Setting Customer Exceptions in Auto Service: Beyond the Customer is Always Right

Anthony Perl: 00:00:00

Setting customer expectations in auto service beyond

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the customer is always right.

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Join passionate automotive trainer

and coach Andrew Uglow as he explores

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how successful workshops manage

and install customer expectations.

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In this episode, you'll learn

why the customer is always

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right, mindset can be flawed.

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Discover how leading businesses like

Apple set and deliver on service

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promises and understand the real impact.

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Of under promising and over-delivering.

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Along the way, Andrew shares some

practical insights about service, pricing,

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timing, and the true meaning of customer

ownership in modern automotive businesses.

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I'm your co-host, Anthony Pearl, and this

is the Frictionless Workshop podcast.

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Let's get cranking.

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Andrew, I want to talk to you

about this whole concept of.

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Expectations and the expectations

particularly that a client has

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because that's going to be, have

an enormous impact on a business.

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And where do those expectations

come from and how do you

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actually manage that expectation?

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It's a big idea, but it's so important.

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Andrew Uglow: So one of the big metrics

for business is customer satisfaction.

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And there is a whole bunch of very,

very clever people with a whole lot of

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letters before and after their names

who have written some outstanding

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material on customer satisfaction,

delighting customers, customer service

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processes, all that sort of stuff.

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And so I feel like the newbie in

the room when I talk about this,

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you know, here's this, here's this.

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You know, who's this guy?

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So the question though about where

the customer expectations come from.

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They don't magically

just form out a thin air.

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There's actually some patterns

to how customers form their

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expectations, but understand the

customers will form expectations.

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And so the thinking, generally speaking

has been that the customer's always right.

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You know, customer comes in and

says, I want da, da, da da da.

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While the customer's always right.

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And so we have to react or respond

to these customer's expectations.

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And I, I'm gonna go, that's

profoundly flawed, just like.

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What if the customer's

expectations are outside of what's

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within the realms of physics?

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Now, what do we do?

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Do we change the laws of

physics to please the customer?

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You know, I've got a a a, a, whatever

car I've got and I want a major service.

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The service is gonna take six hours

and you've got 45 minutes to do

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it in, or else I'm gonna be upset.

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Well, help me understand

how that's even reasonable.

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I, the customer can have the expectation,

but that doesn't mean that the

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expectation has any foundation in reality.

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So I go back to, well, the

question, well, where do customers

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get their expectations from?

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And, and sometimes they

come from past experience.

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Last time I was in your business,

you did my service in one hour,

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and now you're gonna set up

telling me it's gonna take three.

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Well, from the customer's perspective,

that's a very reasonable, you did it

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before, why can't you do it again?

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At the same time, the customer

doesn't realize that today

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we're five people short.

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You know, two people are away on training,

one's at trade school and two called in

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sick of work or sick, or I don't know why

they're having a rostered sick day off,

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whatever the reason is, they're not here.

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And so we don't have the resource

to be able to serve you the way

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we would normally serve you.

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Uh, and so it's simply gonna

take longer and, and of course,

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the customer gets upset.

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Well, da da.

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Okay.

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But now we've got a variation between

the customer's expectation and

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what's possible out of the business.

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The other thing that drives

customer's expectations is they

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went to Apple or they went to insert

other business somewhere else.

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You know, and, and of course Apple

are outstanding generally with their,

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with their customers to service.

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They have a very.

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Good process.

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They have very good people.

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And so if we go back to the equation

of what makes for good customer

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service, well, we have talented people

talking about talent management.

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We have good processes that

facilitate talented people being

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able to apply their talent.

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And believe it or not, apple actually

install the customer's expectation.

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Mm-hmm.

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You know, people go,

well, what do you mean?

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Well, well, apple tells you exactly

what's gonna happen, when it's

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gonna happen, how it's gonna happen.

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And then they deliver on that

because they can, because they

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installed the expectation.

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And I go, well, how is that any different

to what a workshop should be doing?

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We should be installing expectations too,

because if we don't, someone else will.

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And, and so now we might have a variance

between the customer expectation and

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what we can do, or what we can do

today because of the, the variety.

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You know, whenever I think of

customer service, I, I love the,

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the DIT cartoon or comic strip.

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Uh, they were talking

about customer service.

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One of the, one of the characters

says, you know, um, customer

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service surveys are down.

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Um, what are we gonna do about it?

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And the first person, the person

responds and says, well, you know,

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the, the customer expectations

are this, that, and the other.

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And how are we ever gonna

meet that kind of thing.

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The second person says, well,

the customer's always right.

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The customer's always right.

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You need to meet the customer expectation.

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And a third person that's watching on from

the background mutters under their breath,

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you know, yes, the customer's always right

and should be punished for their insul.

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Just go.

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Maybe that's a different way of doing

customer service, but I'm not sure

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that it's gonna show up in the customer

satisfaction report as a positive.

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Anthony Perl: Um.

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The concept of under promise and

over deliver is a very simple one,

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but it's, it, it, it really does.

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I mean, even the, even the simple

thing, if you, you know, customer

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drives up or customer's coming in to

books, his car in for service, and you

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set the expectation that it'll be done

in an hour and it's, and it ends up

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taking two, you've, you're not going

to endear yourself to the customer.

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But if you do the flip side

of things and you say, look.

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We, if you arrive here at seven and

we take the car in, then it should be

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ready by about mid to late morning.

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So you're setting the expectation

that it's gonna be around 11 to

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1130, that it'll be finished.

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And if you finish that car at nine

o'clock, that's fantastic for the client.

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You know, then you potentially,

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Andrew Uglow: well, you know,

some customers would go,

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well, you finished at nine.

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Nine.

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Why don't you tell me, be ready at nine?

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I could have done da da,

and they're still upset.

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Anthony Perl: Well, yes, there

is always, there is always that.

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And May and, and you and you,

some customers are special

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for absolutely other reasons.

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Some people will find a way to be

critical no matter what happens.

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This is true.

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Um, but, but those, in that simple

idea though of, of setting the

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expectations as you say, you know,

whether things will be done on the day.

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Or not what level of, of satisfaction

that they will have with it.

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I think one of the, the simple things is

that, that you also have to realize that

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some clients' expectations have been set

by previous experience at other places.

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Yeah, that makes it more challenging.

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I mean, I, the, the simple, you know,

going, dumbing it down to a simple

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example is that I've been to places

where my car's being serviced and they

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will clean the vehicle as part of it.

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They'll do a, you know, a reasonably

thorough car wash, like mm-hmm.

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They'll come out looking good,

they'll do a quick vacuum.

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That's all part of the service now.

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Then you go to the next place

and they don't deliver on that.

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You go, Hmm, why isn't my car as clean

as it was when the last time it came out?

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Now there can be all sorts of

reasons why that may not happen.

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And so it's about setting those

expectations from the beginning and

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part of it might be a price thing too

and a time thing and, and any number of

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different things like you know, the last

place you paid $500 for the service.

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This place you're paying

$250 for the service.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well.

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That makes a difference.

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It does.

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It does make a difference.

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There's absolutely, there's no time

and resources to clean the car at the

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$250 mark there is at the $500 mark.

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The Frictionless Workshop podcast is

brought to you by Solutions Culture.

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For details on how to get in touch

with Andrew, consult the show notes

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below, and don't forget to subscribe

so you don't miss an episode.

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Now back to the podcast.

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Andrew Uglow: Right.

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And so a couple of questions that are

worth asking, like if you were to look at.

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Because we measure, and most people

have, or most businesses, whether

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regardless of the brand, there'll be

some sort of customer satisfaction

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tied to a financial result.

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So a lot of the industry use a net

promoter score where you have customers

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rank you one to 10, and anything six

and below is considered a detractor.

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And so they're basically saying,

I would've been better off being

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in a coma than bringing my car

to you and having you service it.

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Seven and eight are called neutral.

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We didn't tick off the customer, but

we certainly didn't impress them.

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And nine and 10 are what we

consider promoters like we met

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or exceeded their expectation.

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And so there's a method of calculating

you subtract the number of detractors

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that you have from the number of

promoters that you have, discount

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the, the people who were neutral.

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And that'll give you a percentage.

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And depending upon which brand,

depending upon which industry,

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like which part of the industry.

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So are you in aftermarket?

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Are you a dealer?

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Are you dealing with luxury cars?

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Are you dealing with more, you know,

common vehicles, prestige stuff.

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There's different metrics for

this sort of, sort of thing.

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But generally speaking, the

rule of thumb is if you can be

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over 50%, you're doing okay.

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And ideally, like if you can't get

to 70%, well you've gotta be, you've

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still, you've got opportunity.

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To improve in what you're doing.

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Um, there's also other metrics

around fixed first visit

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and those sorts of things.

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Did we fix the customer's

concern the first time?

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Every time?

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And that matters.

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That's a thing.

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And let me just take off my

customer hat for a minute and

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put on my business hat and be Mr.

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Business person I absolutely wanna fix

first time rework is profoundly expensive.

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My inner Scotsman has some

real challenges with that.

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Like, I'm, I, why am I

paying to do this job twice?

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I, no, we're not doing that.

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And so business hat off, customer

hat back on, there's all of the

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anguish and pain of dropping your

car off and making all the additional

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arrangements and all that sort of stuff.

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No one wins rework and it is worth

being slow or delayed the first

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time rather than doing rework on a

whole variety of different levels.

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And, and again, the question comes in.

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Two.

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Where do customers get

their expectation from?

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Well, that goes back to who has their

ear and who has their ear, and what

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are they saying If, if they're taking

their expectations from previous

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experience at other businesses, if

they're taking their experience from,

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you know, I rang Amazon and they deliver

my thing the very next day, why can't

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you people do that with your parts?

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Completely different contexts.

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And, and of course customers have a

challenge in that they don't have.

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Access to the same depth of information,

the same quality of information,

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or the same volume of information

when they form their expectations.

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And so this is why we have people

talking about or going onto

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form forums and stuff like that.

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And, and this is again, a point to one

of the many laments that technicians

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have is customers go to a forum

forum and all the people on the forum

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are discussing a concern about a

particular car or a particular concern.

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They then come to the

understanding that their car may

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have or does have that concern.

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And so they present to the dealership and

say, I was on the forum, da dah, dah, dah.

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I have this concern.

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Um, and that may be entirely

invalid, but the challenge is

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we've got the customer expectation.

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And so we talking in, in technical

world about two different skill sets.

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We talk about fixing the customer

versus fixing the car, and,

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and they're not the same thing.

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Anthony Perl: And part of it

too, Andrew, isn't it about it

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attracting your ideal client?

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Because if you set the expectations to

match who your ideal client is, then

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you're gonna attract those people and

that's part of the process, right?

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I mean, going back to sort of the,

the cleaning example, if you say, if

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you set the expectations, say, well,

we take a little bit longer, but we

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make sure your car is cleaned and

do all of those things, then that's.

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You know, this is the ideal client.

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If you are the on the client's

hat and you say, look, I've got

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an hour to get my car fixed.

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I don't really care

about it being cleaned.

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I care about it being done quickly.

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That is it.

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This may not be the place for you.

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The next place may be the place for you.

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We, we do it, queen, you know, quickly.

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Mm-hmm.

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And, and get it.

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And get it done because

we know you're in a hurry.

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Well, again, sets different expectations,

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Andrew Uglow: right?

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Absolutely.

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Um, the, the other thing that's worth,

worth considering here with customer's,

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customer's expectation is when, when

does the service experience end?

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Mm.

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Like we, we talk with sales professionals

frequently, and we ask that question, when

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does the sales experience finish well?

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Is it when you hand the keys

over and take the check?

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That, that might be when it

finishes for the sales professional.

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But what about for the customer?

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When did their sales experience finish?

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And, and the same thing is true

then for, for service customers.

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Um, when does, when does their

service experience finish?

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Because it could be very different from

the business car came in, da da da da.

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We did the work, did the road test

quality check, you know, wash the

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car or didn't what, whatever it was.

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Some places charge extra,

some places that's included.

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We hand the car, the keys back

to the customer, you know, do

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all of bits that we need to do.

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And from the business's

perspective, we're finished.

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But what about from the

customer's perspective and, and

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who's taking ownership of that?

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And, and this is the piece that I, that

I want to really dive into here is.

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If we don't take ownership as, as

the business, if we're not taking

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ownership of the entire customer

experience, someone else will.

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They will get their information

from somewhere else.

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They will get their information from

sources that may or may not be reliable.

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Sources that have a vested interest,

um, sources that could in fact be

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absolutely spot on, but they will

get their information somewhere

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else if they don't get it from us.

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And so there has been a, what's

the word I'm looking for?

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There has been a, um.

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An opportunity to improve would be

a really nice way to say this around

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customer ownership and I, I like to

use the term installing the customer

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experience and doing it at a micro

level, like baby steps, here's.

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Now that you've bought the car,

here's what you can expect.

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This is how you bring

your car into service.

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This is where you park.

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This is what the discussion

we're gonna have.

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And we, you're gonna see this and

you're gonna see this, and you're gonna

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see this and take all of the mystery

out of it and, and, and explain.

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You know, we only take bookings in,

in two hour lots because we can't

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effectively look after your car.

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Speed.

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It just isn't going to produce

the quality that you deserve.

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And so these are the sorts of

things that, that need to be in the

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communications, in the text messages,

in the, in the emails or the videos.

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And, and I know of aftermarket businesses

particularly who are doing this very,

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very well, and, and perhaps the big

distinction between dealer businesses

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and aftermarket businesses is that

dealer businesses have a pipeline of

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new customers 'cause they buy the car.

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Whereas aftermarket businesses don't

have that luxury and, and so they,

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they have to find their customers.

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And given the shortage of technicians

at this point in time, that is less

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of a challenge because everyone's

booked out two weeks because there just

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isn't enough people to do the work.

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Which of course presents some challenges

around customers expectations.

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Oh, but I'm going away next week.

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Yes.

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Maybe you are, but not with

your car service by us.

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Anthony Perl: And it's hard too, isn't it?

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Because some of these expectations, as

you say in a, in a dealer sense, are

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set by the manufacturer who say, right,

you know, the first service is included.

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Service costs are fixed at this price.

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: 00:16:16

Yeah, absolutely.

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Um, all of those things set a

deal of expectation, you know,

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for the client in the first place.

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: 00:16:23

Andrew Uglow: Yeah.

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And not without, cause, like

I, I, I think some things.

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Spot on.

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The challenge is, and I go back to

the Pareto, right, we've got 80, 20,

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80% of the time customers walk away

happier than a dog with two tails

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like the, the everything was done,

met, or exceeded their expectations.

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: 00:16:40

They had no problems, they had no dramas.

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The, the challenge really becomes when

we didn't, and the greater challenge

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: 00:16:49

then is, did, was that because we screwed

up, or was that because the customer's

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: 00:16:54

expectation was inaccurate or invalid?

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: 00:16:56

And, and so I go back to

the whole idea of ownership.

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Well, who owns the customer's

experience in our business?

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: 00:17:03

Well, we do.

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The business does.

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That's our job.

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: 00:17:06

And so we, we start with pre-install

before they come in, and then

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we start, we, we continue the

idea of ownership afterwards.

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: 00:17:14

And if, uh, this, this gets back

to the way we take ownership is,

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or the tool that we use for taking

ownership is called communication.

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That's the channel that we use or the

tool that we use to install expectation

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and to take ownership afterwards.

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We, it's a lovely, broad generalization.

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Oh, we communicate with the customer well.

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Yeah.

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: 00:17:39

Great.

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: 00:17:40

How specifically do you do that?

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: 00:17:42

What specifically do you say?

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: 00:17:43

When do you say that?

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: 00:17:45

What?

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: 00:17:46

What shouldn't be said?

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: 00:17:47

Because there's things

that you don't say to

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: 00:17:49

Anthony Perl: a customer.

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: 00:17:50

Thank you for listening to the

Frictionless Workshop podcast.

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: 00:17:53

For details on how to get Andrew

working with you and your technicians,

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: 00:17:57

take a look at the show notes.

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: 00:17:59

There's also a link to some

special content you can access.

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: 00:18:02

I'm Anthony Pearl reminding you to

subscribe so you don't miss an episode.