Who are we? This opens up an interesting discussion within Parts and Service departments. Well who are we really? In discussions with Parts and Service Managers in consulting assignments and in training sessions I often ask “what are we here for” as a start of a segment of customer service and satisfaction. It has always surprised me when there is a struggle to truly enunciate what it is that we do. I normally try and get groups to consider reducing owning and operating costs as the primary responsibility and protecting the residual value of the machine as their secondary responsibility. But when I ask the questions relating to their brand the confused looks really tell a story.

I understand the importance of the equipment lines that we represent and the support that we receive from suppliers in product development, parts supplies, transportation logistics, training, tooling, design of facilities, and much, much more. But we also have a “brand” ourselves in the marketplace.

It is the primary reason that customers keep coming back to us. It is the caring dedicated people that work in Parts and Service and all the other departments. It is the investment that the owners have made in facilities and vehicles and tooling and inventories. It is the sales and market coverage approaches that you use in satisfying your customers. It is the credit facility that we provide to our customers, the financing options that we present to facilitate the opportunities for our customers to develop their businesses. It is many things.

But do we all appreciate this entire non product, or labor service offerings that the dealership provides in the market?

At your next parts or service training session ask everyone to make a list of all the things that the dealer does for the customer over and above the deliver of a part or the providing a labor hour. It is a great exercise.

When we take the time to think about it we can come up with a very significant list. When we are going about the rigors of our jobs it is not so obvious. It is like anything else we take many things for granted. We get caught up in the daily routine. So let’s start a bit of a list here. Let’s start with something to kick off the discussion at your next training session. And don’t forget we should have these sessions at least eight times a year, remember? 
 
Here are some items to give you a start on your list.

1) 24/7 hours of service

Is this something we think about often? Is it something we let our customers know about? Does someone take a laptop computer home that they can use to connect to the dealer computer to determine price and availability if a customer requests this information?

2) A credit facility

Do you provide open accounts for your customers? Many of you do. Compare this to your local car dealerships. Can you pick up your car or truck from the dealer without paying for the repairs or maintenance? Or do you have the dealer send you bill for the parts that you need?

3) Convenient store locations

How many stores do you have? How does that compare to the competition? Can your customers get to your stores within a matter of a couple of hours or less?

4) Certified factory trained technicians.

Your dealership spends a lot of money each year in providing technical training to your mechanics. The dealership offers parts training, the technical details on the products you sell. How well does your competition know the machinery that you sell and support compared to your personnel?

5) A return policy for parts ordered in error

It costs a lot of money to take back parts that were ordered in error. How many of your competitors offer this facility to their customers?

There are a whole host of things that the dealership does for the customers in their marketplace. This is a start for you. It is a great exercise and I offer something to each of you. Send me your list at the email address at the end of this column and I will provide a consolidated list in a future column.

Your dealer brand is critical. Everyone who touches a customer must be aware of all of the things we do in the marketplace for our customers. It should be at the tip of their tongues. It is not a big thing but recognizing everything that we do provides each employee with a sense of pride and confidence. It develops an aura of confidence and competence in each of them. This creates employee satisfaction and loyalty which shows itself to your customers as service value. And this is the critical part of the service profit chain that develops customer loyalty and satisfaction which is critical. 

Are you protecting your brand? If you don’t who will?