My friend Regena recently took her new Hyundai to the dealership for an oil change. The wait time was a bit more than she had been told but she’s pretty laid back so it wasn’t’ a big deal. What WAS a big deal was what happened next…
When the service was complete she went up to pay, in a hurry to get to her next appointment, and they can’t find her keys and ask her to wait while they go find them.
So she waits….and she waits. And she waits for 10 more minutes. They can’t find them. As she stands at the service advisors counter waiting, they tell her they are still looking.
Twenty minutes have now passed. Still no keys and now she certainly will be late to her next appointment, but still she waits, with a not so happy look on her face.
“We’re still looking”. They tell her.
Thirty minutes later they finally find the keys and bring them so she can leave.
And then it happened….
“Be sure to give us all tens on the survey that you receive from Hyundai. We are big on our service scores…” The service advisor tells her.
No apology, no refund on service, no discount for the next service. Nothing. Just business as usual – as if this was common practice.
This begs the question: What is more important, the sizzle? Or the steak?
Psychologically, most people don’t want to be the one that gets someone else in trouble, especially at work. So people actually do score their experience higher than it actually was, especially when ASKED to. After all, the advisor could have been very nice. Also, was HE the one who actually lost the key? Who knows.
Is it more important for the manufacturer to see great scores from the surveys even though the customer had a less than desired experience? Does the – perceived – sizzle of great survey scores outweigh the steak of customers having a great overall experience?
Of course not. Never.
For those that dare to think it does, so be it. However for those, I’d be willing to bet that increasing service retention is a constant source of frustration and challenge.
The result of this mentality is disastrous. It means dealerships can receive awards for customer service while actual retention numbers go down.
The manufacturer would be happy, while you’re simultaneously losing an amount of in-brand customers that even dwarfs the number of solicitation phone calls you get in a day!
Bottom line:
Independent repair facilities are already trying to steal your customers… and it’s working. Let’s empower our people to step it up a notch and make it more difficult for them to leave.
The first step is treating customers like VIP’s. The second step is reclaiming the ones who have left with unique marketing and great offers.
Step one is within your power. If you need help with the second part, you’ll love what we have to offer. See it in action here.