DO: Train your staff to be pleasant. Humans desire interaction with other humans. We all want to be understood. This is something the internet cannot compete with.
DON’ T: Mistreat your employees. You can always tell how employees are treated by how they regard their customers. Treat your employees exceptionally well and they will do the same for your customers.
DO: Thank your customers for their business. Give them a thank you card signed by the servicing employee. Then ask for an online review if they loved the service. Ask the customer to let you know if they were not satisfied. Provide them the name and email of the department manager for feedback.
DON’ T: Focus on how much money you can make off a customer. Any person can sense this a mile away and will turn around and leave. When you focus on solving a customer’ s problem, the money will follow organically.
Make it Easy to Buy Customers should not have to work at spending their money in your dealership. Because of the internet, the paying process needs to be as painless as possible.
DO: Accept as many forms of payment possible. PayPal, Apple Pay and other internet methods has made the buying process fast and easy. Your shop must compete with that.
DON’ T: Do not place restrictions or refuse some credit cards because the merchant fees may be higher than others. This poses too big of an inconvenience in today’ s world. If a merchant fee is causing you hardship, you have much bigger fundamental problems to address.
DO: Provide a hassle-free way of doing business. Make it policy to allow hassle-free exchanges and refunds.
DON’ T: Tell your customer that they are out of luck.
DO: Always go to bat for the customer. When a customer returns with a defective product after the warranty period has expired, offer to help them. Offer to send the part back for them. Offer a discount on a new replacement. Offer a different product at a discount. No matter what the manufacturer decides, you will remain the hero.
Experience Will Always Trump Low Price Your customers will research for countless hours on the internet before they narrow down what they want to buy, and most likely they will still be somewhat apprehensive when buying from a site. Customers really do want to buy from a brick and mortar business such as yours. They will expect you to mitigate or remove the risk and anxiety of making a purchase online.
Customers want to participate in a great buying experience because, when it’ s done correctly, it can be a lot of fun for everyone! Isn’ t that the way it’ s supposed to be? No customer will withstand a horrible customer service experience for the sake of a low price and then walk out with a smile on their face. Follow these steps to create“ customers with irrational loyalty” because a customer with irrational loyalty will never think of spending their money anywhere else but your dealership. For more information, please go to www. markpodeyn. com.
22 NATDA Magazine www. natda. org