Page 20 - One The Move - 19-1

By Mike Lyles
Consultant / Coach at
M5 Management Services

hen you hire an employee, they usually have numbers reflecting your genuine concern for how the customer
experience in the field you are hiring them for. perceives your level of service and not saying “oh no not again.”
WHowever, the experience they possess will have to be
adapted and trained to your way of doing business. We all do • • How the customer is greeted
basically the same thing with our customers. Every customer o Is it friendly and meaningful or
gets entered into the system, every customer pays their bill, dry and uncaring?
every customer comes to you for their own unique reason. You o Do you use their name?
want your customers to come to you because you do things o Did you make an impression?
with the customer's wellbeing in your focus. You want your - It only takes 3 seconds to
employees to follow a proven path that has retention benefits make a first impression
“the right to service the customer a second time based on the
level of service your staff provided during the last transaction” • • Do we talk to the customer and
Everyone knows what food chain says “my pleasure” after taking not at the customer?
your order, If something that simple can become a standard that o Listen to what they are saying
everyone knows. Why can’t your store set the pace for top-shelf o You are the expert
customer service skills? o Build and sell the relationship not the repair
o The customer will come back to you if
Customers should be greeted with this in mind, “every the relationship is developed
customer, every day, the same way.” This should be the process
from greeting to redelivery or putting the car on the rack to test Build processes that have the customer at the center of your
driving after the repair. desire to create retention numbers that most people chase their
entire career. Most employees want to do a good job to reach
What process do they follow to recreate the exceptional service the next level. They just do not know how to get there. Written
experience “every customer every day, the same way?” Practice processes are a perfect road map to success. They generate “the
makes perfect. The best way to have these skills recreated is to right to service a customer a second time based on the level of
have them written as procedures. These procedures should be service your staff provided during the last transaction.” Follow-
discussed during the hiring process, even though the person up on the process will be imperative to the employee’s success.
can fix a car or greet a customer does not mean they have the Constant improvement will become a natural byproduct of
desire or ability to repair vehicles or greet customers to your adjusting the process as the customer's demands change. Stay
expectations. If an employee understands how they should abreast of changing customer expectations, training needs, and
perform their job to an acceptable level, this will create an remember our environment is ever-changing, so always be fluid
exceptional customer experience that will have your retention when it comes to change.
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