By Bob Clements I spend most of my time working on-site with dealerships and service departments. One of the biggest hurdles I must address with employees of dealerships is a breakdown of communication due to poor documentation. This may seem like a very simple problem to fix but it takes effort and a process. The first breakdown in communication, that ultimately creates a snowball affect though out the whole dealership, is the first contact with the customer. Dealerships and employees are getting better with attaining the customer’s contact information, but I find most documentation stops there. I encourage employees to dig deeper and to document what the customer says, even if it might not seem extremely relevant to the job at hand. It is normally in those details where we can find missing links to problems. So, how do we get this information and what are the best ways to document the information gained?
1) The Initial Customer Contact
Begin by collecting information from your very first contact with the customer. When the customer drops off the unit for service you should get:
- the customers contact information, including cell phone number,
- unit information, and
- general information gained by asking questions about their unit. Some of my favorite questions to ask customers are,
- “Since owning this unit have you noticed any changes to how it is operating?”
- “Have you noticed any changes to how it cuts?”
- “Have you noticed a change in what the unit sounds like while you are using it?”
These three questions are very good questions to get the customer to open up about potential other issues they might be having or repairs the unit needs that the customer is not initially aware of. READ FULL ARTICLE>>