Tag Archives: customer service

Great customer service translates into business success

Business of the Year, Wiltshire Business Awards
Business of the Year, Wiltshire Business Awards
Pebley Beach is an award-winning and FOXY Lady Approved car dealership in Swindon.

It is also a Suzuki dealership where Club members in the Swindon area can claim exclusive model discounts.

So we wanted to know more about the Pebley Beach award winning business model and asked their Managing Director, Dom Threlfall, to tell us what they are doing that clearly many others aren’t.

This sentiment is neatly summed up in Dom’s quote.

“I believe great customer service is the key to business success – whatever business you’re in”

Top Ten Customer Service Takeaways

Sarcasm gets a yellow and sometimes red card at Pebley Beach
Sarcasm gets a yellow and sometimes red card at Pebley Beach

And so do we Dom, hence FOXY’s TOP TEN small and simple but spot on customer service favourites that Pebley Beach put into action and explain why they are on our FOXY Lady Approved list ahead of others…

1/ Reserved parking bays near the main entrance for customers with an appointment

2/ Expecting staff to walk customers back to their car

3/ Using a piece of tape to remind our technicians where the car seat was positioned.

“We’ve had married couples asking us to keep the tape in place, so that they know how far to put the seat back or forward for their partners!”

4/ Welcoming MoT and car servicing reminders.

5/ Simple online booking systems to free up staff to deliver personal customer service.

6/ The ability to watch technicians work on your car via a smartphone (a Hyundai service which Dom hopes will be rolled out nationally).

7/ A strategy to identify and recruit rising stars as apprentices, training them with a view to the future. Pebley Beach has won Awards for this approach as have many of their long standing staff as a result of this.

8/ Recognition that Pebley Beach is a community business requiring ethical behaviour at all times, manifesting this in upright and transparent customer dealings. The red and yellow football card photo above is a good example of this – it’s sarcasm that gets yellow and red cards at Pebley Beach…

9/ Managing an Aftersales (aka garage services) Charter so customers know what they can expect from Pebley Beach.

10/ Finally customers are encouraged to leave a voice mail message for Dom if he’s not in the business at the time. This is an excellent way to head off customer concerns that might otherwise escalate.

Other customer service initiatives

In recognition of his ability to convert good ideas into measurable actions Suzuki has sponsored Dom to attend the NADA Expo, the annual convention of the National Automobile Dealers’ Association where US dealers come together to compare the latest services and developments. And it’s said that whatever is hitting the spot in the US it will soon do so in the UK.

Certainly that is true about the female friendly car dealership business model askpatty.com that launched at the same time as FOXY in the UK. And where the number of women drivers exceeded the number of male ones ahead of this happening in the UK.

“No-one does customer service like the Americans,” said Dom “so I was looking for great ideas that I can adopt in the UK.

“But best practice doesn’t just come from within the industry. Every time I’m at a restaurant, book into a hotel, or even order a pizza I’ll replicate anything that’s given me a great customer experience.”

Dom is also in demand as a business speaker and shared a platform at the Customer Service Summit in April 2016 with Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service; Linda Moir, former director of In Flight Services, Virgin Atlantic; Catherine Hutt, principal consultant (automotive) at Frost & Sullivan; and Captain Gary Barrow of King’s Royal Hussars, giving delegates an unusual insight into how the Army tackles this topic.
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We’ll be returning to Pebley Beach later in the year to see what new NADA initiatives Dom might adopt and to measure the success of our FOXY Lady Approved services in terms of increased numbers of female customers. They are usually wary women who spot that Pebley Beach is the first dealership in Swindon to meet our standards ie our female car buying choice.

And as you can see from Dom’s approach, he is leading the car dealer field in Wiltshire by recognising that it isn’t just women who expect more from garages and car showrooms – men are equally delighted when the quality customer service bar is raised.

The challenge for other car dealerships is clear – they need to think as creatively about their own customer services, not just follow Pebley Beach’s examples.

“The greater the competition, the higher the customer service standard gets.”

says I, welcoming this challenge as ever.

FOXY

FOR MORE INFORMATION…

See Dom at the Swindon Business Show demonstrating Pebley Beach systems efficiencies as a means of increasing the time available for staff to maintain the (often missing elsewhere) personal touch.

Here’s the Pebley Beach website.

Here are the exclusive Suzuki car deals for Club members.

And if you’d like to join the Club to enjoy services like preferential car insurance rates for women and such like, here’s how you can.

Double award winning female friendly Holders of Congresbury, SEAT dealership

holders_winners“Two is always better than one…” explained lucky Rex Jeffrey, Holders of Congresbury’s Managing Director, after hearing that the FOXY Lady Approved business had TWO not just ONE National Winners on the team.

Back in February SEAT UK announced a list of 25 finalists as they set out to identify the ‘Best of the Best’ in their National Dealer Network of 115 SEAT Dealerships across Great Britain.

Holders Service Manager Anthony Harris and Service Advisor Diane Gibbens made the grade as finalists and were then invited by SEAT to attend a day of tough tasks at the VW Group National Learning Centre in Milton Keynes.

Despite strong competition from around the country Anthony and Diane held their nerve and went on to demonstrate to the judges the integral principles of customer service that form the very DNA of Holders of Congresbury.

Anthony and Diane Get Gold

Both took Gold in their respective categories and at a Gala Dinner celebration they were presented with commemorative plaques detailing their achievements.

Diane and Anthony will now go on to represent the United Kingdom in the International Finals held in Barcelona, the home of SEAT Cars and the factory where most of them are made. They will be pitched against the very best in the world for Customer Service within the Volkswagen Group franchise, and as the best in the UK, they will be sure to give their all…

Anthony said “Having participated and won in this competition before, I thought I knew what to expect but this year’s standards were higher and the challenges tougher then ever!”

One of FOXY’s Female Business Ambassadors for Holders, Diane added, “I had been warned by my twin sister Jenny who had made the final back in 2013 what to expect! I am thrilled to have won this prestigious award and am confident this is down to my thorough preparation and because Customer Service at Holders is a very genuine daily focus for me.”

Mr Jeffrey commented “We are very proud of our winners, they are vital links within a strong chain of people who work exceedingly hard to maintain and improve Holders’ commitment to customer care. Recognition at this level from a company the size of the VW Group certainly puts Holders of Congresbury, and our worthy award winning team members, on the international map for all the right reasons!”

Good luck for Barcelona Anthony and Diane – we’d love to see you both pull off the global SEAT Awards in your respective categories.

FOXY

A foxy approach to garages

Would garages be any better if they had more women in them to sort out the customer service side of things? It’s a thought…

Based on everyday feedback from women drivers we know that the motor industry has many genuinely good garages in it but sadly there are quite a few bad ones out there too. Inevitably the motor industry doesn’t air its dirty washing in public and whilst the complaints continue about garages and used cars, nobody seems willing to ‘out’ the bad garages and the unscrupulous dealers we read about (or only use once).

In our experience the regulatory bodies lack the teeth to do the job here. Nice and understanding as they always seem to be, they will not name and shame offenders for ‘legal reasons’ they say. So the customer is expected to take the bad garage or dealer to Court and we suspect that few women do this in the end because it’s complicated, they’re often fed a load of lies by the business about the likely outcome and they worry it could end up costing them even more.

FOXY’s approach is different when it comes to problems that women drivers experience. We run a helpdesk for members so they know to come to us for the advantage of our practical advice. This can be important when it’s a technical matter and there’s a need to know or understand the jargon. Having given our independent opinion we then support the member to get things resolved. If it involves a female friendly approved FOXY Choice subscriber (yes it has been known…) it’s usually a case of our giving them a nudge, their resolving the problem quickly & amicably with us all learning from the experience.

Where the lady driver is a non member and FOXY doesn’t know the garage or dealer, we’ll help to check out their credentials so she knows if the garage is part of a trade organisation or complaints resolution service. She usually joins the Club at that stage, to be sure it doesn’t happen again.

Where there is no evidence of ANY commitment to quality and the garage doesn’t have a website, it’s hard to understand why any female motorist would buy from them in the first place. The reason this happens is because it is reasonable for motorists to expect garages to be licensed (they aren’t) and mechanics to be qualified (which they don’t have to be). So they trust a garage because they can’t imagine a garage wouldn’t be licensed or their staff unqualified. Which is a secret the garage industry can be truly ashamed of.

In a nutshell few motorists realise the risk they run, choosing a garage on the basis of price too many times, but without doing any homework first.

Sadly there is no one independent body above all others (that would be called regulation which FOXY would welcome tomorrow) to either explain and rate the many competing quality schemes or check if the garage is actually a member of the scheme it claims to be.

Our experience is that many garages tick quality boxes when they apply to join our female friendly approved garage network not realising we’ll check this; we don’t list quality logos until we can prove eligibility.

Sadly I can’t see this situation getting any better because the many competing good garage schemes are merely adding to the total confusion in motorists’ minds.

Our approach is to give offending garages and dealers the benefit of the doubt for a reasonable period of time to sort things out. If they don’t show any interest in doing this, we then spread the word among women drivers within the Club. Few garages and used car showrooms like to think of local foxy ladies hearing of their unscrupulous antics so it’s that sort of subtle approach that means FOXY usually get things sorted out in the end ;-).

FOXY

Find out about other support services FOXY Lady Drivers Club offers women drivers and their families.

Today’s oxymoron – a sympathetic bank

Thanks to Biker on the AM motor trade forum this is a great example of a US bank being insensitive, inflexible and inhuman. Congratulations Citibank – we award you FOXY’s first ‘I don’t care at all’ customer service award.

The message is clear – be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but it had reached c$60.00 so a family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the alleged exchange :

Family Member: ‘I am calling to tell you she died back in January.’
Citibank : ‘The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.’
Family Member: ‘Maybe you should turn it over to collections.’
Citibank : ‘Since it is two months past due, it already has been.’
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?’
Citibank : ‘Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!’

Family Member: ‘Do you think God will be mad at her?’
Citibank : ‘Excuse me?’
Family Member: ‘Did you just get what I was telling you – the part about her being dead?’
Citibank : ‘Sir, you’ll have to speak to my supervisor.’

The supervisor takes the call…

Family Member: ‘I’m calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.’
Citibank : ‘The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.’
Family Member: ‘You mean you want to collect from her estate?’
Citibank :  ‘Are you her lawyer?’
Family Member: ‘No, I’m her great nephew.’ (Lawyer info was given)
Citibank: ‘Could you fax us a certificate of death?’
Family Member: ‘Yes.’ (Fax number was given )

After they get the fax :

Citibank: ‘Our system just isn’t set up for death. I don’t know what more I can do to help.’
Family Member: ‘Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won’t care.’
Citibank: ‘Well, the late fees and charges will still apply.’
Family Member: ‘Would you like her new billing address?’
Citibank : ‘That might help….’
Family Member: ‘ Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.’
Citibank : ‘Sir, that’s a cemetery!’
Family Member: ‘And what do you do with dead people on your planet???’

They just don’t get it do they!

Could it happen over here?

I oh so wish I could say ‘no’ but hand on heart I’m not so sure…

FOXY