How long is a 7-minute wait? Too long.

ST. JAMES, N.Y. (Nov. 23, 2016) — Car dealer Lee Certilman's pet peeve is waiting in line.

If he shows up for an appointment and has to wait, with no acknowledgment from staff, he gets frustrated.

So imagine his discontent this past August when he walked through his service department and saw customers standing in line, waiting for an adviser.

“The service advisers didn't have any customers in front of them, but they were doing paperwork from the prior customer and not acknowledging those people in line,” said Mr. Certilman, owner of Nardy Honda Smithtown in St. James.

“There's a reasonable time people will wait. But if you're standing around and waiting and no one is addressing you, you start to get anxious.”

Mr. Certilman soon realized that having customers waiting in line was a regular problem in his service department. He turned to his security cameras to pinpoint the problem and found seven minutes of security footage that helped fix it.

Now he has a new policy, and he uses the cameras to enforce it so his customers don't have to endure long waits.

“The cameras are there for protection, but you can use them to see if people are doing what they're supposed to be doing,” Mr. Certilman said. “It's a customer-service improvement tool. You can find a problem and then use it, after you've made an implementation, to spot-check to make sure the improvement is happening.”

“If you leave (customers) there for seven minutes, it might as well be seven hours,” he said.

Once, twice

Nardy Honda Smithtown, on Long Island about a 90-minute drive east of midtown Manhattan, sells about 3,000 new and used vehicles a year. Its customers are typical New Yorkers whose time is of the essence, Mr. Certilman said.

The dealership's customer service index scores are high — in the 93 to 98 percentile — putting it in the top three Honda stores in his district, he said.

So he had no reason to believe customer service was sloppy.

But in the middle of this past summer, his new service receptionist was struggling to answer calls quickly. To ensure business ran smoothly, Mr. Certilman started walking through the service department daily.

One evening, he noticed several customers standing in line despite service advisers with open desks.

“I used that route a few more times to come and go from the dealership, and I noticed again customers in line and service advisers at their desk with no customer in front of them,” Mr. Certilman said. “Once isn't a pattern, twice gets my attention and three times is actionable.”

‘Interminable'

Mr. Certilman and his general manager used security video to confirm that customers were regularly made to wait — the average time was 2½ to 3 minutes — before advisers even acknowledged them. He called it “unacceptable,” but he really lost it when he saw a customer wait seven whole minutes before being serviced.

“That's interminable when you don't see any customers waiting before you,” Mr. Certilman said.

“If you leave them there for seven minutes, it might as well be seven hours.”

So Mr. Certilman recorded it. Then, one by one, he called in each service adviser to watch the video.

“They didn't know what was going on. They just sat there and watched,” he said. “They were shuffling in their seat, thinking, ‘OK, is anything going to happen?'”

When the video ended, Mr. Certilman said to them, “If you think that was long for you, imagine how long it was for them.”

The exercise hit home to each of them, service adviser Frank Vicari said.

“Did you ever have to sit in an office with your boss and not say anything for seven minutes?” Mr. Vicari said. “Seven minutes is a long time. It was an eye-opening experience.”

Mr. Certilman said it resonated because “you didn't just explain it with words; you made the service adviser feel what the customer feels. That builds greater empathy.”

He implemented a new policy right away that requires service advisers to call customers over and explain that they are finishing up paperwork on the computer and will be with them shortly.

15 seconds

Mr. Vicari said the service advisers adhere to the new policy closely.

“Everyone gets greeted within 15 seconds of walking in the door,” he said.

“Even if I'm on the phone, I get off as soon as I can and I say, ‘Hello' and let them at least know I see them and I will be with them soon.”

The result is no more lines, Mr. Certilman noted. He and his general manager use security camera footage continually to monitor that the policy is followed.

“Everyone has dialed into it: the cashiers, the service manager, me,” Mr. Certilman said.

“If there is somebody standing in that line and every service advisers' desk is not filled, someone is going to get an earful.”

That means be written up for a “dereliction of duty,” he added.

“Attentiveness is necessary," he said. “Good customer service is anticipating customers' needs. Catch everything before the time starts to erode the experience.”

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This story first appeared on the website of Automotive News, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.