In an effort to understand the customer's position in your market, I'd like you to ask your entire team to write down their answers to this question:

"Who is our competition?"

The answers you receive are likely to resemble a list of competing brands, or competing auto service garages, or parts suppliers. There isn't a wrong answer to the question, but this exercise really sets the stage for you to take your team to the next level of service through understanding.

In the field of customer service, you have to be willing to broaden your team's understanding of who they are competing with and I would list them like this:

-Nordstrom
-Dunkin Donuts
-Southwest Airlines
-Wal-Mart Stores
-Inn and Out Burger
-Wegman’s
-Target Stores
-Hilton Family of Hotels (Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, etc.)
-Trader Joe’s

The reason behind listing the non-automotive competitors is simple and consists of two parts:

1. Each of these companies competes for the consumer's expendable income.  Identifying this, you should also be able to see that you too are vying for the customer's expendable income (accessories, additions, sales, etc).

2. You are, willing or not, in direct competition with them for the customer's level of expectation benchmark.

Every time a consumer receives service (from anyone) he/she is going to measure the experience internally against his or her level of expectation.  What also happens during a customer service process is that the benchmark the customer compares your service to, can be raised to a new level if exceptional service is received.  This will effectively "raise the bar" for any future service regardless of who is providing it.

A simple test of this is to search your memory for some exceptional service that you?ve received. I'm sure that you've thought, "Gosh, if I could only get service like this everywhere!"  That was a moment in time when your personal benchmark was raised.

When was the last time you evaluated your service department by comparing it to Nordstrom? As customer expectations increase, you'll need to be able to address those expectations with a higher level of reality or you'll be left behind. Find out more about how to improve your delivery of services by contacting us or by signing up today as a student with Auto University.