Sometimes I think customers are like cats. Much of the time they don't need you, but when they do need you, they really need you.
Our cat travels back and forth from the coast with us. It is a six hour trip so it is challenging for him. We have found that he likes riding in our truck better than the SUV. The truck has a full bench seat in front with a large console that folds down and makes a perfect cat perch.
Yesterday, both the cat and I were dissatisfied customers. There are some lessons for all businesses and especially real estate professionals in what happened to us yesterday.
Last week when we returned to Roanoke, Virginia, we brought my Nissan Titan truck back to have the XM antenna fixed. I had recently had my oil changed, told them to order me a new antenna, before the oil change, but as is often the case, even intelligent requests are sometimes ignored by businesses.
The result was that when I had the oil changed, they confirmed that yes indeed they did need to order a new antenna. This required several phone calls since we were out of town for more than the normal alloted time for them to hold a part.
We thought we finally had everything set. Just to be sure I had my wife check on the appointment the day before we left. Sure enough it had somehow "not made it to the books." They did agree to work us in on the day we had thought we had an appointment if we could leave the vehicle.
We dropped the vehicle off about 11:30 pm just after we had driven in from the coast. We picked it up the next day at 5:30 pm. I was immediately surprised that they hadn't taken off the old broken XM antenna. They had, however, put on a new XM antenna which seem to work fine.
Roanoke, VA is in the midst of the driest time that we have seen in our nearly twenty years there. I took the vehicle home, parked it and didn't think anything more about the XM antenna which by the way was a big plastic bump glued in the middle of the front windshield. There was a bump on the inside and outside of the window.
When we got ready to head back to the coast, we started to load the truck, but a brief down pour hit the area. We took the opportunity to rest a few minutes and then started loading. After finishing, we added our special passenger, Malarky, our cat, and got on the road. We were a few miles down the road when it started to sprinkle rain.
I turned on the windshield wipers and immediately noticed that one blade was having to bump over the XM bump. In fact it looked like the XM bump was going to break the windshield wiper.
Since this was 3:45 pm on the day of a six hour drive, I was not a happy camper. We called the dealer which is a twenty minute drive from us in the wrong direction, and got the response that they were full and their technicians go home at 5 pm. We explaiined our situation and told them they needed to look at the problem which they had created.
We got there and drove into the registration bay. When I explained the problem, I mostly got blank stares and the comment that it was really dumb putting the XM antenna there. Someone saved me from my next statement, by asking who did that dumb thing.
I pointed out that this had happened in their very shop only three working days prior. That surprisingly just brought shrugs.
I managed to stay amazingly calm and said, we you need to fix it. One of the service managers disappeared and came back to tell me that the technician who had worked on my vehicle was "up to his arms in a transmission."
I told them I didn't really care who fixed it, I just wanted to get on with my trip even if they just scraped the antenna off the windshield.
This brought some scratching of heads as they wondered how to get it off. Finally one of the managers said he would drive it up to the body shop and see what they could do. He got in the truck and drove the truck, my wife, and cat to the body shop.
I walked up there only to find my wife and cat sitting in the truck with no one around. Finally the service manager came out and asked me to drive it to one of the bays.
I did that and met the only intelligent person of the day. A large black mechanic came and looked at the XM antenna and said he thought he could get it off. My wife got out, and I took the cat in the driver's seat. (We had left our cat cage at the coast- we usually travel with it). The mechanic climbed in and in a few minutes had gotten the antenna off both inside and outside. The cat was pretty nervous during the procedure but I help him close to me, and he was okay with that. When the mechanic left, all intelligent life seemed to disappear.
I was still in the drivers seat when some pulled open the door and asked me to get out so he could start taking out my dash. From the name tag it appeared to be the genius who had made the mistake. Once I heard what he planned I told him to forget it.
I retrieved my wife, drove back into the service bay and told the service managers that I would be back another day for a repair.
My parting comment was that they should fire the guy who made the mistake.
Actually he probably isn't the problem, the problem is the culture of the whole company.
When I worked at Apple Computer, during Apple's dark days of products that randomly died, I quickly learned the secret to customer satisfaction.
The first person beyond the telephone switch to interact with the customer needs to take ownership of the problem. The company needs to give them the power to fix the problem or get it immediately to someone who can.
Unless you are willing to assure the customer that the problem is going to be fixed and resolved to their satisfaction, you are just turning up the heat on a pot that might already be boiling.
No matter who caused the problem or what the problem is, you need to apologize for the problem and but yourself in the customers shoes.
When I was at the car dealership, no one apologized, no one accepted responsibility for the problem, and I was left hanging in the wind.
There was no communication on what was happening either. No one took the time to tell us what was supposed to happen or what couldn't happen. We were left to figure it on our own.
The only problem the dealership and service advisors saw was that I had showed up with a mess close to the time when they head home.
No one seemed to care that I had a packed vehicle with a cat and a six hour drive facing me. Only one mechanic even showed an interest in helping me. The idiot who caused the problem was openly hostile to me with the result that I didn't have anything nice to say about him when I left.
So what is the result of poor customer satisfaction? Well I probably won't consider this dealer again for another vehicle We had enjoyed great customer service from them for years. Turns out our old service manager is gone, and he took the good service with him.
I know modern vehicles are challenging, but eventually this kind of behavior catches up with the dealership. We had an even worse experience with a Volvo dealership. I can guarantee they have sold twenty vehicles fewer because of the way we were treated.
I can just imagine how devastating not helping clients solve problems would be to a real estate firm.
I have to pack some boxes for an out of town client tomorrow, let in the exterminator for another, and check on how the scrap metal guy we arranged for another worked out. While those things might not be in the formal job description, they are in the recipe for success, satisfied customers, and referrals.
To have any kind of successful business, you need to understand your job isn't just what is on paper. I even do recipes for customers.
By the way, I stuck the two pieces of the antenna together, and it worked fine. Malarky was especially happy to be in one of his homes last night. I don't think he likes sharing the truck cab with strangers.
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