Service Providers

Customer service that rocks

Mark Mooney Blog 8-12“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” — Walt Disney

In today’s retail world, it is extremely difficult to set yourself apart from the rest with products and pricing. There are too many similarities and others selling the same. But the one place you can set yourself apart is your customer service.

What does customer service mean to you? If you were to look up the definition of the term “customer service,” Wikipedia’s definition is “The provision of service to customers before, during and after the purchase.” I think most of us would buy that. It also says, “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction — that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.”

What do you think? It all sounds good, doesn’t it? Service before and after, meeting expectations. Is all this going on in your dealership on a continual basis? If it is, will it be enough to define and set you all apart from the rest? How about exceeding expectations? You know — above and beyond, without compromise, customer service that just ROCKS!

People want to do business with folks they like. Take personal relationships. When developed and nurtured, they can become long lasting and rewarding. But if you don’t pay attention to the relationship and do the things that will sustain it, there will be a break-up, or the relationship won’t get started in the first place.

Same thing in the retail world: Show them you care, and they’ll care about doing business with you. Give them the impression that you don’t care, and there are always other places to go. There are others that want the business and will do what it takes to get it and keep it. You don’t want folks walking out your doors humming, “I can’t get no satisfaction …”

Where does great customer service start? At the top, the leadership in the dealership. You train and educate your team so they can accomplish their daily tasks in ways that enrich both the business and the individual team member. If they don’t know how to do their job properly, the job may be done poorly and lead to expectations not being met by all parties. Same thing with customer service.

If you don’t provide training or education programs in your dealership on how a customer should be treated, one that focuses on giving your clients an experience that exceeds expectations, then it’s probably not happening.  You can be good or you can go above and beyond, do what it takes, without compromise: Make the commitment to customer service that rocks!

Mark Mooney is director, retail performance for Pied Piper Management Company LLC, a Monterey, Calif., company that works with motor vehicle manufacturers and dealers to maximize performance of dealerships. One of Pied Piper’s most popular services for the powersports industry is Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) sales mystery shopping to help turn more motorcycle shoppers into motorcycle buyers.

Contact: mmooney@piedpipermc.com
Website: www.piedpiperpsi.com 

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2 Comments

  1. I work for Ride West BMW, and almost all of my tasks are customer events, customer rides, and customer service. During all of these activities I am being paid and yet not selling a product, at least directly. At the end of the day, like everything else in a dealership, customer service costs money, To do it well and consistently costs more money. If you invest in customer service as an expense, you can perhaps think through the problem more clearly. At least in theory, my efforts bring more sales and profit to the dealership than the cost of my employment. This is tough to track, because some of the sales activity I create cannot be traced back to me, but at the end of the day it is either worth the risk to the business or it is not. I expect to see more people doing what I do in the future.

  2. Same as David we do a lot of events ,rides, sponsorships and such and it is hard to pinpoint what works and what does not. The thing that gets me is the number of people I run into at the events who did not know we even existed so my idea is that if I get one new customer to come in and get taken care of by us, then it is worth it!

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