Customer Experiences With Customer Service at My

¶ … Customer Experiences With Customer Service at My Car Dealer A recent visit to the service department of the local auto dealership I purchased a car from two years ago forms the foundation of this analysis. As auto dealerships rely on service departments for the majority of their revenue I thought the experience would be a mix of pure efficiency and relationship building. Previous experiences with this dealership have shown them to be not as trustworthy as I had hoped they would be as well.

One of the most critical aspects of transitioning customers from being treated as members of a transaction to actually being fans is trust (Gronroos, 1994). Trust is such a critical catalyst to make a customer experience successful that technologies need to better measure and evaluate this critical component as broader CRM strategies (Mitussis, O'Malley, Patterson, 2006). Going in to the dealership to get a door problem fixed presented the ideal opportunity to complete this analysis.

Analysis of Interaction Driving up to the customer service window and giving the technician my name and address started the process. He printed out a worksheet and walked out of the small building and asked what I needed done. I explained the door had been not closing completely and the lock would "freeze" in one place and not let go. The conversation went to how the entire lock could potentially need to be replaced to the suggestion of WD-40.

In other words, both ends of the pricing spectrum, from the very expensive to the solution that would cost only the can of lubricant immediately were recommended. I asked if they could simply take the lock out of the door and check it out and give me an estimate for no charge as the car was still under warranty. The technician debated me if the car's warranty covered locks and mechanical items and I asked if he considered a transmission mechanical, as that component was specifically mentioned in the warranty.

He nodded and didn't say another word. I asked him for the cost to look at it and he said there would be no charge. I got the sense that even through the car was under warranty the dealership wanted to still make money on this repair. That troubled me. I gave the technician the keys and he took the car into the repair bays, as I went inside to talk to the service manager and ask them what the policy was on warranty repairs.

He told me they were all covered and would take care of it. I asked him if technicians were on commission for how many repairs they sold and he just laughed and walked away. To this point in the interaction it was clear the dealership looked at me as more of just another transaction to be completed during their day. There was no specifically focus on how to take the transaction and transform it into more of a conversation or relationship (Gronroos, 1994).

The entire culture of the dealership seemed to resonate with a transaction mindset, as sales people in the coffee room asked if I wanted to see the new models in the showroom "on sale" this weekend (Harris, Ogbonna, 1999). One of the sales people had sold me the car that was in for repairs and he started the conversation with the requisite "so how is your 2009 Camry running?" And then directly into the sales pitch.

I reminded him that I had shopped online, was able to get a much better deal through the Toyota website and successfully drove them down nearly $4,000 on their price, using the Web to keep them honest (Pitt, Berthon, Watson, Zinkhan. 2002). He smiled and said the deals on the new Camry were even better than that, and he would give me a quote. I told him no thanks. The tension of having to make sales and a profit during these difficult economic times vs.

investing in the relationship they have with their customers was evident in how this dealership's culture had changed for the worse (Harris, Ogbonna, 1999). Instead of trying to quickly upsell me to a new Camry maybe the sales person who sold me the 2009 model whose locks didn't work could have taken an extra step to make sure it was fixed correctly. Yet there was no apology for the car's locks not working just two years after I purchased it.

This brought up a second conflict area and that is accountability of sales people for the product they sell. These two conflict areas of investing in relationships vs. always going for the sale, and not having a sense of accountability over the car sold to me just two years ago show this dealership needs to have its strategies re-aligned. The re-aligning of selling and service away from transaction mindsets to customer service is critical for any business to gain loyalty and trust over time (Mitussis, O'Malley, Patterson, 2006). In conclusion, the.