The following Five golden rules should not have to be a promise made to your customer. Rather it should just be a part of your daily process in the service lane. Having the following standards will increase not only retention but also your customer's overall satisfaction.

Here are the top 5 golden rules for your service lane

Easy to use Appointment Scheduling System

Your customer should not have to be struggling online to schedule an appointment. Or worse, if s/he chooses to call the dealership they should not have to be waiting an eternity to reach someone that can schedule their appointment.

Once the customer has booked their appointment and s/he arrives and they are not taken care of it can cause for a bad taste, and an unpleasant experience overall.

How many customers book an appointment online?

Wait time

No one wants to spend their entire morning or afternoon at the dealership. Especially if during the visit you are not keeping them informed as to what the status is on their repair. Customers tend to be much more understanding if the advisor spends a moment on explaining why it is taking more time.

In fact, if the vehicle will take much longer than expected - depending on how your service lane is set up - you can offer the customer a shuttle ride or a demo. In these cases, the customer will often shell out more money.

Clear Explanation of the charges

Not understanding the bill or services can make the customer not only feel uneasy but frustrated with your service lane. Making them second guess themselves as to whether or not they really needed that service.

Honesty can go a long way. Another helpful tip is that when the advisor is explaining the charges that they use a visual demo. This will help the customer understand not only the service but also the money it costs them for it.

Follow-Up

Sending an automatic email after their service might not always the best method of following up. Instead, take a moment (especially for large ticket items) to call the customer and see how their visit went. If the customer requested email (or in some cases texting) then do so instead of the call. 

Reaching out to the customer after their service can go a long way. Making the customer feel good about their decision to not only have the repair done. But that they made the right choice in visiting your service lane. This especially comes in handy when the customer did have an issue. Allowing you to resolve the issue before they do an online review or social media post. 

Check Out Process

As you know, I am a big advocate of taking payments both in the lane and online. This makes a huge difference for the customer. Where s/he is not having to wait in line only to find out that they have a question about the invoice. In the meantime, the advisor is already in the middle of assisting another customer. Causing the customer to either pay without asking, leaves them wondering what happened. Having them question if they got cheated.

Even if you call them after the service to follow up - more often than not they will tell you “it would have been best had someone explained the charges to me while I was at the dealership.” To which you would offer “I do apologize Mr. Customer. I agree, and we will do our best to make sure that all charges are explained.”

Bottom Line:

Having the following standards will create a better experience. Allowing you to understand better if there are areas that need improvement. Giving you the ability to work with those individuals who are handling that point of the transaction.

What do you do to ensure you customer leaves the dealership happy? Do you have your advisor or BDC call the customer after servicing their vehicle?