Good day, brandon hardison for shop smart autos and champion strategies giving our consumers the best information that they can understand, this industry called automotive sales.
The reason being this is still based on a whole lot of statistics, the next largest investment that you will make outside your home or your condo.
So, let’s get right to it today we want to talk about you, the consumer, and what should you be looking for when it comes to dealership culture, in other words, creating the experience that we would expect from a customer starts with the customer centric culture at your Store, that’s what your guests should be looking for.
In other words, did your superstar sales person come to mind uh the one who always greets the customers chill fairly and seem to make sales flow effortlessly, if so you’re on the right track, because your culture is all about your people.
In fact, culture by definition is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people.
So the question essentially is: what would your dealership culture look like if your team was laser focused on the consumers? There are some personalities that cater to customers naturally, but anybody can provide an amazing experience in the right environment.
Sometimes it comes down to having the right processes and tools in place.
That means that if you don’t have those two or three superstars, i have to find a way to create a fabulous team of customer-centric focused sales people.
But you need to set a clear intent for your culture and provide your team with everything they need to be successful.
So, what’s first, when it comes to this customer-centric focus when we speak of culture, it comes from the people that started the organization.
What do they expect? The harvard business review calls the lack of customer-centric organizational culture, the most common and perhaps the greatest barrier to customer centricity.
If your commitment to the customer is communicating to your members about how you started, what we’re going to do with them, how we’re going to take care of them in the future, this needs to be addressed somewhere, where everyone, in that business is hearing that same story.
So start at the top: what does the dealership leadership define as goals for this customer centric? Make it clear each and every time a guest is in front each and every time a guest is on line each and every time the guest is on the phone.
Your people need to be reminded that customer centered focus so the best place to start is onboarding.
Does your dealership have an onboarding process where every i repeat, every person in the dealership understands the history? The mission statement, everything that the owners of the organization expect you to share back at your dealership or dealer group.
If you have more than one do you have a consistent team of people who do the onboarding or is it outsourced? If you have new hires, you need to think about bringing somebody in who’s from the culture understands the culture and with an open.
True heart can disseminate the information consistently to each and every new hire.
That’s there don’t forget to include in your new hires the set of expectations to each and every guest.
How do we greet? Why do we do this? Are there some steps or purposes that we need to follow if there’s a way that you can reinforce this back at the dealership by having things signs, reminders that are always in place or on your website? The mission statement? Is there all the time we need to find a way to keep the momentum going? Do you have some ongoing reviews with your employees, whether it’s by dealership or as a dealer group, reminding them that these are the expectations that we have with our customers? Do you have some type of reward process doesn’t have to be money all the time it can be some time off.
You know employees just love to be recognized.
Anyone in a dealer group, anyone in a work environment would love to be recognized for what they do.
So, just to recap, customer centric culture is important to all businesses, but even more so in the automotive industry, unlike companies like google or your cable provider, just about everyone working at your dealership has a direct, a direct interaction with your customer.
This makes culture even more important.
It also gives you the benefit for using each touch point you build to loyalty and that’s how we want to wow our customers.
So when it comes to customer centric, is your dealership opening middle closing telling your employees from day one onboarding? This is how we do our customer centric focus and here’s the reasons for it.
This is what you need to be looking for, if i’m a consumer, if i’m looking to have a long-term relationship in this case three four five years, some of you will be buying an automobile, that’s a long time, so i want to find a dealership.
That’s going to be taking care of me now, after and for future purchases or leases, or there for parts or service whatever it may be.
Customer centric is the way you would like it.
Customer centric is the way everyone would like to be treated now.
If this made sense, we do this all the time for you who are looking for the best information when it comes to purchasing an automobile, so always think of shop.
Smart autos, so once again, brandon hardison president of champion strategies and here for shop, smart autos.
As always in parting, you go out and make it a champion day.
