The various challenges facing dealers this year are well documented but the customer experience is seen by many as the key to keeping ahead of the competition. Many dealer groups are investing heavily in training for sales personnel and a good number are meeting the aftersales challenge by acknowledging the need for more sales oriented staff in their service departments.
The continuing drive towards retaining and capturing more happy customers means staff at car showrooms cannot afford to drop the ball when it comes to how they treat their precious customers.
The big retailers have been doing it for years; the no quibble exchange on goods, the 5 year warranty offered by John Lewis for example is a great advert for this kind of approach.
I guarantee that anyone reading this article will only have good things to say about this company because the people are great, the products desirable and the experience is always positive, not to mention the never knowingly undersold strap line. Because of the great staff and big choice of goods the stores are always busy and the company’s profits represent this.
Without turning this into a promotional puff piece for John Lewis it seems to me that all we want is consumers is to get a fairer deal and know we won’t have any aggravation should the product we buy malfunction or fail to live up to our expectations. We want the peace of mind that there is someone there to catch us when we fall and that we don’t have to prepare for war just to get some satisfaction.
By providing an excellent all round service there is no reason why car dealers cannot enjoy the same sort of success in retaining customers more profitably. If we show customers that we can be trusted to look after them and provide them with great cars and a professional experience, getting every last penny off the price will cease to be as important as it has been for so many years.
Many people will say you only get what you pay for and to a certain extent that’s true but where would you rather shop given the choice, Waitrose or Lidl?
I’ll let you make up your own mind
