Customer Service, Story Telling and Profits

Customer Service, Story Telling and Profits
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Who are the better customers?
Sales or service?

Not necessarily either. Repeat customers are the best. And, of the repeat customers - who accounts for the greater value - the LOF’s, (lube, oil, filter),
or the people that buy the high dollar work?

Higher dollar service work requires more time. Longer labor time frequently requires a ride in the customer service shuttle.

Customers come because they trust us. Generally they have built relationships they can count on. And people talk. That’s what people do. We can leverage that talk. When we add the dealer name and brand that goodness accrues to the owner and team.

One week I had two customers in the shuttle that had brought us 20 year old cars they loved. The 274k mile car is in amazing shape. The 225k mile car was showing some wear. It’s been driven to Argentina and back. That’s part of the charm.

In a recent ten-day stretch I drove four librarians; three retired and one still at Marquette. In one day; two microbiologists. Another day I drove two women both recovering from breast cancer.
How does that happen? I encourage them to talk about most people’s favorite subject: themselves.

There are stories we can help tell and in the telling we are rewarded with a little extra humanity - which of course leads to greater trust, more customers and greater profit.

Readers of these stories will hopefully get the idea that our customers are important and respected engines of our success.

Customers are savvy enough to know that if our company face does not include them their value may be greater somewhere else.

Customer shuttle riders ...

... include everybody from accountants to zookeepers and most everything in between. Cops, firemen, teachers, IT professionals. Airline pilots, female tanker pilots, former county executives, guitar players, upholsterers, asphalt pavers, engineers; civil and otherwise. Law clerks, paralegals, and actual practicing attorneys. CFO’s, CEO’s, mortgage foreclosers, priests, pastors, Ph.D Economists, Doctors of Pharmacy, Dentistry, Anthropology, Computational Chemisty and Micro Biology. Tai chi instructors, speech pathologists, physical therapists, chiropractors and nurses of all kinds.
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... from here and there

I have enlarged my world and have been honored to meet people from about 30 countries and counting; the Bahamas, Bolivia, Canada, China, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Phillipines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, South Vietnam, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, all over these United States, including a couple people from my tiny home town.

Bangladesh was 31. We add 32 and 33 - Albania and Zambia - both in the same day - which happens to be my 18th month anniversary. 9/19/13

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The traditional and social media that brings readers, ratings, and happy chatter - all of which positively affect the bottom line and CSI’s - seems like a unique investment for visionary management.

Customer service is almost all we have to give.
Let’s do that better.

David L. White

ShuttleDave - shuttledave.blogspot.com
414-282-7185 • david@dlwhite.net