My car had a manufacturer recall recently so without hesitation I telephoned my local dealership to arrange to drop it off.
As you would expect from a high-end dealership, I was welcomed with not just an offer of a coffee, but the choice of various types of coffee that even Costa would have been proud to stock let alone serve.
As all I wanted to do was to drop my car off to have a fault fixed, perhaps I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be receptive to the numerous ‘other’ service which this dealership could provide. These services ranged from having the air condition gas topped up to checking the tyres in advance of the winter weather, from having a mechanic, sorry technician, check the whole car for potential faults with an itemised computer generated print out the reward to allow this – as the list of services went on for so long I found extremely grateful for my ‘free’ caffeine fix.
Soon after I arrived back at the office I received the now obligitory email asking for my feedback regarding the booking in process; without wishing to offend the Service technician or the dealership I ticked the boxes and emailed it back.
Mid afternoon my mobile phone pinged with a text message advising me that my car has been moved from the car park to the garage, sorry technician service area, and that updates will follow – is this a good service or just over kill?
Late afternoon the Service Technician telephoned to advise me that my vehicle had been checked and that the offending part has been replaced – brilliant ‘I’ll be down within 20 minutes’ I replied.
Having seen my waxed and polished chariot parked in the service area car park somehow I got the feeling that just collecting the keys and signing the disclaimer for the completed work would take longer than I had thought or anticipated. How true I was….
The Service Technician was soon ‘replaced’ by a smartly dressed, logo wearing, clip board carrying Sales Executive.
He advised me how pleased he was that there wasn’t any problem with my German Chariot and asked if I have ever thought about ‘updating’ my vehicle.
Imagine my shock when he advised that he could arrange the test drive of any vehicle at the dealership whilst asking if my vehicle was a company car or private, and if I have a preference of diesel or the new generation of electric vehicles – it was clear that this guy was well trained as the revenue generator for the dealership and also clear that I wasn’t leaving the dealership without a signature on an order form or some form of commitment at the very least.
Whilst reading this ramble so far I am sure that you are thinking what has this got to with contact centres let alone customer service?
My point is yes I get it that in today’s accountant driven world sales or revenue is king but is at the cost of customer service?
Customer service in my book is expecting more than the ‘norm’ from people or companies without requesting it – anticipating the world and grateful and appreciative that I received it – it is as simple as that.
Yes it is true that I received good, no outstanding service from this dealership, but it was my experience that the customer service was almost tainted by the hard sell from the shiny suited revenue earner.
Perhaps its a fine balance between customer service and sales, perhaps it’s just me.
Anyway I must sign off as there is an email from the dealership requesting my feedback……
The Publisher
