Word-of-mouth is the best source of advertising there is, and it’s also the least expensive. On the opposite end, a bad customer experience is incredibly costly and damaging for the same reasons. When people have a really good or really bad experience, they tell their friends and family. And often, it’s not the sales department experience that drives customers down the street.

Personal Experience Tells the Tale

I’ll speak from personal experience, but take it for what it’s worth: a car industry professional taking the family vehicle in for service.

I’ve taken our SUV into the selling dealership, where I used to work and left on good terms. I’ve requested the routine maintenance and all seemed to go swimmingly, although notoriously slow. Returning to pick up our vehicle (without a phone call to say it’s ready), I paid the invoice and was on my way. No description of the service, no contact from the advisor after check-in, nothing.

Later, when reviewing the invoice, I discover work that needs to be done. A loose tie rod and stabilizer link, brake pads are worn. Obviously missing from the checklist are routine services that have yet to be completed, including transmission fluid and transfer case fluid.

I dealt with the poor service through management, but that’s not the point here. What I’m getting at is that the horrid service I received tainted me against the dealership. My wife absolutely loves our SUV and would never want to trade it in. But she won’t set foot in the service department herself for the same reasons I’ve explained.

If something happened to our beloved SUV, would we return to buy a replacement at that dealership? Not a hope in Hades. The service experience has been so terrible that we wouldn’t even consider it.

The Layperson is More Sensitive Yet

If you’re reading this, you’re probably an automotive industry professional as well, in some capacity or another. We’ve become desensitized to some of the problems experienced. I know from my personal service department experience in the past that I often thought customers were overreacting to ‘minor inconveniences’ in their visit, but it was ME underreacting.

You can’t tell a customer how they should feel. That doesn’t work. If a customer is discouraged, upset, feels neglected or under-serviced, there’s a two-part solution: acknowledge their frustration, then work to correct it. You just might be able to turn their experience around so they give you another shot.

More importantly, you want to be proactive instead of reactive. When you implement the best practices in your service department environment, you can avoid a customer’s displeasure in the first place. For my service visit, all it would have taken is a phone call or text message. Contact me to tell me that I have additional repairs required. Let me know when my vehicle is ready. And it definitely wouldn’t hurt to check my service history and sell me the services I need completed.

Customers WILL Explore Their Options

A displeased customer has options, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Your service department may be their only local choice for warranty and you might be the authority on the particular brand. As in my situation, you store could lose out on potential new and used car sales due poor service on the back end.

To be crystal clear, for every customer you lose because of poor service in the back end, you’ll lose at least a few more. Statistics say that customers who are unhappy tell seven people of their experience. Are you willing to lose out on those potential customers?

I can guarantee that my selling dealer has lost out on sales because of MY experience. I’ve advised people who are searching for their next vehicle, and that advice never includes my selling dealer. As much as we love our SUV, we don’t want to hurt relationships by sending someone to a frustrating service department.