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Student with customer service questions. (pls help)
Hey guys! Im not a shop owner but I am a college student studying
Automotive shop management. This is a project that I am doing and hope
some of you professionals can help. One of the topics I chose to cover
is customer service and how important the customer is to any business.
My question is how do you attempt to keep the customer satisfied on a
daily basis? Do you do hollow up calls on customer satisfaction? How do
deal with irate customers and keep them happy to return for service and
maintain your good reputation? Any help would be awesome and any other
areas of this discussion that was not asked would be greatly
appreciated. Thanx in advance!!
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5 Replies
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Thanks for the response. Have you ever ,I’m sure you have, ever dealt
with a customer that is not satisfied and irate weather it be a new or
especially a loyal customer? If so, what do you do, no matter what
approach you take, they are not happy? Do you try to give them some
kind of future service for free or just send them on their way hoping
they return? I know happy customers are key but sometimes you can’t
please everyone. Every business has these customers. In my opinion it
would seem hard to do in this profession due to the high cost or labor
hours and parts. Would like a free oil change or something of the sort
be a good reinvestment for their supposive troubles? An answer from
any professional will help. Thank you.
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Hi Gabiel,
Satisfying an unhappy customer is very important 99% of the time.
The 1% are folks, that no matter what you do for them, will never be
happy. Those 1% customers you may have to fire.
The other 99%, you have to let them express their concern to you
without interruption. Even if they are angry, let them ‘get it all
out’. Always show them that they have your full attention and don’t
argue back. When most people realize that you want to fix their
concern, their blood pressure settles down, they lower their voice,
and now they are receptive to you speaking.
I will offer a sollution and it usually involves immediate action on
my part. Sometimes, my sollution may not be acceptable, so I will
ask the customer what they would like me to do. Most times, I can
live with their sollution. Sometimes, I may not like their
sollution, but I will go along with it anyway just to resolve it.
The key here is to pick your battles. The bottom line is that I
need customers to make a living, and keeping them happy and
satisfied is all part of the job. It is very satisfying when you can
take a bad situation and make it good for a customer. Like the last
post said, it cost much more to get a new customer than to keep one.
I hope this helps.
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Thank you Matthew. I appreciate the correction and you are right about
customer seeing those little things. You want too have that professional
appearance and I know from experience that spelling, grammar , and clear
communication can go a long way. Again I want to thank you for your help
and good luck with your business.
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Thank you for the reply Patrick. In the text book that we have been
reading it mentions you exact approach. It’s called The Rules Of
Complaint Handling. As a professionl would you say these rules are a
good guideline to follow in the real world?
1. Prepare for the encounter
2.Focus 100% on the customer
3.Don’t take it personally
4.Always start with a friendly greeting.
5.Allow the customer to empty his BUCKET.
(you mentioned)
6. Listen with empathy
7.Make sure the customer knows they are heard.
8.Stick with the facts.
9. Understand what is important from the customers perspective.
10.Negotiate a WIN-WIN solution
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Yes Gabriel,
If you follow that guidline it will work for any reasonalble person.
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