Are You Giving Lip Service To Your Phone Service?
The telephone is the most important piece of equipment in your business. Did you know that on average, people spend one year out of their lives on the phone? That's 8,760 hours! Are you way above average? I thought so.
Many small business owners can fondly recall the moment the office phone rang for the very first time. Are there days now when answering the phone is a blessed challenge? Here are some customer service tips to make phone time more productive, profitable and fun!
First Impressions
Customer service is everything we do - from the way we answer the phone to thanking the customer for doing business with us. What kind of image is your shop projecting through that important first telephone impression?"Joe's Auto." Many businesses "handle" calls this way. Get 'em in - get 'em off. The customer may ask, "Is this Joe's Auto?" That's because to the caller it sounds like "Jozotto." One company intentionally named itself "Check Network" so their people would have to slow down when answering the phone. Preface your greeting with "good morning," "good afternoon" or "thanks for calling." This gives callers' brains a chance to connect to where they're calling.
Should you identify yourself to the caller, or let them wonder, "Who is this?" Think about this question for five seconds and you'll have the correct answer. Just as authors or artists add their signature to their work, so does a true customer service professional. If your goal is to establish immediate rapport with your customer, always identify who you are so the customer can call you by name. "Thanks for calling Joe's Auto! This is Tom." "Hi, Tom, this is Susie Swell. Can I make an appointment to bring my car in?"
Is saying your name enough? It is for some. How good do you want to be? Do you want to immediately project to the caller an image of a trained, caring and professional staff? Then add an offer to help. "Thanks for calling Joe's Auto! This is Tom. How can I help you?" You may think,"That's too much. It's too long." Have your staff try adding the help offer to their greetings for one week. You'll never go back to answering your phones with just your business name again. One of my clients, after enhancing their telephone greeting, had a long-time customer ask, "When did your people start being so friendly?"
The attention you pay to greeting customers on the telephone should extend to attentiveness when customers walk in your door. When the customer comes through your front door, do your eyes immediately rise to acknowledge the customer whether you are on the phone or not? Customers should be acknowledged within 10 seconds of entering your lobby.
How are you greeting the customer? Are any of your people asking, "Are you here to pick up or drop off?" This dubious greeting seems to be prolific in the auto repair industry. Instruct everyone in your organization to acknowledge customers in the waiting area. I'm talking about technicians, shuttle drivers and the bookkeeper. This can be as simple as saying "Hi" or "Are you being helped?"
Recently, while visiting an automotive service facility on business, I was greeted and directed to the reception area where the staff promptly forgot about me. One person asking, "Are you being helped?" would have made me feel important rather than ignored. After 20 minutes I returned to the counter to remind them I was still there. They were embarrassed. They just got busy. Poll your people at your next shop meeting. Ask how many consider themselves in a sales position for your business. Then remind them that they all have their wages paid by customers and should acknowledge customers with a smile and a greeting.
Convey Caring
When a customer calls to schedule a repair, do you ever say, "We are quite busy this week, but we could do it some time next week"? Instead try this, "Sure! We can do that. We have an opening for you next Wednesday at 9 a.m." With this approach, the customer does find out you are busy, which is a good indication others are satisfied with your work. More importantly, this also conveys to customers that you have created an opening just for them, which will make them want to honor the appointment. This is the way a doctor's office schedules an appointment for you. They tell you what day and what time they can see you.Sending handwritten notes is a sure way to let customers know you care about them. And don't just send a note on rare occasions. Keep them in a handy place where you or other staff members will make regular use of them. One of my auto repair clients is generating 40 thank you notes a week. Yes, I said a week. This owner leads by example. He and his three front line people each write one or two thank you notes every day. These notes are written to new customers, people who have larger tickets and even regular customers. By the end of the week, each person has written 10 thank you cards. Note writing by employees develops a special awareness and appreciation for your customers.
Are your technicians signing their name to a thank you note and placing it on the front seat of the car? "What?" you say. "I don't want that customer calling to ask the technician about their repairs." Why not? First of all, they won't. Trust me. I know from first-hand experience. People like to do business with people they know. The next time that customer calls for an appointment and asks if "Scott" can work on their car again, you've got them. When your business becomes "my garage or my body shop" to customers, they are emotionally connected to you. This is the way to keep customers for life.
The wife of a collision repair shop owner loads her car from time to time with boxes of warm doughnuts and delivers them to insurance agents' offices along with an information sheet about their business and the fact that they have 20 loaner cars for customers. She delivers Valentine cookies in February. Another auto repair facility delivers doughnuts with its business card taped to the lid of the box to the teachers' break room at a nearby school. Their shop has a high percentage of teachers from the school as customers. Direct mail, or doughnuts? Which do you think makes a customer feel important? Which would get your attention?
Remember, customer service is all about the little things. It's not just about fixing it right the first time, doing the work for the price quoted and getting the work done by the time promised. These are the basic requirements of doing business. Customer service is the sum of all the little things you do that make customers feel important.
Customer service is also the no-cost little things we do. Picture this. The president's motorcade is on its way to the airport. Right in front of your business, the presidential limousine stalls. Suddenly, Secret Service men jump out of cars in front and back of the presidential limo and are running to your place of business. Can you help? Wow! What an opportunity! All work ceases. We are going to fix the presidential limo! We do it! We receive a personal handshake from the president. Do we charge the president? Of course not! Is this a repeat customer? Of course not.
Now ask yourself how you treat customers who bring in an unscheduled repair. Do you shake their hands? Do you smile the minute they come through the door, or does your voice light up when they call? If you treated all customers with the same attention and thoughtfulness you would extend to the president or some other celebrity who might happen to walk through your doors, just think of the business you would generate. Increase the effort you and your people make toward customer service, in both face-to-face and telephone communication. Your future depends on it.
Margie Seyfer is president of Impact Presentations, an educational and consulting firm in Wheat Ridge, Colo. Seyfer is also an instructor with the Automotive Service Association Management Institute (ASAMI). Impact Presentations may be reached at (303) 233-0836.
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AutoInc. Magazine ®, Vol. XLIV No. 4, April 1996