"What a sled!" said the used car manager as he walked into the sales manager’s office…
Fortunately, the customer whose deal he was working happened to be on a demonstration drive with the salesperson. But there were plenty of other customers who heard the comment, including service and parts customers who were in the waiting area. You’ve heard the words and probably used them. They describe customers or situations in a way that promotes negative thoughts or worse case scenarios.These words include:
Roach
Pig
Tank
Credit Criminal
Lay Down and many others
The challenge with using these words isn’t just that customers will overhear them. The bigger issue is that your people will hear them and begin to use them more often. That should be a major concern to any manager because words affect attitudes and attitudes affect behavior. The worst thing you could have is a salesperson or service advisor getting ready to meet their next customer with their mind full of negative thoughts. Allowing this type of language can take your people completely off their best game. Choose instead to use language that promotes positive and hopeful thoughts. For example, a roach becomes a customer with credit challenges. And that sounds like something you have an opportunity to fix. Be committed to avoiding negative language and coach your team to focus on the positive. Using positive words will promote positive attitudes and those attitudes will bring out the best actions from your people and your customers.
Fortunately, the customer whose deal he was working happened to be on a demonstration drive with the salesperson. But there were plenty of other customers who heard the comment, including service and parts customers who were in the waiting area. You’ve heard the words and probably used them. They describe customers or situations in a way that promotes negative thoughts or worse case scenarios.These words include:
