I just got back from the 8th Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando and what an exciting time.
Many people stared at the button I was wearing, asking you to “Ask Me about How To Improve Performance”. No, it does not have anything to do with a little blue pill. But for those who asked, and even those who just looked, it did get people focusing on why we all did attend the conference. We are all looking for ways to improve our own performance as well as our businesses.
There were many great breakout sessions on management training, internet department, BDC teams, Internet Reputation Management, Inventory and many other great topics and attendance was fantastic.
I was one of the speakers and my session, on the last day had attendance of 80+ people. Quite an accomplishment for the conference to have its attendees knowing they can find value even on the last day.
For those of you who attended, I want to thank you for your attention and warm reception. I was stopped in the hallway later in the day and told how motivational the session was. He remarked that he took away things he could do right away to improve Customer Service and please send him the slides.
I appreciated the compliment and told the person, I hope you carry that over into action when you get back. Follow the steps I outlined and watch your dealership improve their performance.
Side note: I have placed the session slides in a PDF on my website
For those of you who could not attend the session or even the conference, I wanted to highlight some of the areas we covered.
I started the session by asking the room what business they were in. After a few responses, one person pegged the answer. The Customer business. I have written on this topic before but if you do not think of your business as a customer business, you will miss things that impact your customer retention.
If you focus just on the interaction of the sale, you will never focus on the experience the customer has around the sale. From the moment they contact your business and all through the process, there are things that you have to focus on or else they could derail that sale and customer retention .
I then asked a question, “What companies do you think of when I say Excellent Customer Service”? People answered, LL Bean, Disney and Ritz Carlton. All 3 great answers but I wondered aloud why none of them mentioned their own companies?
If I asked you that question, would you have said your own company? If you can honestly answer “yes” then Bravo!!. If not, then there is work to do.
I offered them a tip to perform each day. STOP what you are doing for 30 seconds and look around. in retail, try to look at what you see as if you were a customer. If you are a call center, try to look at it as your boss would. Are you happy with what you see? if not, fix it. Just think if all of your staff did this every day how your business would look and feel.
Now training your team has to be in the forefront of your daily activities and we discussed a simple 5 step process that can help you quickly train your team. I have included a link to a post I had describing the process at the end of the article.
At the end of the day, you have to set the level of customer service you want your business to have. You have to document the process, you have to train your team and most importantly you have to relentlessly follow up on the progress to keep that level where you want it.
There is a reason why those 3 companies were mentioned when I asked about excellent customer service. It is because they never stop holding their people accountable to the level of service they expect.
If you want your customers to think of your business that way, it can happen. It just takes everyone to believe in what you are doing and leadership must set the example.
So if your competition begins to pull away, it isn’t because they have a better product or better price. It is because they are creating an environment where the customer feels they are being taken care of not just in the immediate moment, but for the long term. The experience surrounding their purchase was so pleasing, they keep coming back and they are talking about it to others.
Looking forward to keeping in touch with all my new friends and contacts.
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