

Well then that makes at least five of us so far.

 

[Gavin]

BTW, did Nissan get back to you on letting you order ? or have you decided to go with 500 ?

ah, thanks for thinking of me

one, still haven't been allowed to order...so kinda limbo...but not blocked. maybe the 27th?

two...well you will have to look for a new thread I'm about to start for number 2

Gavin

 

[Randy3]

I also received two emails, one as an order number and the other as an interested person.

Seems like Nissan is doing a lot of commercials for a car that (now) no one can even reserve.

 

[evnow]

Seems like Nissan is doing a lot of commercials for a car that (now) no one can even reserve.

Yes - I don't really understand. I'd let atleast people who come for a test drive reserve ...

 

[charlie1300]

Got both versions of the E-mail one minute apart. I think Nissan is finding this method of dealing with customers (direct, not thru the dealerships) to be something they lack expertise in. I agree with those that think they want to turn this job back to the dealers.

 

[LEAFer]

Got both versions of the E-mail one minute apart. I think Nissan is finding this method of dealing with customers (direct, not thru the dealerships) to be something they lack expertise in. I agree with those that think they want to turn this job back to the dealers.

Oh no ! I'd rather live with some growing pains than go back to the old (dealer-) way ! :x

 

[Andy]

I also got both emails. Prefer this method of purchase.

 

[LEAFguy]

Guys... I don't understand why some of you don't understand why you got two emails.

You register with one email address ([email protected]) and you register with another email address ([email protected]) and expect them to know that they are both you? These emails are going out strictly based on email address. If they've got 20,000 reservations, who knows how many "hand raisers" they have. They are not doing any additional filtering.

Regarding the process... would you rather Nissan continue on, digging themselves a deeper hole, creating more problems every day that goes by? Or realize that a nice media benchmark (in this case 20,000 reservations) is a good time to continue the process with those in the pipeline, suspend adding more to the pipeline, and resolve the issues that have come up before opening the process again. This is a brand new vehicle, being sold by a process that Nissan has never used before (and I don't know that any other manafacturer has either), with orders being accepted before the first car rolls off of the assembly line. That is a whole lot of firsts.

No one knows the conversion rate of reservations to orders but Nissan - and they're not telling. Whatever it is, Nissan wants to be sure that those reservations placed from 20,001 onward are processed more smoothly (for everyone) than the first 20,000. I, for one, think that is a good thing.

/soapbox

 

[derkraut]

Guys... I don't understand why some of you don't understand why you got two emails.

You register with one email address ([email protected]) and you register with another email address ([email protected]) and expect them to know that they are both you? These emails are going out strictly based on email address. If they've got 20,000 reservations, who knows how many "hand raisers" they have. They are not doing any additional filtering.

Regarding the process... would you rather Nissan continue on, digging themselves a deeper hole, creating more problems every day that goes by? Or realize that a nice media benchmark (in this case 20,000 reservations) is a good time to continue the process with those in the pipeline, suspend adding more to the pipeline, and resolve the issues that have come up before opening the process again. This is a brand new vehicle, being sold by a process that Nissan has never used before (and I don't know that any other manafacturer has either), with orders being accepted before the first car rolls off of the assembly line. That is a whole lot of firsts.

No one knows the conversion rate of reservations to orders but Nissan - and they're not telling. Whatever it is, Nissan wants to be sure that those reservations placed from 20,001 onward are processed more smoothly (for everyone) than the first 20,000. I, for one, think that is a good thing.

/soapbox

My sentiments exactly! :idea:

 

[LEAFer]

Guys... I don't understand why some of you don't understand why you got two emails.

You register with one email address ([email protected]) and you register with another email address ([email protected]) and expect them to know that they are both you? These emails are going out strictly based on email address.

No ... you're wrong. Both emails (as refered to before) went to the same address. Actually, now that we're getting into nitty gritty ... I received THREE emails of almost same content. Two emails (call them #2 and #3) were (almost -- see below) identical, and sent to "reservationist" and "reservationist2" respectively. A third email (call it #1) of slightly different content went to "reservationist" which also happens to be the email under which I ordered a LEAF.

Here's the email (#1) that went to the ordered-email-address:

<first-name-redacted>,
We are thrilled with the overwhelming enthusiasm people like you have shown for the 100% electric Nissan LEAF™. To date, 20,000 people have already reserved a LEAF - a number that has exceeded our expectations.

We have completed the first phase of reservations. In order to provide the best level of customer service and premium ownership experience to the first Nissan LEAF drivers, we will not be accepting new reservations for the Nissan LEAF until the next phase begins. But please be assured - your order will not be affected and we will continue to process and complete your order. Pausing reservations until the next phase begins will allow us to focus on serving you and others who have already ordered a Nissan LEAF.

We thank you for your interest in going 100% electric.

=================================================
Your order info:
Ordered on: <order-date-redacted>
Confirmation number: <an-eight-hexadecimal-number-redacted>
=================================================

Here's the content of the email (#3) that went to the non-ordering address:

<first-name-redacted>,
We are thrilled with the overwhelming enthusiasm people like you have shown for the 100% electric Nissan LEAF™. To date, 20,000 people have already reserved a LEAF - a number that has exceeded our expectations.

We have completed the first phase of reservations. In order to provide the best level of customer service and premium ownership experience to the first Nissan LEAF drivers, we will not be accepting new reservations until the next phase begins. A subsequent phase of reservations will begin next year, after current reservations and orders have been processed.

We're grateful for your understanding and patience as we work to bring this 100% electric car to you.

=============================================================================

And one more interesting part. The non-ordering email (#3) also went to the ordered-email-address (#2) with one TWIST: email #2 contains as a first line only my initial (not entire first name) followed by a comma. And that's despite the fact that the ordered-email (#1, with the Confirmation number) already contains the full first name. (The rest is identical. The reply-to addresses of all three are sprinkled with different random characters between the "nissan" and "@my-nissanusa.com" parts. )

The ordered-email-address email (#1) came in first (based on time stamp). The other two came in one minute later.

 

[johnr]

Guys... I don't understand why some of you don't understand why you got two emails.

You register with one email address ([email protected]) and you register with another email address ([email protected]) and expect them to know that they are both you? These emails are going out strictly based on email address. If they've got 20,000 reservations, who knows how many "hand raisers" they have. They are not doing any additional filtering.

If the two emails were coming to two addresses because I signed up with two email addresses, then your explanation would make perfect sense. But I got both emails at the same email address! I think I might have actually signed up twice at the beginning also, so maybe I have a duplicate entry in their system. But if I was able to sign up twice using the same email address that's a problem with their system right there.

 

[garygid]

I registered for a LEAF-Interest and Info "account", but that would not work for my 20 April 2010 "Reservation".

I had to quickly create a new account, and then "Reserve" with the new account.

So, those extra minutes delayed my "RAQ" date.

 

[LEAFer]

John: look carefully at the first line in the two emails. Does it use "initial-only" and "full-first-name" respectively ?

 

[indyflick]

No ... you're wrong. Both emails (as refered to before) went to the same address.

It's because you've signed up for other Nissan LEAF promotions, such as the MasterTheShift Weekly Giveaway Reminder. There are likely separate groups responsible for each CRM program and the data isn't being shared. The way it should work is to have one centralized database of customers each with an indicator as to the type of customer they are. So it would be indicated if a customer has only general interest, or has a reservation, or has been sent a RAQ but not responded, or has ordered, etc. Before any email blast, you indicate which customers get the email and which don't. Because a customer could reside in multiple "buckets" you need to set up a conditional such as "send this email to all general interest customers AND not to customers in the LEAF ordered category". The system would not blast the email to a customer who has ordered a LEAF and thus eliminate mixed messages going out and causing confusion. There are also tools which can help locate multiple occurrences of the same customer, so you can get them into a single proper bucket.

 

[LEAFer]

Ok ... that explanation makes more sense. And it could explain the "initial-only" versus "full-first-name". ( Not that I remember everything I signed up for :? ) That explanation would have to work against all other "two-emails-recipients" ...

 

[johnr]

John: look carefully at the first line in the two emails. Does it use "initial-only" and "full-first-name" respectively ?

Both emails start exactly the same, with my full first name.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Much ado about nothing. We simply have Emails Based on where we are in the reservation system. multiple inquiries will generate multiple emails