We all know the number one complaint from customers in the car business is: "The salesperson told me this... ", but do you know what the second one is? Sales staff, or management, not returning calls or emails to unhappy clients. Let's face it. Nobody likes to deal with heat, but ignoring it only makes it worse.
The reality of being in the car business is that you have to deal with customer service issues that cost you money. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much. Generally speaking, it's money well spent as it's all about goodwill. Spending money to satisfy customers can be an investment in future business. But you know what really sucks, when money is wasted because someone just dropped the ball. It’s happened to all of us, a customer has gotten to the point where they are so pissed off, no amount of money will ever create goodwill. It’s even worse when it could have easily been avoided in the first place. The number one reason for this, the unreturned call or email to a client with an issue.
The failure to respond promptly and professionally to a client when they raise an issue with their purchase is a common problem in our business. Salespeople like to sell cars and make money, but when the heat comes, often it's the "Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away" method. And we all know how that works out.
The failure to respond promptly and professionally to a client when they raise an issue with their purchase is a common problem in our business.
I recall a few years back receiving a letter, a registered letter, those are great, that demanded $950 for a key that a customer bought at another dealer because we failed to respond to their complaint. Not only did they take the time to write a novel on our Google review page, now they were threatening to sue for $950 because some idiot didn’t return a phone call. They purchased a used car from us a few weeks earlier and claimed they were promised a second key. In fact, on the bill of sale it said, “Two sets of keys.” Pretty clear. The letter said they had contacted the salesperson several times, left messages at the store, and never received a response. Does this sound familiar at all?
In most circumstances a second key would not be the end of the world. We would contact a mobile service that reprograms used keys. Usually costs a couple of hundred bucks depending on the make and model of the car. Either way, it’s much less than buying new from the manufacturer.
This client got to the point, having called the dealership a few times, that they decided to go buy the key and fob themselves and ask us for the money. Much more money than we would have spent if we had just dealt with it. Wasted money. Pissed off customer. Bad Google review. The whole package. Even if we had to buy the key and fob from the dealer, and spent the $950, the real cost is the unhappy customer and the one star review.
The problem wasn’t really that we didn’t get the key in the first place. The problem was that we didn’t react when they complained. I guarantee, if you look back on all your complaints or online reviews that are negative, most will include some verbiage that involves a failure on the dealer’s part to respond promptly or correctly to the complaint. As soon as a customer thinks that you don’t care enough to respond, after they’ve put their trust in you, get ready for a ton of abuse, ‘cause it’s coming.
As soon as a customer thinks that you don’t care enough to respond, after they’ve put their trust in you, get ready for a ton of abuse.
The question is, how long are you going to let someone's inability to return a call, or perhaps someone's lack of caring about customer satisfaction continue to cost the dealership money in real terms and in lost business due to poor reviews? A customer should not have to call or email a salesperson multiple times to get a response. Leave messages and hope for a call back. A customer should be able to call once, and speak with anyone, and get action. To do that you need to empower, and hold accountable, your entire staff for dealing with customer issues when they arise.
Train your staff on how to handle the customer complaint. Listen, document, and take action. It's as straightforward as documenting the issue in an email to the salesperson, copying management to create accountability, and copying the client to show them that you took action. All in one call and one email with the first person to take the call. Simple. Everyone is accountable.
We all know you have to throw money at a problem sometimes, but at least make sure you get the benefit of the investment in the form of goodwill instead of spending money on someone who will never be happy because some salesperson or manager couldn't return a call. Empower everyone and then hold everyone accountable. Without customers none of us have a job. Good luck and good selling.