Happy Holidays—do your employees have the holiday spirit?
A blog by Sheila
Woolsey, President/CEO, Woolsey Performance Experts, Inc.
It is that time of year where
holiday cheer is in the air and everyone is happy, right? This time of year can be very stressful for
both customers and employees. Just what exactly
is the holiday spirit? Do we have to act
differently from any other time of year when it comes to how we treat
customers? The answer is no. But that then begs the question: do we have good customer handling behavior in
the first place?
Are your customers engaged?
The more time I spend in
dealerships, the more I see disengaged customers. What do I mean by “disengaged”? Customers disengage when they are not
involved in the process, ignored or left alone, or feel like the employee
helping them is less than enthusiastic.
Business with the best customer retention and loyalty treat their
customers like valuable friends. They
build a relationship with them, call them by name and make time to personalize
the experience. This means constant
customer involvement and find ways to make them part of the experience!
Do you have engaged employees?
Often times the customers are
difficult to engage because the employees are not engaged. It is pretty easy to spot an employee who is
just going through the motions for a means to an end. Dealerships need employees who have a desire
to serve and a passion to help customers.
This cannot be learned and finding employees who feel this way must be done
during the hiring process.
Do you have “behavior” standards in place?
We often focus on
implementing processes but fail to observe the behaviors of the employees who use
those processes to assist customers.
Behaviors should be welcoming and positive, including voice, tone and
body language. Often it appears that employees
are not even aware of how they look or come across to customers when trying to
help them.
Are you watching your customers’ body language?
Don’t take my word for
it…observe customer engagement for yourself.
The biggest indicator is body language.
Here are some suggested times to observe your customers while:
- waiting to be greeted
- in the customer lounge waiting
- left at the desk of a sales or service advisor for any reason
- watching the salesperson speak to the sales manager at the “tower”
- standing in line to pay
Get help!
Let Woolsey Performance
Experts, Inc. help! We have expert
performance coaches who can help create awareness and then generate enthusiasm
with employees in all departments of the dealership.
Sheila Woolsey is an automotive
sales and service operations expert who spends her time consulting and coaching
in dealerships, and training in the classroom.
