Customer Service & Perception   (continued)
If they actually did care about you, then the first time you needed
them after buying the product they would 1) be there for you,
2) want to help you.  I think we all agree on this concept, but
when the rubber meets the road.. What do we usually get?  
Some employee trying to find ways not to help instead of ways
to help.  This is a perception by the customer, but perception
is reality.

So, the million dollar question is
Copyright© 2008-2009 Automotive Dealers Network. All rights reserved.
By Steve Dix
Fixed Operations Training Professional
AutoPro Training Solutions
email: sdix@autoprotraining.com
Steve Dix has 25 years of expertise in the automotive industry.  
Steve holds many distinguished awards for CSI Excellence; he
was awarded Ford’s CSI award as well as earning Daimler-
Chrysler’s award for CSI Excellence. He enjoys teaching
dealership personnel the art of true salesmanship
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    How do we change this perception?

    #1 The first step in changing this perception is understanding why it exists. How many times is
    something promised or implied (I love that word 'implied')? What does it mean to someone in your
    dealership, from either the Sales department or the Service department?

    What’s the first thing that happens after the customer tells us that so and so said this? We say "Do you
    have it in writing?" The customer says "No, I don’t have anything in writing."  So we say "I’m sorry there’s
    nothing I can do for you unless you get it in writing," and hope they just go away. Is it because we're
    trained that way or just human nature that we don’t want to get help someone?

    Do you have customer service at your store?  I would hope that all your employees would go out of
    there way to help customers. Try and find ways to handle their requests instead of ways to get out of it.
    When you help a customer, your store goes a long way in changing their perception. You know this,
    all the surveys tell us this. If you want good customer service then you must genuinely care about your
    customers. You take care of them and they will take care of you.  Sounds simple doesn’t it?  

    #2 Here’s your second step. You must train your people, train them in
    people skills, train them on policy and procedures of your store, train them
    to take care of the customer - is the most important thing they can do .
    And don’t just train them once, continually train your people year after year
    on all aspects:  Selling, Taking ups properly, Writing ups properly, Following
    through (during and after the sale or throughout the day), How to exit the
    customer from your store. (To name just a few.)
With all the daily “stuff” going on at your dealership it’s hard to do all this training
without some help.  Put it in your budget and hire a training company that goes to your store to train your people. It is
the most effective way.  Sending your people off-site for training is not the most efficient or cost effective way of
training, though this seems to be what many in the industry do.  

As this economy starts to rebound we must learn from our mistakes.  Never take a customer for granted.  Cherish each
and every one that comes into your store as if it were the last one you’re ever going to get.

My hope is that this article finds your dealership already doing the things that need to be done in order to achieve good
Customer Service.  If not….then there’s no time like the present.  

Until next time
It’s always easier
and cheaper to keep
a customer happy
than to pay tons
of money to get
that customer
back in your store.