Lessons on how to loose customers – by Audi
One of the reasons I like these blogs so much is that you can write about day-to-day stuff that happens to you, which is often much more appropriate and interesting. No need for formal, business like English (God spare us!).
So, in a non-formal way – let me tell you about Audi, and how they are great at loosing customers. It is not because of the product. It is because of the staff they employ.
I am in the market for a new car – an Audi A4 infact. It was a car that I know little about, and it was recommended to me by someone.
So, I look at the website and to be honest, get a little confused with all the stuff they put on there. Why they have to have some many complicated bizarre jargon names I will never know…
…so what do I do? I call my local dealer to find out the answers. I end up speaking to a guy called Matt. Bizarrely, I suppose, but I always like talking to people with the same name as me…but not this guy. He cut me off half way through me asking what he thought were “basic” questions. I might be miss judging him, but wait to you hear the rest.
I call him back. It takes 5 minutes to put me through. I wonder why, had allsorts of theories – but I was, at least, willing to give him the benefit-of-the-doubt.
I arrange with him a test drive for Monday at 3pm. This is on the Friday afternoon. I give him my contact details, and ask him to call if there are any problems
Monday arrives.
Half way through the day, I realise that I have forgotten my driving license. D’oh! So, I go home to get it which causes some minor disruption for the day. Granted, this is not “Matt’s” fault – it is mine, but for “Matt’s” sake, the test drive needs to go well as I am not in the best frame of my given my stupidity.
I get there at 3 as promised. Again, it takes Matt 5 minutes to come out to me. He greets me by saying “Matt, I have had a problem getting you a car to test drive”.
Awesome!
My immediate response – “You have tried for two days, and no where can you get me a car to test drive?”
“No”
“Yet you had my number, why didn’t you call?”
“I did. But your phone was engaged or not being answered or something…” This is where I switch off, and start to loose it.
He is lying to me. I know it straight away - prospects and customers always do.
My mobile always goes to answer phone, and even if he did call (I had no proof whatsoever of this – but let’s give the benefit of the doubt again) – he could have called again…
Given that he is not sure of what actually happened when he called either – all the evidence is stacked against him. He obviously didn’t want to talk to me by the way he kept looking around – so I left.
As I walked out of that door – my decision on whether or not to buy an Audi had been finalised. The answer was no.
Funnily enough, I saw a friend in the car park and immediately related my story to him.
So what can we learn from this?
- Always show interest and enthusiasm to the customer, regardless of how small you think their order is…you never know who they will tell.
~ - Get their number immediately – so if you get cut off, call them back immediately.
~ - If you make an appointment, stick to it and don’t show up late.
~ - If there is a problem – call.
~ - Be honest, and stop lying, customers see right through it!
~ - If you treat a customer badly – the first thing they will do is tell a bunch of people how badly you have treated them!
So, what happened then? I thought right, blow this – I will stop by the local BMW place across the road.
What a difference. I walked in, and was pleasantly greeted. Immediately, they sat me down whilst they found a person to talk to me, and whilst I was waiting got me a drink of nice fresh orange (not Asda’s cheap stuff).
He shook my hand, looked me in the eye and was interested in what I had to say. Within 20 minutes, I understood all the options that I needed to know about and was driving a model just like the one I was thinking of buying.
They had taken my contact details, and when I got back to my office – I had an email waiting from them.
Such a different experience.
What about Lexus? They were the same as BMW – only better. They lend you a car for a while, “take as long as you need with it” they say.
My advice – forget Audi – get a BMW or Lexus – from a customer service point of few – you will be glad you did.
Oh, and make sure that you give your prospects and customers a reason to say good things about you to other people rather than negative – you don’t know how much business that one person will bring you!
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