Car Dealer Customer Service Tips

April 05, 2007Behind the Scenes, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service Experience, Employees, Etiquette, Exercises/Resources, Follow-up, Little Things, Big Differences 9 Comments

Here is part three of three of the series on car dealers and customer service.

After lots of phone calls, several talks to multiple managers, and so on, I finally got my car. It took another trip for them to remember to bring the temporary license plate, but I finally got it and it can now be legally driven.

So what can car dealers do to improve their customer service? Here are some of my suggestions:

Have a point of contact.
Throughout my experience, I didn’t really have a point of contact. I had like 5 or 6. Plus, almost all of them were useless. The point of contact should be able to help you with all your questions and concerns, or at the very least, point you in the right direction. Something like that Rackspace Team Structure, perhaps.

Follow-up.
The car dealers I dealt with lacked the ability to follow up. I was the one who constantly had to call and bug them. They should follow up with the customer, ensure that the customer is happy, and that the experience was as expected.

Have comfortable places to sit.
Why couldn’t they do the whole car buying, fill out the paperwork, etc. in a nice conference room? Why couldn’t the various people from various departments come into that conference room? The room could have some comfortable chairs, some magazines, a television (that we set), etc.

Quiet!
The dealership had a blasting stereo at one side and a blasting television at the other. There was not a piece of carpet in the entire building. Dealerships should try to at least respect some noise concerns and at the very least, have a quiet part of the dealership.

Less people.
While this is more a business thing, the going back and forth to get the price OK’ed is a pain. Just have the manager come in and do the haggling. It’ll take 5 minutes instead of 20. Again, see the “point of contact” part.

Faster and less small talk.
When you walk in, you shouldn’t have to wait around for people to find you. Then, when they do find you, don’t do the overly enthusiastic “we’re going to get a great deal” type thing. Instead, do what they do in retail. Say “How may I help you?” It works a lot better. Then, when people say they are looking for such and such a car, say “OK. Great. I’m sure we can find you a great car and a great price.” or something along those lines.

Don’t hide the fees.
After I negotiated the base price on my car, there was nearly $1,000 in dealer fees, title fees, etc. That makes a big difference. Mention that when people are looking. Better yet, say you can waive the fees.

Extensions and cell phones
Each person you deal with should give you their card with an extension number and phone number. It was annoying to have to call the central number, push 2 for sales, and then ask for the people.

Food and beverage.
There should be food and beverages available to customers who want it. In fact, employees should offer the food and beverage to the customers. It should then be provided, for free. This should definitely be done if the customer is in the process of actually buying the car.

These are just a few things. They aren’t too drastic or hard to do. In fact, most of them could be implemented fairly easily. They will definitely result in happier customers and quite likely, more repeat business and referrals. More often than not, customer service isn’t too hard. It’s just having the right mindset for it. Car dealerships don’t seem to have the mindset.

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9 Responses to “Car Dealer Customer Service Tips”

  1. Todd said:

    Apr 05, 07 at 3:50 pm

    Dealships want to bludgeon the customer into settling for a higher price for the vehicle. All of the things that they do are to tip the balance on the side of the dealership. This is one of the problems with vehicles being a haggaleable and not fixed price.

    Todd

  2. el said:

    Apr 13, 07 at 8:49 am

    Carmax. They make buying a car as nervewracking and time intensive as buying a head of cabbage. Like the ad says, “like it should be.”

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    Apr 26, 07 at 9:57 am

    […] I’ve talked more than a little bit about car dealers and customer service (post 1, 2, and 3). After having my miserable experience shopping for cars with some other companies, I decided to contact CarMax and see if they were interested in an interview. I got an interview with Jack Hightower, who is CarMax’s VP of Sales. […]

  4. Black Belt Bob.com said:

    May 25, 07 at 10:01 pm

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  5. Matt said:

    Mar 31, 08 at 7:00 pm

    I would just like to say I totally agree with this article.

  6. Used Car Dealers said:

    Mar 16, 09 at 7:30 am

    A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new cars/ old cars at the retail level based on a dealership contract with an automaker. It may also provide maintenance services for cars.

    Used Car Dealers

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  8. Jordan said:

    Jun 16, 09 at 5:17 pm

    You simply have to be able say ‘no, thanks at that price’ at least once to the dealer. This gives them a strong message that you are serious about your research.

    You should also bring a piece of paper to the dealership and make sure you do all the math of the finance calculations yourself. The point is not that they will do the math wrong. The point is you will see exactly how the deal is structured. Do not be afraid to take the time to do this or look like a fool for mapping out your car deal in the dealership.

    My dad swears by this process, http://tinyurl.com/nxutm2

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