You walk into a well-known, Michelin-star restaurant. One where the waiter has a towel draped over his arm and a bottle of wine in his hand. You’re pointed in the direction of your table with a flippant gesture from the hostess, who then turns their attention to the next guest in line. You’re left alone for a few moments with your dinner partner without an explanation of the menu or even a water glass fill-up from the waiter. Before you’ve even ordered, you’ve already decided you’re never coming back.

Your service drive’s first impression is just as important.

More Than Fine Dining

Actually, your first impression is more critical. You’re basing your customers’ future relationship – including sales, service, parts, and body repairs – on your first impression. Literally thousands of dollars rests on your frontline and support staff’s treatment of your customer base. The difference is that you’re not a fine dining restaurant. You’re more expensive than that. There’s much more riding on an exceptional service visit than just a pleasant, warming introduction.

But that’s where it all starts.

As someone with 10 years of service desk experience, I know my shortcomings. The service drive turns into a factory or assembly line, with one customer after another turning into a drudgery. Often, that’s all it takes to forget that you’re talking to a person – someone who needs and wants to be treated with respect and value. They know how much money it’s going to cost to service or repair their vehicle. To you, it’s become just a number. To them, it’s a matter of family safety and extra hours at work to pay off their vehicle expenses.

So, when they arrive at the car dealership, pull into the service drive, and aren’t acknowledged promptly, it begins to sour the experience.

And when your eye doesn’t meet theirs when you talk to them, it worsens.

Then, when you seem irate or short when they have questions about their visit, they begin to wonder how much you value their business.

And if you’re impatiently eyeing the lineup of customers behind them instead of focusing on their concerns, you’re reinforcing their waning opinion of your service.

Like a First Date

Whether it’s your customer’s first visit to your dealership or their hundredth, they expect the same level of respect and treatment. In fact, their expectations get higher the longer they are in your stable. No matter how long they’ve trusted in your service department, each customer should be treated like it’s a first date.

You know what that means. You meet their eye when you’re having a conversation. You treat their questions with value and answer them fully. You offer the same upsells and value-added services the previous customer received. You compliment their vehicle’s condition and seek out ways to connect with your customer. You treat them like they are the only person in the room. And if you’re interrupted, you ask to be excused for a moment, then apologize for the intrusion.

Oh, How We Fail

I’ll be the first to admit, there are customers that never came back to the dealership because I forgot one absolutely critical thing: each one is a person. Each customer has value and importance, whether it’s a one-line oil change or the home-run, sell-everything client.

And, for every single customer I failed to treat properly with my first impression, six or seven others didn’t consider our dealership because of word-of-mouth. That’s makes the sting even worse.

It’s not just ME they don’t want to come back to see, it’s the dealership as a whole. My personal actions cost the dealership thousands of dollars in unseen revenues in the combined departments.

Just like bad service from ONE server at a fine dining restaurant will probably mean you never go back, one bad visit to your dealership can cause a potentially profitable relationship with a customer to go no further at all.

How to Stay Focused

Another contributor on DrivingSales, Denim Simkins, mentions in his blog post “Three Areas of Focus to Help Your Service Sales Advisors Succeed”, that he gathered his team before the doors open each morning for a powwow. This is the perfect time to remind your team that each customer is as important as the next. It’s the right time to emphasize the importance of first impressions. It’s a great chance to refocus your team on total customer satisfaction and following the steps to excellent customer service.

Whether it’s taking 10 minutes before the doors open like Denim does or another time in the day, find a way to focus your team daily on the importance of first impressions.