BMW gets advice on luxury service.(News)(Brief article)

Automotive News, November, 2007 by Armitage, Tom

Byline: Tom Armitage

BMW, the world's top luxury automaker by volume, has turned to a hotel chain and an airline for tips on how to stay No. 1.

BMW wants to sell more than 2 million cars and SUVs a year worldwide by 2020, up from 1.37 million in 2006. To help it get there despite growing competition in the luxury segment, BMW has asked the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain and Lufthansa for advice on developing and maintaining gold-standard customer service.

"Luxury hotels are the benchmark in customer relations, so that's where we looked,'' Torsten Mueller-Otvos, BMW's head of brand management, told Automotive News Europe.

Axel Oesterling, BMW's head of corporate identity, said the company's aim is to offer white-glove service on the...