Your Customers’ Needs

Our business is a highly technical industry and it is getting more so every day. I come from an era when the introduction of the PCV valve (circa 1961 in California – of course; 1964 for the rest of the country) was met with great skepticism by most working technicians because they felt the valves were somehow limiting performance and no good would come of this “new” idea that was complicating their job. “Hot-rodders” were figuring out ways to bypass them and many rank and file technicians were doing the same. Now look where we are and how far we have come. The necessity for today’s technicians to be highly trained and constantly updating their education cannot be understated. The good news is that many of today’s automotive business have figured out that a trained tech is a valuable tech. You are reading this so you are part of one of those companies. Congratulations!

From here we‘re going to address an often overlooked area of knowledge you need to possess; the customer service area. In my previous “Understanding Customer Service” article I pointed out the need for understanding that you had two types of customers to concern yourself with; the internal and the external. Today I want to address that external customer and what their needs are. You may be surprised to learn that it goes beyond just getting whatever they brought their car in for successfully and timely repaired.

We already know that customer did not want to be in your place today. In fact, there might be an argument that they view being in your shop the same way they would think about going to their dentist’s office. You think that’s too far? Well, outside of a routine oil change, both places are going to cost money the customer was probably not counting on spending today. For the customer, there’s pain involved with both. The one advantage you have over the dentist is that you’re not going to inflict the physical pain.

Now the big question comes. What do I mean when I said that their needs go beyond the actual repair they came in for? Obviously they need to be treated courteously and with the respect due them seeing as how they are really the ones allowing your company to pay your salary. We need to go beyond the obvious. Let’s begin.

Once the customer is in your shop or their car is on the hook, you have a limited range of possibilities to ease their “pain”. What’s broke is broke. What’s worn is worn. What’s dangerous is dangerous. You’re the “doctor” and you can only prescribe the treatment. (We’ll address specific sales techniques in later Customer Service Corner articles.)

I’m going where many of us are out of our comfort zone and it’s going to take a little explanation. First, let me ask you this question. How many of you have had a project to do at home and went off to the hardware store, came home, started the job and were able to complete it without having to go back to the store (or go borrow something from your neighbor)? …. That’s what I thought. Next question. How many of you, after discovering you were missing something, didn’t immediately think some choice words about the person that helped you? Or maybe swore at yourself for not thinking the project through and making a list. Either way, the result is the same.  Your project required extra steps, time, aggravation and probably money. NOW, let’s keep that thought in your mind and get you back on the job.

If you are a Service Writer or the person responsible for the intake of vehicles into your shop, one of your responsibilities is to collect all the information the customer gives you about the reason they are there and communicate them in some manner, hopefully written and detailed, to the techs that will be charged with the repair. If you are the tech receiving the vehicle and work order, you look at it and say “OK, water pump; source the part, “X” hours of bay time, get my tools ready.” You get the job done, sign off on the ticket and hand it back over to the Service Writer. OK. Next job please. We’re busy.

Yes, you’re keeping the work flow going OK, but you’re really not taking care of the customer the way you would have wanted it to be if the shoe were on the other foot. Remember your “home” project? In that case the missing item might have been a paint brush or a plumbing fitting. That situation is fixable with a quick run back to the store (or your neighbor).  In this case there is greater consequence.

Most people drive their cars to and from work, school, pick up the kids or go on vacation. They have placed their very important means of transportation in your hands for a certain amount of time. You have an obligation to take the few moments necessary to take a look around the vehicle on the lift in front of you and see if there are any signs of impending “trouble” that your customer might need to know about. Anything that concerns your well trained eye needs to be reported up the line or directly to the customer if that is your area of responsibility. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the work has to get done today. If you have discovered something that looks like it could pose a serious problem for the customer, when do you think they would want to know about it? Now, or three weeks from now, when they’re halfway home on a one hour commute in bumper to bumper traffic?

I’m going to hope that most shops today have some sort of preventative maintenance program in place. If you’re one of them; Great! The area where I find the process breaks down is the reluctance for the tech to put themselves in a position where they feel they are “selling” something to the customer. We have all had the bad taste of “pushy” salespeople annoying us when we are out shopping and we automatically resist having to be the cause of someone else feeling that way. You need to put that feeling out of your mind. What your training has done is given you the opportunity to alert your customer to something that may cause them some serious inconvenience or injury somewhere in the not too distant future. You are doing them a BIG favor by alerting them to the issue. Wouldn’t you want someone to do that for you?

© Bill Rosenberg

BillR Services, LLC

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Understanding Customer Service

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that if you are reading this you are probably involved in the automotive repair business and the owner, manager or boss of some nature has “suggested” that this should be required reading. How am I doing so far? …. 

OK. That’s what I thought. I’m going to make another prediction and that is that you’re probably already a pretty good tech and you know your stuff. Right about now, you’re probably starting to ask yourself “How does he know all that?” I’m going to give you an answer you might not be expecting.

You’re a pretty valuable person. Not only to yourself and your family but to where you work and that’s what we’re going to address here. Let’s look at it this way. There are two sides to having a job. In its simplest sense, your company has an expectation of receiving value for the dollars they are paying you and you have an expectation of being paid for the time. However, nothing is ever that simple. It is a complicated relationship but I am going to give you the answer that gets us going. The reason I “know” you’re a good tech is because your company has made the decision to help round out your experience which increases your worth, no matter where you go, by enrolling you in classes and “asking” that you read this column.

They wouldn’t do that if they thought you weren’t worth it. They wouldn’t waste their time or money on you if you couldn’t do the job. You are not employed by a charitable institution. They are in business to make a profit for themselves and in order to do that, they need technicians who can earn that profit for them.  If you were not that person, you wouldn’t be there. …. How’s that? …. So read on!  

As we get into the topic of sales and service I would like to create two distinctions in the “sales” category and then illustrate how it flows seamlessly into the “customer service” category.

First sales: Most of us think about sales as taking care of the customer that drives in off the street. For the most part you would be correct. That would be the “external” customer. But there is another customer you need to consider first and that is who I call the “internal” customer.  Not to get too deep here, but briefly, the internal customer is everyone else you work with. Unless you are the sole proprietor of a business, you have internal customers.

Here’s an example. If you are in a large shop with many techs and service writers all working in their own “areas”, you all have to work together as a team. That means that the person handing you the work order or transmitting it to you on a tablet has to get everything right on that form. All the details, all the notes and comments the customer made when they brought in the vehicle need to be there if you’re going to have a chance at doing your job correctly.  Then the person you hand off your finished job to, if it’s the tire guys, the detail people or back to the service writer, they need you to have done your job correctly and completely. You are the “customer” of the person that gives you the job and the person you give it to is your customer. If you are happy with the information on the work order and the person who receives your work to carry on the flow is happy with what they got from you, then everyone is happy, including the “external” customer we weren’t even talking about yet.  …. You may want to read that again.

So now let’s talk about the “external” customer. Here again, nothing is simple. We are all customers when we go out and consume anything. It could be buying gas, clothes, dinner, movies or taking a vacation. We are consuming all the time. What you are going to find the more you read my writings is that in order to understand what is required to take care of that external customer and keep them happy and coming back, you are going to have to rely on your own experiences as a consumer to guide you in delivering that higher level of customer service. In other words, treat the customer like you expect to be treated if the situation was reversed.  

I’m going to ask you to step outside your job and think about how you felt during your last purchase at the …. fill in the blank …. .  Were you happy or were you muttering to yourself?  Go on, you can do it. Was your mind not thinking about what a great person that was who took care of you or how lousy it was when you had to hunt for someone to help you and when you finally found them they gave you the wrong advice? It’s not hard. You get these lessons all the time. NOW, all you have to do is turn your mind back into your business and relate it to how you treat your customers (internal & external). What would their opinion be of their last contact with you or your work? …. I’m just sayin’. 

The one thing I will not accept is making excuses that one particular business is different from another when it comes to customer service. That you can’t relate what went on at the dry cleaners or the doctor’s office to the automotive business. Yes, the nature of the business can definitely be different but I can guaranty that when you break it down to the most basic fundamental, it will all come down to the opinions we form about customer service. It is my contention that there is only one way to pursue it.  I hope you will join me in these monthly articles as we explore proper sales practices and quality customer service.

© Bill Rosenberg

BillR Services, LLC

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