Creating an exceptional experience for our customers, both external and internal, is our goal at all three of our shops. Our internal customers are our teammates and employees; our external customers are the people who need the services we offer. I have talked in previous columns on how we live by a set of core company values and they can be summed up by our mission: “Care for people and deliver excellence.,” That is where exceptional customer service begins and ends. Yes, there is a lot in between to ensure this experience, nevertheless if you do not care about people or want to deliver excellence, in my opinion, you will never consistently deliver an exceptional repair experience. There are three factors we focus on to develop an exceptional experience for our customers.
A good place to start the journey of improving the customer experience is to identify all your potential customer touchpoints, keeping the customer in mind for each one and then creating scripts and guides to ensure a consistent, exceptional experience for all your customers.
Customer touchpoints
The first touchpoint we have with our customers varies. Some of our clients go through our website or another online avenue to request estimates and appointments, some are referred through insurance direct repair programs and others simply walk in to start the repair process. It is important that you identify and understand all the potential touchpoints you have with your customers. Once you have them identified, create talking points for each situation and most importantly, role play. Creating these scripts is best done with your customer service team; giving everyone on the team input. It is much better to have their involvement in this process. As the customer service team trains through role playing, it will allow them to work through the awkwardness. The more and more we practice making the talking points and scripts our own for each of these touchpoints, the more confident we become.
Listening To Your Painters |
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Being profitable in the paint shop starts with listening to your painters. See how real shops changed things in their paint areas and saw fast results in this whitepaper. |
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Communication plan
Always over communicate and exceed expectations. Again, we want to ensure a focus on internal and external customers. No one likes to feel as if they are left in the dark, unclear about the process. It could be from external customers, “They are not even working on my car,” or from internal customers, “They don't care about the stress I’m under and what is on my plate.” Think about your personal relationships for a moment. When you are not communicating with someone, do you think the best or worst of them? Human nature always assumes the worst.
Communication is a building block for trust. Therefore, it is critical to set up a clear and consistent communication plan for every single customer. To communicate effectively, you must learn to be a good listener. Listening is the primary way we build trust, develop relationships and understand the other person’s perspective. Every customer brings a different set of concerns with them to the repair process. For example, one customer may use her vehicle for a work truck; therefore, her business is affected during the repair. Another may not use his vehicle for work but is concerned about the paint color match. It is important to ask the customer at the beginning of the process what concerns them most about the repair process and then communicate their concerns with the entire team as well as educate the customer about what to expect throughout the repair process.
Inform the customer when they should expect to hear from you and then do what you say. Even more than that, do more than you say. Always aim to exceed their expectations. If you simply do what you say, you are not necessarily creating a customer for life; however, if you do more than expected, demonstrate sincere concern for the customer and guide them throughout the process, you will gain a customer for life.
My colleague uses an analogy related to a fast food restaurant service. You go through a drive-thru for lunch, order a burger with no onions; when you arrive back to the office and there are no onions; who do you tell? Now, go through that same drive-thru, order a burger without onions, but arrive back to the office only to find a burger full of onions, who do you tell? The entire office. Always exceed expectations.
The delivery
Make the Delivery an event. Showcase the work you completed. This is the moment to solidify the trust that you have built with the customer. Do not take any funds from the customer until you have reviewed the repairs with them, answered all their questions and tested out the functions on the vehicle. Make sure the customer knows that you have nothing to hide, that you are proud of the work and be enthusiastic. That enthusiasm creates positive energy and what a great way to conclude the repair process.
