Customer service isn’t a department. It’s an attitude.

Customer service is everything in a garage. But ask most owners where it lives and they’ll point at the front desk.

It isn’t a department. It’s an attitude. It’s about how good you want to be, and how good you want to make your customer feel.

When I’m dealing with someone, my aim is simple. I want them to feel they’re the only customer I’ve got in the world.

Your customers arrive anxious

Remember what’s walking through your door. Nobody comes to a garage because they want to. They come in with anxiety.

Their car’s let them down. They don’t know what it’s going to cost. And they can’t judge for themselves what needs doing.

That’s why you have to build a relationship and a rapport with that person. Unless you can do that, you’ll never be able to give the extra bit of service vehicle owners need.

Silence is where doubt creeps in

Here’s where most of us fall down. We have a lot of silence. We don’t communicate enough.

And all of that brings doubt to the vehicle owner. Every silence you leave, they fill with something worse than the truth.

So the update call, the clear explanation, the phone call back when you said you’d call: that isn’t being nice. It’s managing the worry your customer walked in with.

Hats off to front of house

I take my hat off to everyone who deals with customers on the front line, whether you call them front of house or service advisors. They have the hardest job in the garage.

The technicians have it a bit easier. Why? Because 99% of the time they’re not engaging with the customer. They’re repairing the car.

It is attitude. And it’s a very difficult thing to perform every day when people are very demanding.

Andy Savva

Put your technicians on the front counter

In my business, I encouraged my technicians to come out once every month or six weeks and spend some time on the front counter.

That way they experienced what their colleagues go through: customers ringing up and describing things, people who are stressed, a car that’s broken down and someone asking what we can do for them.

Once your technicians have stood there, they understand why the job card and the write-up matter. Customer service stops being someone else’s job.

What to do this week

1. Look at every car in today at lunchtime. Has each customer heard from you since they dropped it off?
2. Agree when customers get an update, and who makes the call, so nobody is left in silence.
3. Book one technician onto the front counter for a few hours this month, and talk with them afterwards about what they noticed.