glenn sent a message to Matthew S. Levatich – President and Chief Executive Officer of Harley-Davidson, Inc. – Email Address that said:
Mr. Levatich
My wife and I have purchased three HD bikes from the dealers in the last two years as we are able to get back to riding after many years of family and other commitments.
I want to point out a couple of things for HD of which we have a very small holding.
We have been in many dealerships from Ohio to Maine and find the following common to most
We know more about the product than the sales people do. It is surprising I can tell the sales person more about the various models. This is not one or two dealers, but most all.
Women are not respected by the sales people. I had a manager in one store say he had numbers for me on my wifes bike. I informed him it was Robins bike and he should be discussing things with her. I realize there are a lot of men on HD, but women are a gigantic potential market.
HD needs to create more models for women. We noticed many women in dealerships were disappointed to find there were very few options for them. the Slim is a good bike that my wife bought as she is shorter. Why cannot HD make smaller touring bikes accomodating women? With all the women we saw in dealerships this is a huge missed opportunity.
Colors of bikes. For the life of me I cannot understand why I cannot order and pay extra for a color of a previous years bike. Especially when I can order the parts in that color. I think color selection is very important especially to women wanting something a little more colorful. I know my wife does.
I do not understand why intercoms for a street glide are not available for 2014 bikes, but are for previous years. I am sure this is common in other parts areas.
We are not representative of some of HD customers as we are professionals, but we have more than ample funds to pay for what we want. We have gone in some dealerships and were not given two cents worth of time by the sales people. I am a little surprised at this given we were going to buy two touring bikes for cash.
We were in one dealer where a more introverted gentleman was not even asked about what he might be interested in. Basically no one would pay him the time of day. Further, I would bet he could have afforded anything in that showroom.
Just so this does not sound like a complaining email we love our bikes and thoroughly enjoy every chance we have time to ride. We would not own any other brand. As a partner in a very successful accounting practice I thought I would pass along some comments. Marketing and meeting customer demands are key in all business.
We love the products and as a consumer and shareholder we want to see more from HDs efforts.
Thank you for your very valuable attention.
Glenn
