I drove into the first and was greeted immediately on the drive by a service advisor who politely and professionally asked how he could help me. After telling him about my car problem he suggested I wait inside and he would have a technician look at it as quickly as possible. When I went into the service lounge I was surprised to find at least ten other customers waiting and thought I was in for a long wait.
A couple of other business men were sitting in chairs working on laptops. A large flat screen television on the wall broadcasted the morning news and a group of a half-dozen customers were listening to a gentleman sharing a story about off-road trucking. He was dressed in casual business attire while wearing a sport coat and I noticed he was holding a coffee pot. He stopped his story and offered to fill someone’s cup then asked me if he could pour me a cup. I thought this is was an extremely personable customer being a nice guy while we all waited. I listened to the discussion for about five minutes before my service advisor approached me and offered to provide shuttle service if I was pressed for time to get to work. He told me another shuttle would be leaving in a half-hour and the tech should have had an opportunity to look at my car by then.
So far my customer experience had been great. It was obvious the company had a process in place to provide great customer service and a pleasant wait experience for their customers.
My second experience was entirely different and memorable as well. While out of town on business a colleague and I drove into the service department of a dealership and were not greeted by anyone. We left our car on the service drive and went inside. A woman behind the counter was sitting in a chair reading her newspaper while smoking a cigarette. She looked up and said, “What?” That was her greeting. I asked for a service advisor and she pointed toward a door. When I opened it I saw several techs standing around and not one single vehicle being worked on. Obviously, many other potential customers made the same decision I made. A few minutes later we were driving to another dealership.
When thinking about customer service I always think of these two contrasting experiences. My experience with the second is one of my worst initial interactions with a business and their approach to customer service had obviously impacted their revenue.
So, how did my visit to the first dealership end? My service advisor was back to me within the half-hour he promised and the repair took less than an hour. I had a couple cups of coffee, met a person who lived near me and was told about his great experiences with the dealership, and did accept a breakfast roll from the guy telling the off-road trucking story. Turned out he was the dealership’s Service Manager.
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