Customer service from a technician's perspective

Nov. 22, 2016
Do what's right because it's the right thing to do.

I’ve worked for a variety of shops over the course of my career as a technician, covering everything from small family-owned shops, to national chains and OEM dealerships. In the majority of cases, I had little or no interaction with the customers themselves. That responsibility was left to the boss or the front counter staff.

But consider for a moment our role as technicians in that customer experience. Yes, the shop may have a beautiful customer lounge offering free Wi-Fi and a cappuccino machine, your service advisors may be consummate professionals when dealing with the customers on the phone and in person, and the work area may be so clean you’d think it was a NASA lab but if we don’t fulfill the customers’ expectations when actually fixing the concern they came in for, they won’t stay and they certainly won’t recommend us to their circle of friends.

How we perform as technicians will have a large impact on the shop’s reputation and the customer’s satisfaction.

So what is our role in providing exceptional customer service?

Meeting expectations

As technicians, we must meet several expectations. Some are set by the customer and others are set by our employer.

One obvious expectation that immediately comes to mind is to treat the customer’s vehicle with the utmost respect. We don’t do burnouts with it, we exercise care with it and we return it in the same, or better, shape than we received it. I’m not saying you need to do a full detail on every car you work on, but don’t leave grease and oil stains on the body or interior either.

The next expectation should be equally obvious. Fix it right the first time. Yes, this is a well-worn phrase but unfortunately doesn’t happen with the frequency it should and is worth expanding on. It is important that we, even as techs, understand that customer perception is everything. It’s not an uncommon scene to see a customer return with the MIL light back on after the tech has properly repaired the initial concern. The reasons for the light to come back may be several, with some justifiable and some not, but in the end – all the customer knows is that they had to come back.

It’s never a good thing when a warning light comes on right after the customer picks up their car. Most can be averted with knowledge and communication.

A third is to complete a vehicle inspection on every car we take in. As professionals, we owe our customers the full benefit of our training and experience. We need to do all we can to advise them on the condition of their car, especially when it comes to needs that impact the overall safety of its occupants.

Meeting these expectations may take more time than you’re spending now on your customer’s car. Failing to meet these expectations, though, can carry more serious consequences than the loss of a few extra minutes.

Let’s look more closely at all three.

First, do no harm

Your shop should have seat protectors, placemats and steering wheel covers available to protect the interior of the cars you service. Your entire team can deliver a stellar performance throughout the entire process only to lose it all when the customer’s first impression of the repair is made by the greasy fingerprints on the steering wheel or door handle.

Keeping the customer’s car clean is one reason I started wearing latex or nitrile gloves years ago. It also made life more pleasing for my wife when I wasn’t coming home with hands that looked like they’d been curing in motor oil. Having greasy hands, split skin and dirty nails may be considered a “badge of courage” by some, but I’m not one of them. Gloves have actually saved my hands on occasion, ripping nitrile rather than flesh when I was reaching into a tight spot.

The car may not be expensive or exotic, but it’s still special to its owner. Treat it with respect.

Working under the hood poses its own concerns. Wear a mechanic’s belt, the kind that covers the buckle, so you don’t accidentally scratch the paint as you lean into the engine compartment. Be careful with fender covers if you go that route. Make sure you know what is on the backside of them before you lay them in place.

If you know you’ll be disconnecting the battery while working on the car, make sure you take the time to protect any presets the customer has on the car. Helpful information includes any antitheft codes for the radio or navigation modules, or how to access them, before you lock the customer out of his entertainment options. Additional presets you should careful to observe include seat and steering wheel positions, mirror placements, and others you may not be initially aware of especially if the model of car is new to you.

Fix it right the first time

It’s a simple enough phrase and one you’ve heard hundreds of times. But what does it mean?

In my opinion, “fix it right the first time” means that every effort is made to properly diagnose the concern and then, if needed, replace only the component(s) necessary to correct the concern. It means verifying that the repair made does indeed fix the problem by either retesting the affected system or allowing the control module to verify the repair.

That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Often, we fail at our attempt to fix it right the first time due to lack of information and knowledge. After all, we don’t know what we don’t know. That’s where training and continuous education comes into play. And it’s not just to keep up on the changing technologies the OEMs come up with - it’s just as important to hone our mastery of the fundamentals. Talk to any technician that specializes in mobile diagnostics and they’ll tell you that the majority of problems they are called in to diagnose are simple faults any technician with a solid grasp of the basics should have been able to find with little problem.

Another common reason techs fail at getting it right the first time, it seems, is apathy. There are those among us who favor the “parts cannon” technique to troubleshooting; throwing parts at the problem until the car is fixed or the customer quits bringing it back. This is wrong on so many different levels, especially when the customer is continuously charged for each visit and repair attempt. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens often enough to blacken the reputation of us all.

Sometimes the failure is one of perception. You can successfully repair your customer’s concern, you can attest to the fact that the repair was verified, but if you don’t know that the repair you made was covering up another fault, you’ll still end up with a comeback and a dissatisfied customer. Let me give you an example of what I mean. You diagnose and repair a problem with the upstream oxygen sensor, clear the code and verify the repair. A week later, the customer returns with the MIL on again, upset that they just paid you good money to turn that son-of-a-gun off. Only now, the code stored is a catalytic converter efficiency code – an internal test the ECM would have suspended while the oxygen sensor code was active. Had you explained that the onboard system still had other tests to run and that additional problems may occur, the comeback wouldn’t be a complaint, would it?

The shop may be impressive, but it won’t mean a thing if we don’t live up to expectations.

The vehicle inspection

There are two ways you can look at the need to perform a vehicle inspection on every car you service. One, it’s a way to make more money by finding stuff to upsell to the customer or two, it is a way to provide the customer a valued appraisal of the overall condition of their car.

I prefer the latter for a few good reasons of my own.

First, I treat every customer like I would want my wife (mom, girlfriend, significant other) treated. I would appreciate a professional that let me know that my left front tire had a nail in it or the accessory belt was worn to the point of near failure rather than wait for my wife to discover it on her own – usually during rush hour traffic on the interstate.

Second, I want to especially make sure the vehicle I’m working on is safe for its occupants. I don’t want to be the one who failed to warn a customer of an impending problem that could cause an accident, and read about the injuries or death in the paper the next day. And I don’t want to have to defend myself in a lawsuit brought by the family attorney either.

We don’t know what we don’t know. That’s why continuous education is a must.

Even if there is no official form, make it a habit of providing your customer the full benefit of your training and experience. Check every system on the car that is even remotely tied to safety and document everything you find on the repair order. Just like the doctor that can recommend a course of treatment, though, it is still up to the “patient” to decide on what repairs to make. If they choose to ignore your safety-related recommendations, you’ll still be able to sleep at night knowing you tried to warn them. And you’ll have the records showing you did your part should that attorney try to hold you accountable. That’s called “CYA.”

The ethics of a professional technician

It’s easy to think of what we do as just a job and I’ve witnessed way too many instances where repairs were performed to less than professional standards or not even performed at all – but still charged to the customer (and by customer, I mean to include the retail and the warranty work we do). That’s something I have never done nor could I ever conceive of doing. The difference is in the ethical code you choose to follow.

Consider, first, that the work we perform can have a direct impact on the safety of the vehicle that has been entrusted to us. Do you want to be responsible for the lives of the occupants? If you turn a wrench on it, you’ve assumed that responsibility whether you like it or not. Now consider that you can also be held accountable for work you don’t perform. For example, you are performing a routine oil change for Joe Autoowner and notice that the left front tire is worn below minimums – but you don’t document it or tell them about it. Later that week, the tire fails and the resultant blowout leads to an accident that cripples Joe for life. The family sues you and your boss for professional negligence, and may just have a case. Heck, they may have a case even if you could prove you didn’t see it to begin with because you could be considered negligent for NOT looking!

You can’t “fix it right the first time” without a solid diagnostic process and the training to put it into practice.

But guarding yourself against frivolous lawsuits is not the point I’m trying to make here. What I want you to think about is what it means to be a professional in our field. People, more so now than ever before, come to us with concerns about their cars and rely on our implied expertise to resolve those concerns. They also depend on us to let them know when something is not right with their car. Whether they decide to follow my recommendations is not my concern. It is still my responsibility, though, to provide each and every customer with the full benefit of my training and experience.

And it’s yours, too.

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