Service Providers

Customer service that rocks: Building customer loyalty during and after sales

Mark Mooney Blog 8-12If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will. ~ Unknown

Rockanomics 101 says: Growth and profitability are easier to attain by keeping the customers you have and adding to, rather than continually trying to replace, the ones you are losing. It also says: Exceed what one would expect!

How would like your customers standing at your door saying, “Encore! Encore!” because your dealership’s performance is nothing short of spectacular? You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder. You want to stay on the charts with your customers — now and many years down the road.

Building long-lasting relationships with your clients goes hand-in-hand with sustainable profitability and growth. Letting them know you really care in today’s retail world is paramount, and here’s the chart topper: 86 percent of consumers will pay more if they receive exceptional customer service. But on the flip side, about the same percentage will look elsewhere if they get poor service and their expectations are not met.

If you want to keep rockin’ and rollin’ and keep those customers coming back, tell them that they are number one on your hit parade. Letting them truly know how you feel is more than emails, more than the auto responses, more than all the preprogrammed electronic media you can throw at them. Everyone does this, it’s not enough, nor does it exceed what one would expect.

Everyone expects email contact today. What they don’t expect is that personal call, a pat on the back for their support, or that acknowledgement, “I really want to thank you and you’re really appreciated.” That’s not to say that emailing or auto response replies aren’t important; they are and we live in that world. But, the personal contact, the sincerity that is in real human conversation means more to building customer loyalty than one might imagine.

How would a customer feel if, after purchasing something in your parts department, he or she were to get a call (and you’d better be getting contact information) from the sales associate that helped them just thanking them, reinforcing that you really do care. If I got a call like that I’d be thinking, “I’m doing business with people who care — and if they care about me, I care about them.” The calls need not be long, nor should they be, and every department in your dealership should be doing this. We need to get back to the personal thank you business again. Let’s tell our customers that they truly are number one on the charts. 

Mark Mooney is director, retail performance for Pied Piper Management Company LLC, a Monterey, Calif., company that works with motor vehicle manufacturers and dealers to maximize performance of dealerships. One of Pied Piper’s most popular services for the powersports industry is Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) sales mystery shopping to help turn more motorcycle shoppers into motorcycle buyers.

Contact: mmooney@piedpipermc.com
Website: www.piedpiperpsi.com 

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