If you’re at all interested in delivering the best possible customer experience, you should at the minimum be a student of what an outstanding customer experience looks and feels like.
I'm speaking directly to you and every team member in your dealership. This is for you — regardless of whether you’re the owner, a regional/district manager, a store manager, a service manager, a sales advisor, a technician or the chief errand runner.
You all play a significant part in the customer experience and you should demand that your portion — as well as your teammates’ portions — of that end product more than meet expectations.
Your customers fuel your future. You can’t drive forward without them and they can’t drive forward without you. The experience they walk away with should be better than what they and you expect.
We're an industry of amazing professionals and our communities rely on us to invest in our profession so that they can feel extremely confident about their investment in our hands.
If you’ve read my previous columns, you’ve read messages about breaking your habits. Well, let's take it another step. Let's assume you're a mature business with a very clear organizational structure, job descriptions, roles and responsibilities — as well as systems and processes — in place.
You're a mature business, but there's always an edge to be gained. Consider asking each customer to outline, in writing, their expectations for the service they'll be paying for. After the experience, ask them for feedback. That's a good first step.
If you'd like to see a rock-solid, effective way of how this plays out, watch as many episodes of “Kitchen Nightmares,” starring chef Gordon Ramsay, as possible. Chef Ramsay’s approach is 150% right.
He, as a professional, walks into a restaurant and solicits the customer's experience. Sure, they know he's going to do this and that's fine. But it’s a vital part of his process. And it should be a crucial part of yours.
Here's another method. Take your personal vehicle to your best competitor in town. Better yet, find a tire dealership that's within a two to three-hour drive of your store. Select the best of the best. While there, pay attention to every detail of the customer experience they provide. Next, have a good friend take that list, visit your dealership and compare.
What’s next? Follow Chef Ramsay’s example. He knows what he knows and then he digs to find the underlying causes. That's the magic. He then applies his knowledge to the underlying causes and suggests changes immediately. (Sure, this is all made for TV, but it's also relatable and applicable. Consider Chef Ramsay to be an unpaid consultant, included in your streaming subscription.)
Start there, then invest in your business to fill in the gaps. To be clear, if you're reading this you should already be investing in what it takes to separate your customer experience from the rest. And remember that if this experience meets your own expectations, chances are it will meet your customers’ expectations, as well.
