Businesses are having a harder time staying viable and profitable this year.
Business failures continue to mount, and consumers generally have less money to spend on those that remain.
Why, then, would a business provide anything other excellence in its contacts with prospects and customers?
Here is a cautionary tale from an experience I had this month. The failures have easy fixes and can be implemented quickly.
Does your business have any similar failures that are driving customers away?
Here’s the scenario: it is time for me to have service done on my car. There were several things I needed done, and I decided to continue having the brand dealership do the service.
The events and failures
- I went to the dealer website to use the online service scheduling capability.
- My car is older, and the mileage I need to enter doesn’t show up on the mileage menu.
- It was hard to figure out how to schedule for multiple items.
- Some things I wanted done weren’t on the menu.
- I called my “personal” service representative to make an appointment since I couldn’t seem to do so online.
- The first time, my call went to voice mail. I left a voice mail with an overview of what I wanted done. I also asked for a call back to confirm ability to perform the services during the pandemic and schedule an appointment.
- I waited for around a week without a call back. I wasn’t in a hurry and allowed some time to pass in case the representative was on vacation or otherwise out of the office and hadn’t updated their voice mail greeting to let customers know.
- I called again, and the call went to voice mail again. I left another message.
- After about another week, I tried again. Now about 2 weeks have elapsed. I was concerned that maybe the representative was sick with COVID-19 or had been let go due to reductions in the dealers’ business. This time, I called the main service number and asked if the representative was in. The answer was “yes.” I was transferred and again got voice mail. I left a message again.
- Later that day, right before 6 p.m., I received a call back from the representative.
- The representative’s message indicated he had received my message, and would be leaving at 6 p.m.
- Unfortunately, I wasn’t near my phone for about 10 minutes and missed the call.
- I called back immediately, a few minutes after 6 p.m. in hopes of catching him, and got voice mail. I left another voice mail saying I would be available first thing the next morning onward for a call back.
- The following morning I did not receive a call back by mid-morning, so I called. And got voice mail. And left another message.
- The representative called back a bit later and we finally connected, setting the service date and listing all the things I wanted done.
- On the appointed day, I arrived at the dealer service check-in.
- My representative was with another customer, so his service partner came out to check me in and reduce my wait. Great.
- Apparently nothing had been entered into the service system about what I wanted done, as had been done in the past, as there was no prepared service ticket waiting for the partner to reference. So the partner asked me what I wanted done, and we went back over the list again. Not great.
- Once the service was set up, I went to pick up the loaner car in another part of the dealership. After waiting a bit (there was no one in the loaner department when I arrived), a loaner representative arrived. We went through the paperwork, and I went out to the car.
- At the car, I put my things in the back seat. The car looked wasn’t that clean inside, compared to past loaners I had, and there was dirt on the back seat as well.
- I got in the car and started it. It was almost out of fuel, and the low fuel level light was on … not normal procedure.
- I went back to the loaner department, and no one was there again.
- A car service person was walking by and asked if there was a problem. He said no fuel wasn’t right; he would take the car and get it fueled, then bring it back (good initiative). In the meantime, he asked me to wait and tell the loaner representative what had happened. When the representative returned, I did so. And waited for the car to be returned with fuel.
- When the car came back after 15-20 minutes, the service person who had taken it to be fueled said other problems had come up and the car couldn’t go out.
- We walked back to the loaner department. We went through another paperwork cycle for a different loaner.
- We walked out to the newly assigned loaner, and the representative personally checked the fuel level, which was sufficient. He then left as I got ready to go.
- This car also wasn’t that clean, including some ashes from smoking in the non-smoking car. I didn’t smell any evidence, so I decided to continue on. I opened a back door to put my things in … and there were someone else’s packages on the back floor board.
- I took the packages over to the loaner department and waited. When the representative was free, I explained the situation, handed him the packages, and asked that a note had been made about the ashes as I didn’t want to pay a cleaning fee for someone else.
Does that sound like a business that says they’re wholly passionate about pursuing perfection?
Some easy fixes
- In the COVID era, how can you make it easier for prospects to do business with you online?
- How can you set up your processes and systems so that a customer wanting to do business has minimal wait time? For instance, what happened with my service request entry?
- What happens if someone is out or unavailable? In my example, few people will continue to call and give you that many chances for their business.
- Most importantly, does everyone take initiative? In the loaner example, one person did. However, there were probably several missed opportunities along the way … How about the person who first took the cars from where the customer left them? The person who (should) have been cleaning the cars and preparing it for the next customer? The person who moved the cars from the staging area to where a customer would pick it up? All opportunities to be observant and make sure the car was ready for the next customer, or notice that the prior person’s possessions were still in the car.
How to check your business
- Hire for attitude as well as aptitude. People in customer service positions should have some interest in and motivation for customer service. That makes the “service” part much easier … and service people will be more likely to go the “extra mile” like the service person who took the initiative to put gas in the loaner rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
- Train well. Employees should know exactly what makes a customer experience great and how their role plays a part.
- Allow employees latitude in making the customer experience great. The more autonomy an employee has to take initiative, the more they can do in the moment to delight the customer.
- Survey in person. Customers don’t always fill out surveys after the fact, whether the surveys are calls, emails, or by other means. Why not ask in person at the end of the contact cycle? This reinforces the relationship and emphasizes – differently from other businesses – that you mean it when you say you want to provide superior service. And that doesn’t mean an automated call a day (or however long) later …
- Periodically use “mystery shoppers” to check on service.
- Monitor social media and company ratings. In the social media age, people who don’t respond to your surveys may still air any problems on the Internet.
How is your business doing?
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