Articles

Every aspect of your dealership involves marketing, from the look of the parts counter to how the telephone system works; from the cleanliness and layout of the service department to how your field trucks look. Even the style of your service sales reps is part of your marketing equation.

So why is marketing such a misunderstood act?

We must always start with a customer focus. What do they want? What do they need? What can we supply? And what can’t we supply? We must always show a concern for the customer. We must try to delight customers, to “wow” them. This is the mission we must get across to everyone who serves customers. If you don’t serve your customers, someone else will.

Satisfactory customer service isn’t easy to pull off. It can be difficult to make customer service the No. 1 priority companywide. But each employee must perform it – and not part time. Customer service is the very core of marketing. How customers get served must be consistent across all product and service offerings, not some of the time, but all of the time.

We have a contract with our customers to do our best at all times. Our customers’ needs must become our needs. We must apply ourselves with the same vigor and interest as if their needs were ours. That’s fairly easy to visualize, isn’t it?

We provide parts and labor services to support the equipment that the customer owns and/or operates. We must provide a level of service that reflects a basic respect for our customers as individuals and their needs as consumers. We already know, intuitively and factually, that the customer is everything. Without the customer, we have nothing. They determine our success or failure. As Bob Farrell, the founder of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlors and an authority on customer service, says in his video “I’ll Be Back,” our customers buy our next car, our next house – and they own our business.

Our success or failure is based on giving customers what they want when they want it. And if we provide this service in a cheerful and helpful manner, the customer will come back.

To have everyone provide the consistent level of service that is required by our customers, everyone must be on the same page regarding what needs to be done. There needs to be a clear statement of vision and mission. But these statements have to be more than nice words printed on a poster. They have to motivate your people to perform.

The book Built to Last talks about BHAGs: big, hairy, audacious goals. We will not go home until we have sourced every part we are short. We will not have any rework. We will work in an accident-free environment. These are statements employees can rally behind and support.

So what is it that turns off the parts and service employees? Is it the work environment? Is it the system within which they work? Is it the management structure? Is it a lack of a clear statement about what they’re really doing?

In many cases it’s all of the above. AED’s recently published Product Support Handbook provides clear performance standards for each job type, enabling both employee and employer to know the job’s responsibilities and evaluate how well they’re being performed. It clears up any misunderstandings. It allows for consistent levels of performance by the talented people working in your parts and service departments.

When that happens, customers notice. And that is the core of service marketing. It is not about products or services. It’s about the service itself.

Marketing is nothing but a popularity contest. And in many cases it’s the last – not the first – impression that’s the most important.

You’re only as good as your last impression. Work to make it a good one.