Saying “No” Will Lose You Customers!

Recently I requested a room for a monthly follow up visit and was told no rooms were available for the entire stay. Then I went to a competitor and they were similar quality and more centrally located for my monthly three day visits. The new place I stay every month now gets about three hundred a month additional revenue. I wonder how many service and parts customers are thrown away because when they call they are told no. Instead of no why not state “I’ll do my best” or “At least we will get some idea of what is going on” and keep the customer. The truth is the more you say no in service the more customers you will lose! I understand scheduling has its challenges however if you are booked more than two days out look at staffing as your issue and keep adding until you can care for your customers and used cars within 48 hours.

Rob Gehring is the President of Fixed Performance.
Follow Fixed Performance on Facebook & Twitter
Visit www.fixedperformance.com to sign up for your free newsletter & watch free video clips!

0 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of DealerELITE.net to add comments!

Join DealerELITE.net

Comment by Mike Stoner on February 8, 2011 at 7:58pm: I wasn't offended by it I just pointed out to them that there was a better way to handle it and corrected their ignorance of how to properly handle it in the future

Comment by Rob Gehring on February 8, 2011 at 7:02pm: Mike thanks for sharing your experience with the feeling you had being treated second class. I find very few express their concerns and instead just fail to support the company in the future. You are a class act!

Craig you made me smile today! Thank you.

Comment by Craig Lockerd on February 8, 2011 at 4:45pm: Yes,No....doesn't work!

Comment by Mike Stoner on February 8, 2011 at 3:26pm: Sometimes it's neccessary to say no but it's all in how you say no.

I attended in a sales seminar with multiple speakers (all very successful). At the front of the room were tables with many empty seats. I was not comfortable in the cheap seats so before it began I moved to sit at the table. One of the speakers approached me and said (no) "I'm sorry these are for VIP's only" (read paid more for the ticket). I returned to my seat.

On a break I approached one of the speakers that I knew fairly well and explained to him that if these speakers were sales experts they sure that show it me with that exchange. I told him a better statement would have been "I'm sorry these seats are reserved". Still no but much better than insinuating someone was not worthy of placing their ass in that seat.

I was invited to lunch with all of speakers. All of them recognized immediately the poor choice of words but acknowledged that was how they always addressed it. They don't anymore. Now those seats are reserved.