I’ve been on a non-fiction reading kick lately, buying a lot of books that I heard were interesting or looked fun on bookstore shelves. It has been a good mix of serious and mature material (The Art of War and The Wealth of Nations for starters…) and, well, more entertaining stuff (consider books like The Alphabet of Manliness).
I had a ton of fun reading Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People, though, since it made a ton of sense to me and I can relate to many of his points just via common sense. It’s nothing earth-shattering, to be sure, but it’s nice to be reminded, once in a while, how small changes in behavior and attitude can make a difference. As such, his advice basically boils down to “be nice, lay the praise on thick, avoid criticism, be sincere in your dealings”.
Of course, after going through The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit, I have a certain cynicism for some of Carnegie’s supposedly timeless words of wisdom, especially on how it applies to the workplace. It certainly seems like a lot of business interactions follow his advice – brainstorming sessions that “don’t judge”, employee motivation via praises and pretty pens, business civility and use of euphemisms for everything good or bad, etc. As a matter of fact, the only thing the business world hasn’t mastered is the ability to be truly sincere on the above points.
Which brings me to my experiment. My mom recently bought a 2006 Honda Accord, but it came with a 2004 Navigation DVD (which holds the maps, so they’re two years outdated). She wants Honda to send a new one free of charge (it costs $200 normally), so I wrote a letter to Honda a month ago with no response thus far. I just wrote another one, though, using Carnegie’s advice on being nice, bringing out the good points, trying to make them agree and fulfill their wants (1), etc. Compare and contrast the first letter:
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m writing on behalf of myself and my mother, two proud owners of the Honda Accord. I had purchased a 2004 Honda Accord EX-V6 two years ago, and my satisfaction with the vehicle has persuaded her to recently purchase a 2006 Honda Accord EX herself.
We are disappointed, however, in the navigation system that both of us chose as an option on our Accords; specifically, we are disappointed at how outdated the maps were on the system. We each paid $2,000 for a Honda-branded navigation system, fully knowing that after market navigation systems with more features are less expensive; we figured that the integration and easy-to-use interface would be worth the extra money.
We did not expect, however, to compromise on the quality of the navigation itself. After a little bit of online research, it seems like our navigator’s maps are updated once a year via a DVD, and that my 2004 Accord holds maps from 2002 while my mother’s 2006 Accord holds a DVD printed in 2004. After paying a luxurious amount for the option in the first place, we find it appalling that Honda wants to charge us close to $200 to obtain a disk that complements our systems. Since my mother works in real estate, maps of newly developed areas are crucial to her job, and we didn’t expect to be forced to print directions from online mapping services after buying a new Accord.
We hope that Honda will sympathize with our situation here and send us a navigation DVD free-of-charge; we’d love to continue purchasing Honda vehicles in the future and want to believe that Honda’s customer service remains one of the best in the industry.
With the second:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I’m a proud owner of a 2004 Honda Accord EX-V6, writing on the behalf of my mother who had purchased a 2006 Honda Accord EX recently due to my satisfaction with the car and Honda’s excellent customer service; we have been very happy thus far with the performance of our vehicles and look forward to purchasing our next family car from a Honda dealership.
We have had one small issue with the newly purchased Accord, however. It seems like the car, while being a 2006 model, has been equipped with a 2004 Navigation System DVD which shows maps from that year. While the navigation system itself is a delight to use and has been invaluable on road trips, the outdated maps on the system have hindered our driving on more than one occasion.
My mother, who works in real estate, has been especially troubled by this; she visits new areas of development regularly and cannot rely on the maps in the system to provide her with accurate information. Our experience has been great thus far, and I’d hate to think that a small thing such as the navigation DVD would tarnish our good impressions with Honda and our dealership.
I’m reachable via the above address or phone, and I hope that we can discuss this further and figure out a solution.
Yea, I laid it on thick this time around. We’ll see whether they respond to this and test whether Carnegie’s words, written some 80 years ago, hold any truth in the 21st century.
- e.g., us buying another car from Honda (↩)