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Customer satisfaction is not a score or a slogan, its a commitment, a way of doing business. |
 Are you committed?
Some dealerships have high CSI ratings and some have low, but when you ask either those with very high or even the very low how they achieved it and they will more than likely not have an answer for you. This shouldn't be of great shock to anyone, the reality is, every dealership, every manager and in fact virtually every employee believes that they provide a high level of customer satisfaction. Those with high customer satisfaction scores are confident that everything they do is truly customer satisfaction oriented, but when asked to pinpoint what exactly, they are without words. Those with very low customer satisfaction scores feel that the survey itself is flawed or if they could just convince all of those "happy" customers to return their surveys, the score would be fine.
So, how do you increase your customer satisfaction rating?
First, you must realize, that you cannot simply "buy" it. Sending cookies or balloons wont change a customers perceptions when they receive the survey from the manufacturer. Providing a "complimentary" lube, oil and filter or a "free" tank of gas, if the customer brings their survey in to the dealership to "ensure it gets mailed" may raise your score on the manufacturers ranking, but you still have not achieved customer satisfaction, you have just found a "loophole" so to speak to raise your actual score. True customer satisfaction is not found on a survey, or listed on a ranking at all. A satisfied customer will do business with you again in the future and they will highly recommend that their friends, family and co-workers do business with you as well. What are you doing in your dealership to ensure that every single customer experiences a level of service that they would want to highly recommend you to their friends, family and co-workers? Here's some test questions / thought starters that will determine your commitment:
Of the vehicles you sell:
- How many as a count, are repeat customers that purchased from you before?Obviously the higher this number is, the better. Be careful not to calculate a percentage, unless of course, you factor the percentage only as it compares to the total number of the sales you are measuring it against.
- How many as a count, are referrals from customer who purchased from you before? Again, the higher the better.
- How many aren't repeat?
- Why have they chosen to do business with you this time?
- How many have been referred by people who didn't buy from you previously?
- What "cultivation" programs do you have in place to ensure Repeat and Referral Business? i.e.. Bird Dogs
Of the Vehicles you service:
- How many bought their vehicle from you ?
- How many bought their vehicle elsewhere?
- Why have they chosen to do business with you now?
- Do you treat customers that bought vehicles elsewhere as second class to the ones who did buy from you?
- What "cultivation" programs do you have in place to ensure Repeat and Referral Business in your service department? i.e. maintenance reminder program / bird dogs / new owner or existing owner clinics / new owner or existing owner appreciation days/nights
- Are you rewarded for extremely low policy and/or goodwill accounts?
- Should you be?
You spend a lot of money on advertising to earn new customers. If we invested even a small percentage of that amount in ensuring that our existing client base was so "satisfied" that they wouldn't dream of doing business elsewhere, would you be better off long term? This is merely the tip of the iceberg on this subject, I encourage everyone to make comments with great ideas, as well as success stories. |
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For more information or should you have any questions please contact:
shawn.ryder@autouniversity.com© 2008 Auto University - A Division of Ted Ings Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved 
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