'Tiny Little Buttons…': Dealership Holds Seminars to Help Old People Understand Weird and Scary Technology

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Technology is a major component in what makes a modern-day automobile desirable. It’s so important, in fact, that numerous quality and customer satisfaction surveys have cited owner misunderstandings of a vehicle’s electronic interface as the primary reason for specific models losing marks.

MyFord Touch was among the worst offenders, thanks to unreliable connectivity features and lethargic software. While Sync3 is much improved, it isn’t a perfect system and can still perplex luddites — just like any modern vehicle’s interface.

With that in mind, a Lincoln dealership in Michigan is conducting monthly seminars to help older folks feel more comfortable with all the newfangled electronic gizmos the kids today seem so damn enthusiastic about. It’s the sort of behavior most dealers should have been engaging in from the start but, unfortunately, has been reserved primarily for premium automakers.

According to Automotive News, the tech symposiums aren’t intended to exist exclusively for the aged — but those are the people Dearborn, Michigan’s Jack Demmer Lincoln has noticed getting the most out of it. Jim Stevenson, a former land developer, expressed concerns about Sync after switching to Lincoln after years of Mercedes-Benz ownership. “I’m still just trying to get used to it,” Stevenson said at Saturday’s seminar. “Sometimes, you get aggravated and it’s easier to pull over and pull out your phone.”

Martin Whitehead, a Ford Motor Company retiree, also complained that the buttons on the instrument panel of his MKX were too small. “We’re talking about tiny little buttons for old folks,” Whitehead explained. “We used to try to surprise and delight, and I’m not surprised nor delighted in the size of these buttons.”

However, as annoyed as customers may be at the start of these meetings, the business says they typically leave much happier. Bob Faust, general sales manager at Jack Demmer Ford, said the dealership has received “tons of positive feedback” about the sessions. “Customer satisfaction scores are certainly a bit higher, and our repeat business is a very large part of our business,” Faust said.

Held monthly at both Lincoln and Ford dealerships, the event begins with a question-and-answer session and ends with representatives sitting in customer cars to help them troubleshoot whatever issue they’re currently struggling with — alleviating confusion and adding a personal touch that shoppers will absolutely remember the next time they want to buy a car.

“There’s still as many questions, maybe more so with this new system,” said Eulah O’Connor, who oversees the business development center at Jack Demmer Ford. “We discovered that when a new car’s being delivered, they may not remember everything because there’s so much to absorb at one time.”

Whether or not customers remember everything, simply providing the service is something every dealership should attempt. J.D. Power claimed the audio-communication-entertainment-navigation category caused the most problems in its longterm “dependability” study — accounting for 22 percent of complaints.

J.D. Power also found consumers gave higher satisfaction scores when engaging with sales people or product specialists who help them understand unfamiliar vehicle technologies. Owners who worked with both a salesperson and product specialist tended to be more satisfied with the overall experience than those who dealt only with a salesperson. Every effort made to help familiarize someone with their in-car electronic suite can help diminish this, and people really remember when a business goes the extra mile.

Pat Montague-Wade, a retired Ford plant supervisor, swung by the seminar after her phone kept disconnecting from the 2017 Continental she had purchased two weeks prior. “My granddaughter keeps telling me to get a new phone, but I like my flip phone,” Montague-Wade said.

Sales representative Samer Awazem said her granddaughter may have a point as he unloaded the phone’s battery and re-synced it with the vehicle’s infotainment system. “That’s the first time somebody tried that,” Montague-Wade told Automotive News, noticeably impressed to see that it worked.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Aug 01, 2017

    Like folks here, I've been able to play with a bunch of systems. I like BMW i Drive the best, because you can by feel do most things. I "got" the first generation system that got complaints...the haptic response made perfect sense to me....the later versions with buttons are better, but the basic idea is the same. The basic idea is eyes NEVER leave the road. Acura does a million little buttons. OK in traffic, sucks at speed. I'm a ham radio guy, and if you want fiendish menus, that has it covered...so I'm scarred anyway. Back to my 85 yo FIL .... CUE in the XTS is clunky, and I can't get him to understand the four way switches on the wheel, but he can touch screen, but there the system is slow-he's getting a new touchscreen under warranty, a $1300 value, and I hope they upgrade the firmware somehow. Caddy makes it so you can do every function both on screen and on "switch". I find it interesting that my second gen CTS Windows CE system is better set up than CUE. OK, there are some user interface ideas that make no sense, like the Windows guys and the GM guys held contentions meetings to determine jurisdiction, but it still works better than cue...and this was designed, when, 2006 for a 2008 roll out ? CUE would not stop me from a Caddy as I tend to use the multifunction wheel switches anyway.

  • Lightspeed Lightspeed on Aug 01, 2017

    My 2000 Lexus would have been considered fairly 'techy' in its day. It's a dinosaur compared to a new compact. I like dinosaurs, everybody likes dinosaurs.

  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
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