Customers keep telling us but I am not sure how well we are listening. They tell us what they want and need. They tell us what they expect. They are very clear about it.

In service they want price, responsiveness, convenience and quality. In parts they want availability and almost everything else pales beside it. So why don’t we give them what they want?

Some of you will think that you already satisfy these needs. Well perhaps that is true and if it is I congratulate you. But 44% of the service customers choose another supplier than the OEM dealers every five years and it is in the same range for Parts.

Well here are some fundamental tests for you to take.

Each day in Service we have some functions that we MUST perform.

1. Inspect every machine and component before starting any work
2. Contacting the customer and providing a fixed price for labor and a completion date
3. Closing and invoicing all work orders that are completed today
4. Calling each customer who had a job completed within the past three to five days

Pretty simple isn’t it? But there is a catch. You have to do this EVERY day. Yes that is right each of the above basic tasks need to be performed each and every day.

Each day in Parts we have some functions that we MUST perform.

1. Process all parts orders received to day up to and including shipping the order
2. Receive and ship each and every emergency order received today
3. Find every part that we do not have available today
4. Receive and put in location all stock orders received today

Pretty simple isn’t it? But there is a catch. You have to do this EVERY day. Yes that is right each of the above basic tasks need to be performed each and every day.

Some of you have been through this with me at your dealership. It truly is simple yet we don’t have a check list to verify where we stand at the end of each day.

Do you know how many days each week you succeed at the above list of basics? No don’t take it for granted that it is done. Verify it! It is easy to lull ourselves into a false sense of security regarding our performance. We get into such routines. But do yourself a favor, and your customers a favor. Check it out.

If there is a day that goes by and you haven’t found every single part that the customers and service mechanics wanted let the boss know. Have the boss call the customer and let them know we are still working on it. Imagine the shock that the customer would have if the “boss” called saying that I understand that such and so part number was short yesterday. Our team is working on it and I wanted you to know that I am aware of the problem too. We will get back to you as soon as we find it. Wouldn’t that be a shock? What do you suppose the customer would think? I agree – the customer would think that we cared. Imagine that.

How about from a service perspective if the customer received a completion date for all repair work before the job was started? And go further how about if we actually met the completion date? What do you suppose would be the response? Yes, it is the same thing as above. We care and I will one more thing – we are good at what it is that we do.

The world of customer service is a constant challenge. It is one where the customer has expectations of what they want to receive and then perceptions of how they actually received the goods or services involved. Our customers tell us what they want....it isn’t a matter of us having to guess what it is that they want. So then we have to deal with the perception that the customer has about how we did.

In service I believe that we can answer this question by calling the customer and asking them.

1. Did we do what we said we were going to do?
2. Did we do it within the price and time that we said we were going to do it?
3. Is the machine working properly now?

In parts it is even easier...did we find everything that you were looking for today?

If we do our job the customer will reward us with their business and then it is simply a matter of saying thank you. If we don’t do our job we will continue down the slippery slope of declining market position. The choice is yours.