How to Create a Loyal Customer

I've got a dentist that I love. I bet that's the first time you've heard that comment. Let me illustrate. A year or so ago a crown on my front tooth needed to be replaced. So picture me in the waiting room thinking about how painful it was the first time, what with the multiple Novocain shots in the roof of my mouth and front of the gums. Jzheesh! Hey, look at those pretty fishes in that aquarium over there, look at the video playing with all the happy, evenly-spaced teeth people, oh look it's my turn, I've hardly been here 2 minutes.
The assistant reclines me in the chair. They've got that same video playing above me with all the services they offer and the white-teethed happy people. The assistant comes up beside me, puts on a topical anesthetic, then brings up the needle below my line of sight and tells me I might feel a slight pinch. Hmm, that's not too bad. We wait awhile to let it work. Dentist comes in cheerfully; asks if my chin feels numb, yes and my nose too feels or actually doesn't feel. We laugh. He asks me a few questions that I can say yes to (great technique). He tells me to let him know if I feel anything by raising my hand. Okay, here goes. He starts to drill and I feel it; notice my hand raising urgently. He stops immediately. We do another shot and get the same thing. He asks me if I've ever tried nitrous oxide, and I happily answer yes. He asks if I'd like it (would I like it, are you kidding me, how 'bout you pack up a bottle of that in a to go bag too). They hook me up, I breathe deeply, dang, are you sure this is legal? Anyway, I suppose they do their thing cuz pretty soon we're done, it goes without a hitch and I'm getting unhooked from the happy gas.
So, yeah, that's a great experience, they've got great drugs, they have exceptional expertise at keeping me calm and distracted, they're friendly, they let me know what to expect, etc. but wait there's more! Next time I go in they find a cavity and give me a quotation for the charge and listed as a separate line item is the nitrous oxide. They remembered! Oh glorious day, I have a cavity! When I went in for the filling, the assistant began setting up the nitrous and confirmed with me, "you want the nitrous don't you?" Again, procedure goes without a hitch. They made me comfortable at the place I least like to go. They took my mind off of the pain, they took the feeling out of my mouth. They offered me a fun way to have the procedure. They noted my situation and kept it in my file. They referred to my file for the next time. I wasn't humiliated or embarrassed about my need for more pain-numbing. I wasn't made to demand anything. They did the things that they are expert at and didn't make me have to think about it. They have my loyalty. I don't care if another place opens up across the street and offers services for half the price; I am loyal to my dentist and his staff.
So what's my point? Don't think that it's the customer's responsibility to demand a great experience or a Completely Satisfying experience. It is your responsibility to deliver that great experience and that means doing everything right, doing it cheerfully, anticipating my needs, responding, and making an atmosphere where I don't feel confused, abused, or irritated. That is your job. That is your expertise. If you don't do that you don't get my loyalty. And loyalty is a 4, loyalty is a referral, loyalty is another purchase, loyalty is more gross, loyalty keeps you in business, loyalty makes you profitable.

What do airline passengers know?

"Airlines with high customer satisfaction have two things in common: they have processes in place to ensure a consistent, positive travel experience, and they have the right people working for them, who make the flying experience a pleasurable one for their passengers"

– J.D. Powers airline survey

When I read that I had two thoughts:

1. what airline has high customer satisfaction?
2. how are airline customers different from car dealership customers?

Number 1 - The airlines that the survey was talking about are Southwest and JetBlue. Okay, okay, I have READ about these airlines and they have great reputations. Unfortunately, neither of them service Wichita so my opportunities to fly them are significantly reduced. I have flown Southwest and I did find their staff to be much different (in a good way) than those I've encountered among their competitors. I will take the word of the 10,000 passengers who ranked them as creating a pleasurable experience. I haven't had a pleasurable flying experience in 15 years, but that was back when we had TWA and I always got upgraded to first class. Here's a side note too, these are also the only consistently profitable airlines.

Number 2 – customers are customers because they are all people. So if having a pleasurable flying experience makes for satisfied customers, then having a pleasurable car buying or servicing experience makes for satisfied customers.

I of course was snagged by the whole process thing there. Maybe you don't want to go with process, you may be to cool for that. But how about snagging onto consistent, or positive, or right people, or making pleasurable experiences? Any one of those are great marching orders.

With SFE we are concerned with being profitable and being excellent businesses. So putting a focus on any of those words will create the energy necessary to ratchet up your dealership's ability to create those types of experiences.

Resolutions

I clipped something awhile back and I don’t know where I got it or who said it, but I like it nonetheless:

“Embrace change. The world changes and, mercifully, we are not the same people we once were. Our goals remind us of what we dare to wish for and will work to accomplish. They are the milestones by which we assess our growth, progress and transformations.”

It works for resolutions, or continuous improvement, or kaizen, or however you like to frame it. Not only that change is good, but setting goals is good, wishing is good, deciding what is important enough to work toward is good.

Paying Attention

I know this thing for sure; that paying attention works. There is a thing called the Hawthorne Effect. It was a research project back in 1927 at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. They started out by examining the physical and environmental influences of the workplace (e.g. brightness of lights, humidity) and later, moved into the psychological aspects (e.g. breaks, group pressure, working hours, managerial leadership).

The major finding of the study was that almost regardless of the experimental manipulation employed, the production of the workers seemed to improve. The workers were pleased to receive attention from the researchers who expressed an interest in them.

So since paying attention, and making minor changes from time to time in different ways increases productivity we oughta do it. One major bump that I always see in SFE dealerships is we are paying attention to 3 measures (retail sales, CSI, training) and when we do, we always see improvements. Our consistency, intensity, and creativity of attention determine if we have lasting affects. And those three things that are visible to GM aren't the only things worth our effort of course. Our big bang impact is much more long lasting and far reaching than this quarter's bonus. When we find ways to make paying attention our culture, then our employees notice, and our customers notice, and that translates to big wins in profitability.