The New Car Roundtable
 I
have the unique position of having seen the automobile business from
both sides…the dealer and the consumer.
Before I owned my own dealership I had worked for
several new car dealers. I worked for an Oldsmobile dealer back in the
1960s. This dealer had nerves of steel and he invited 20 of his
customers to an evening dinner and roundtable discussion.
I was privileged to attend. The discussion was
frank but friendly and our Olds owners vented their complaints in a most
constructive way. It was more than we expected to find that there were a
lot of complementary statements thrown on the table.
We took the information that we developed from this
group and immediately sent out invitations to 20 more. In my mind, this
was the smartest thing a car dealer ever did.
We had complaints that the service department not
listening and delivering the car back with the same problem it came in
with.
We instituted a mandatory test drive by the
service manager and not the mechanic.
There were complaints about the sales department.
They ask, “Why can’t we just go in and pick out a car and get a bottom
price?”
We toned down our system and after a modest
amount of negotiating would orally give a bottom price as the shopper
was leaving.
They thought that accessories were too
expensive…especially floor mats.
We cut from a 45% markup to 35% and began
carrying an after market brand that cost much less.
One customer picked his car up at the service
department only to find grease on the carpet. Another found grease on
the steering wheel.
We may have been among the first to make
mandatory the placement of a paper carpet protector, steering wheel
cover, seat protector. We also painted the service department floor a
light gray color that would show grease and dirt. We had the new floor
cleaned every night.
This valuable input improved our customer
satisfaction index and we could measure the usefulness of our changes
from the subsequent Roundtables that occurred each month.
One very good idea we had was to isolate irate and
shouting customers. Before it would cause a lot of trouble as the
confrontations escalated in front of third-party ears.
Our new approach was to invite the irate customer
into a private office. Then, our service advisor or service manager
would take out a yellow legal pad and as the customer talked would take
notes and ask questions. As the note taking and question asking
proceeded, the customer became calm.
The employee taking notes would ask at the end, “Is
that everything now, that I need to look into?” If the customer said
yes, the service manager would start at the top and read the complaints
aloud to the customer and as more frivolous items were mentioned, the
customer would acknowledge that some of that was not important.
Every care was taken to eliminate all of the
complaints and report to the customer later what steps had been taken.
When you look at your new car dealer
from both sides of the fence, you may find that there is a better way
for you to deal with him and get what you want. |
