Follow-up calls from shops exceed customer expectations

Courtesy calls create golden opportunities to exceed motorists' expectations of an automotive service facility.

Follow-up calls after the sale project warmth and concern — unexpected courtesies in this era of emails and text messages. Although emails and texts are fast, modern methods, they also are cold, impersonal messages.

Courtesy calls help distinguish a business from its competition because personal customer contacts are relatively uncommon. For example, motorists have told me that they never received follow-up calls from doctors, dentists, contractors or other service providers.

However, they did receive courtesy calls from auto service personnel who wanted their feedback. Vehicle owners said the call was a pleasant surprise as well as a memorable gesture.

What's more, follow-up calls constitute critical quality control checks for auto repair facilities. Savvy bosses stressed that after-sale contacts are the fastest way to identify potential problems with their personnel or shop procedures.

The sooner bosses identify trouble, the faster they can address it.

Some readers may think that these themes are foregone conclusions for capable owners and managers. But my field experience suggests that follow-up calls to customers have not been routine at many auto service businesses.

Regular readers may recall that I started working in full-service gas stations in the late 1960s and began reporting on the industry for trade journals in 1976. Since 1993, I also have crisscrossed the country presenting seminars to professional technicians.

Based on this work experience, I believe many auto service providers have not prioritized effective customer follow-up. Relatively recently, business management specialists have offered seminars and courses on the subject — including the value of follow-up calls.

These classes have been eye-openers for many owners and managers I have encountered.

Meanwhile, auto service facilities have a long history of wishful thinking about customer satisfaction: Hope for the best outcome instead of verifying that people actually are satisfied with the tires, maintenance or repairs they purchased.

Over the years, for example, I have seen a request posted in customer lounges and printed on shop invoices: If you like our service, tell your family and friends. If you don't like our service, tell us.

Experience shows customers may or may not take this message to heart.

"The job did not come back" is another tired old example of wishful thinking at auto service facilities. Many service personnel throughout the industry take this saying for granted — use it too freely.

This expression is based on the fallacy that no news is good news. Supposedly, no news proves that the customer is happy because the repair was successful.

This wishful attitude is so pervasive that I have been hearing it for more than 50 years. Among other places, I heard it from some techs who attended my seminars across the country.

For example, I might be discussing possible solutions for challenging problems on certain makes and models. Where appropriate, I would cite several repair options for problematic vehicles.

Sometimes, attendees would recommend unorthodox, potentially risky fixes for tough problems. Instinctively — but politely — I would ask techs how they knew their procedures worked.

All too often, they told me that the car never came back. To me, "never came back" meant that the step required hands-on testing and verification.

Otherwise, the recommendation was hearsay instead of a proven technique.

Perhaps you or your co-workers say things like "the car never came back." I respectfully urge you to scrutinize that expression before you use it again.

A more-accurate statement is that the car did not come back to your auto repair facility. An unsuccessful repair may have brought that vehicle into someone's service shop or tire dealership.

But the car did not come back to you.

Similarly, you may not hear from the customer and then tell yourself that silence is golden. In reality, no follow up from the car owner only means that they did not contact you — nothing more.

Recognize that several factors — technical as well as emotional — may prevent a vehicle from coming back to your auto service facility.

First, techs are human; humans make mistakes. A harried tech may have bungled the repair — perhaps making an existing condition worse than it was.

Second, scary symptoms caused by a tech's mistake may prompt the customer to seek refuge at the next auto repair facility they see. Understandably, many motorists are terrified of being stranded somewhere.

Third, I stressed in previous columns that the average age of vehicles on the road today is 12.6 years. Realistically, an older vehicle may have one or more problems in it but your techs only identified one of them.

One of the conditions they overlooked happened to fail after the vehicle left your business. The failure caused strange symptoms. Or worse yet, it stranded the vehicle in an awkward or unsafe location.

Regardless, all the customer knows is that your tech was the last person to touch the vehicle. Consequently, they blame your tech outright or else strongly suspect incompetence.

Understandably, a customer may lose their temper and whatever confidence they had in your business. So they call a nearby repair shop for a fresh look at their vehicle's troubles.

Fourth, recognize that time is tight because many consumers have difficult schedules or work multiple jobs. You may hear motorists complain that they feel more stressed that ever before.

Logically, you may expect a motorist to come back, allowing your techs to recheck their vehicle. But a frazzled car owner may lack the patience to plead their case with you. Sadly, they may fear an unpleasant confrontation.

These scenarios may explain why some motorists simply chalk episodes up to experience and take their auto repair business elsewhere.

Owners and managers have told me that some crew members resist implementation of customer follow-up formats or programs. In the past, these employees have endured unfair criticism from unhappy customers.

Caustic customer comments may dissuade workers from ever making follow-up telephone calls again. Unfortunately, a relatively small percentage of unhappy customers want to turn dissatisfaction into character assassination.

But wherever and whenever staffers interact with consumers, there is a risk of encountering a crank or serial complainer. This includes car owners who lambaste service personnel for conditions wholly unrelated to the work performed on the vehicle.

Sometimes, folks just feel the need to gripe to someone. (When a careless child sends a baseball through a car window, the mistake is unrelated to the wheel alignment your dealership performed last week.)

Savvy, successful bosses have convinced me that courtesy calls after the service are valuable customer satisfaction and quality control tools. The key takeaway here is that the calls are proactive — searching out and verifying the information you seek.

Some owners and managers simply wait to hear. But by the time bosses hear bad news, the damage to the business' reputation already may be done.