| 3rd July 2023
CUSTOMER DELIGHT AND WHY WE MUST ALWAYS DELIVER IT – A Team Member Communication & Update For Quarter 3
Dear Team Members,
We hope that you’ve enjoyed the Summer so far, despite the warm weather being rather slow to arrive in April and May.
As we enter the second half of the year, and into the important Quarter 3 trading period (July to September), it’s worth us all focusing our minds on four areas in particular; customer delight (which we’ll focus on here), and also margin retention, cost control and marketing.
CUSTOMER DELIGHT AND WHY WE MUST ALWAYS DELIVER IT
At a recent conference, a story was told about a loyal Land Rover customer who had purchased several vehicles from a particular dealership over a period of around 20 years. You could therefore describe this person as a “loyal customer” – loyal to the business and loyal to the brand. Here’s what happened…
When this customer decided to visit the dealership again to discuss purchasing another Land Rover, he began speaking to a Sales Executive who very quickly sent things down a different path.
When the customer said that he wanted to purchase a new Land Rover, and that he’d had purchased several Land Rovers from the business over many years, he was greeted with such indifference and lack of gratefulness that it angered him immensely. His years of loyalty as a customer to the dealership was being tested to the limit, allied to the fact he was wanting to make another significant purchase which also appeared unappeciated, so guess what happened next….
Having endured this particular Sales Executive’s attitude, lack of empathy and engagement, he left the dealership not to return, and instead headed to a rival brand and purchased something different – he was happy with how he was looked after at the competitor dealership and has not returned to the Land Rover business since.
In short, one very poor customer interaction had destroyed 20 years of customer loyalty. Current statistics suggest that a poor customer experience can result in 1 out of 3 customers not returning to that business, and possibly more; it’s something that no business can afford to risk.
As Team Members of the Platinum Group, it makes total sense for ourselves to deliver customer delight each and every time even if there was no additional influences, but of course there are, and many more than there’s ever been before.
Firstly, there’s the manufacturers’ we represent – each one of them is obsessed with customer satisfaction and seek to survey customers that visit us for Sales and Aftersales. Though we can debate the pros and cons of their methods of measuring this, we have to get this right every time, with the consequences for poor scores being reputational to our business and the brand, and financial in terms of all important bonus not earned, or clawed back.
Secondly, there’s the internet. In this world of online ratings across multiple digital platforms, and the ability to spread bad news at the click of a mouse, poor customer service is “out there” in the public domain all over the world-wide web.
In order to unite everyone around the ongoing importance of this, this quote is an excellent way of summing up what is required of all of us;
“Customer service should not be a department. It should be the entire company.”
What this means, is that the entire workforce must see their work in the service of this aim; even if you’re not serving the customer yourself, your role is to be assisting someone who is.
Here’s an example of our own version of doing something right that came in recently to Platinum Vauxhall in Trowbridge (well done to our Team there) from a customer who had been served poorly elsewhere (we’ve removed the name of that dealership);
My car is 18 months old and had broken down one evening. I had it towed to a trusted garage in my village who checked it over and reported to me a split coolant pipe, advising that I contact a Vauxhall dealership. I called <ANONYMOUS VAUXHALL DEALER> as my closest option.
Here’s what they told me:
1) Vauxhall can’t “take the garage’s word for it” and would need to see it themselves, but <ANONYMOUS VAUXHALL DEALER> couldn’t see it due to having no capacity. Warren said, “If it were my car, I’d be phoning round all the Vauxhall dealerships but you’ll find everywhere is fully booked and you’ll be surprised how long you’ve got to wait” due to a shortage of electric mechanics and a recall.
2) I would have to “prove” it was covered by warranty by “filling in a lot of forms and taking photos”.
3) The part (if proven to be this part by Vauxhall) was not available for order and couldn’t be ordered, but he could “keep checking for me”, though of course <ANONYMOUS VAUXHALL DEALER> won’t fit it for me.
4) I wouldn’t be entitled to a courtesy car as I didn’t buy the car direct from a Vauxhall dealership.
Later that day, really worried and deflated, I called Platinum Vauxhall in Trowbridge. Here’s what they did:
1) Got the car in the next day without quibble, examined it and confirmed the split coolant pipe.
2) Told me, “of course it’s covered by warranty!” and no forms/photos required.
3) Ordered the part and then escalated to Vauxhall Customer Care to try and speed it up.
4) Provided me with a courtesy car to keep for as long as I am waiting, even if that’s months.
I’m sure you can see the difference in customer care here. I don’t blame anyone for lack of capacity, but the inaccurate information I was given was really alarming and caused me significant stress before Platinum Trowbridge solved the lot, with a really professional and friendly tone to boot.
As a result, I’m having a service plan with them, and will use them when I decide to replace my car. I’ve also told friends and relatives about the contrast. It’s really foolish to provide such poor customer service, because its ripples are infinite..
This customer comment speaks for itself.
Also, in a similar thrust to the need for delivering customer delight, is the upcoming “Consumer Duty” requirements set out by the FCA (the Financial Conduct Authority) which demands a framework for delivering “good outcomes for customers” centred around, but not limited to, the selling of Finance and Insurance products - we’ll communicate the specifics of this separately, but the principles apply in the here and now..
So let’s set ourselves the aim of being a leader in delivering customer delight and good customer outcomes, and create the reasons for lasting customer loyalty, excellent online ratings and the business success that this leads to.
RETAINING MARGINS
With costs remaining very high due to the ongoing inflation crisis, higher interest rates, and the possibility of the country entering recession over the coming months, it’s essential that we keep a very close eye on retaining margins across all areas of the business.
Can all Managers really focus on this during Quarter 3, whether New Cars, Used Cars, Demos, Trade Vehicles, Service and Parts (including Trade Parts) and so on.
COST CONTROL
Linked to the above point – can all Team Members play a part in this – in terms of consumables, energy consumption (see our recent memo on this), printing/paper usage and so on. Every bit helps to keep the costs controlled in an inflationary (high cost) economy.
MARKETING
In addition to when customers interact directly with us, whether by phone, email, live chat, social media or in person at the dealership, our channels to communicate with our customers are via Marketing in its’ many forms – whether attending offsite events, creating in-house events, direct marketing from our databases by email and post, advertising in print and digital media , all underpinned by our own websites and social media profiles and so on.
We need to make the most of this to get our messages across and cut through to current customers and potential customers to deliver our objectives in Quarter 3 and Quarter 4.
Can all Managers work with their Teams to ensure we get some great messages out there in this new Quarter.
Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you again for your hard work and commitment throughout Quarters 1 and 2, and we look forward to working with you again during Quarter 3 and the remainder of 2023.
Enjoy the rest of the Summer.
Please ensure that Platinum Team Members without a company email are made aware of this communication.
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy, Martyn, Paul & Michael
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