In today’s competitive marketplace we must place our focus on the most important part of the business which is our customer. In my position travel is a must and exposes me to the differences companies place on the customer. The airlines are a prime example when hot meals have been replaced with a small bag of pretzels and a cup of soda. Seats are crammed together with long lines to be processed into the aircraft. Customers complain of lost luggage and poor service as prices soar into the future with delays commonplace. One of the hotel chains I prefer has fresh baked cookies in the lobby and when you get to the room has a bottle of water and a snack for you. After a long day of travel the little things mean so much to the added comfort of the room. In fact dealerships must get creative and place a solid effort to provide the maximum customer experience on every visit.

Many fast food places provide children play areas with games to entertain providing parents a break while they eat. Their point is not the added cost of the games it is to grow the food business. The aroma of fresh bakes cookies along side a coffee pot brings comfort to customers. What can you do to provide your customers with a positive experience? Start by spending some time in your customer’s waiting area. Look at the furniture and see if it is worn and torn looking like delivered from the war zone. Are the magazines older then a few months and torn showing age? Why not put into place a monthly replacement program changing the magazines with current issues? Could your customers access the internet and work while waiting for their vehicle to be repaired? Children should be able to play in your waiting area while the family car is being repaired. You could provide yogurt and fruit cups along with cold bottled water and fresh baked cookies for a small monthly investment for your customer’s satisfaction. Many of you have provided at least one of these items over the years and stopped them because of the cost or effort needed. Your employees might have been eating more then your customers. The wisdom of providing the customer with items to improve their experience is the cost of gaining new ones. Advertising low cost oil changes in the newspaper will exceed the investment required to provide all of the items mentioned. We think nothing spending thousands of dollars on mailers with very little time or money making the customer comfortable. 

Scheduling is an art and must be managed properly to insure proper customer care. The best practice is to have all advisors use a separate common number for all waiters. This will not overbook waiters at the same time and evenly distribute them throughout the day. Properly scheduling will reduce wasted time pulling Technicians off the job they are working on to put out the waiter fire of the moment. The minimum Technician time lost is fifteen minutes each and every time this happens. When scheduling properly the advisor must prepare for the visit. If it is an open recall parts should be reserved for this customer on the day of the visit. Never waist the customer’s time to show up for an appointment and tell them the parts are ordered for the recall and we will call when they arrive. The time must be taken to confirm the dealership is ready to provide what is needed to improve the experience. Check to see if a ride is needed and offer to pick the vehicle up and drop it off at their workplace. Appointments should be checked for the following day with reminder calls given to every customer. If special ordered parts are involved a few minutes should be taken to confirm they are present. If a Technician diagnosed the concern advisors should check to be sure they will be working at the time of the appointment.

Quality checks should be a standard that requires a specific number every day. Washing the car will impress the customer along with filling washer fluid on every vehicle that enters the shop. It will always be better to find a Technicians dirty footprint on the carpet before the customer sees it. On a recent repair made on my car I found a mint with a card from the owner thanking me for the visit.

Dealerships are facing many challenges today and must retain fixed operation customers. The body shop is often over looked on customer care and must be aggressive to grow Technician hours sold. The best practice is to offer free car rentals during the repair along with a free detail worth $150. The manager should quality check the vehicle and deliver the car back to the customer equal to a new car delivery. The body shop manager must make regular visits to local insurance staffs informing them of added equipment and special services offered. Some dealerships are now offering continuing education credits for insurance staffs to tie in closer to their licensing needs. Don’t forget the cookies or tissues with the dealerships name on a business card to share with insurance company staffs. After all they have a long day also and will desire to send you work.

You might be thinking the cost of installing all on these items would be excessive at a time most dealerships are struggling. Consider the unknown cost of losing the customer and the thousands spent in advertising and mailers every month then make intelligent choices about your customer’s experience. It might be time to adjust some advertising funding to improve your customer’s visit.

Rob Gehring is the President of Fixed Performance 

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