Your Dealership’s Customers are going to Hate You Unless You Do This

by | Aug 16, 2022 | Customer Experience

I walked into one of the big box stores a while ago to buy a product that they had on sale.  When I approached the product on the shelf, the sale price was different than advertised, and there were all sorts of other hidden conditions in order to get the (slightly higher than advertised) sale price.  I asked a store employee about it and was met with a really rude reaction.  The employee told me that he didn’t get paid enough to care about my concerns.  

Contrast that with the time that I called customer support about being overcharged for a service and the customer support agent told me not to worry and that he’ll take care of it.  He then told me that as an employee, they can give away value at their discretion and that he would be adding some extras to my account.  

Sometimes it is crystal clear that the employee we are dealing with loves or hates their job.  Unfortunately, too many people hate their jobs.  They work for the weekend and put in the “minimum” effort when on the clock.  Like Jesse Eisenberg’s “attention” in the Social Network.  

Your customers want to buy and service their cars from people who love their jobs.  It makes such a difference in the consumer experience, the feeling the customer leaves with, and the positive or negative word of mouth, including reviews and posts on social media.  

There are a lot of tools and tricks out there to deliver a better consumer experience but none of them will do a great job if your employees don’t love their job first.  

As a consultant (and a consumer), I walk into many car dealerships and it is super obvious from the first interaction with a staff member, how they feel about their job.  The dealerships with a happy staff have a contagious energy that pumps you up, while some other dealerships can be quite draining.  

The thing is, to get your dealership staff to love their job, you’ve got to give them many reasons to love it.  You need to give them something exciting to show up for.  They need to feel like an integral part of the team.  They need to know that you have their back and want them to succeed and grow.  

One of the key ingredients to a successful business is having employees that actually want to be there

Gary Vaynerchuk

Scrolling through LinkedIn this morning, I saw a post by Chris Baker at the Betten Baker Automotive Group that inspired me to write this.  I don’t know Chris and I have not worked with him but if his dealerships are anything like this post, I’d want to.

Consumer Experience is the future, and your employees are the foundation of your dealership’s consumer experience.  Do whatever it takes to make your employees love what they do.

Over the next while, I will be blogging about how you can dominate your consumer experience at every level.

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