Dear Mr. Unsolicited Advice,
How can Stevinson Toyota West, a local major car dealership here in the Denver metro area, make my customer service experience more noteworthy?
-- Driving in Denver
Oh, let me count the ways:
Hey, Stevinson Toyota West people, if a call is routed to your service desk, be sure not to pick it up and politely ask me to hold. Let it sit on hold for a long time, then let it roll over, ring a few times, and briefly pick it up and then immediately push the hold button again. I can hear the music interruption and the background noise while the phone is briefly off the hook, and that will assure me that someone is still alive over there.
It's also impressive if you leave me on hold long enough that I get to listen to the entire frelling jazzy Muzak-on-hold tape loop you cheaped out and bought, and hear it roll back over to the beginning.
When you hire someone to answer the phone in the service department, make sure, if you aren't going to hire enough associates to come to the phone in a timely fashion, you hire someone who isn't a trained service professional, so that they have to scramble to figure out what your problem is.
This sort of customer service strategy -- which you seem to already be taking to heart -- will not actually drive away customers who find it seriously convenient, logistically, to go to you. But it will make people glad they actually bought their car somewhere else.
Filed under :: Big Business :: Cars :: Mr. Unsolicited Advice
I have visions of you being stuck in your very own Beevus and Butthead episode.
"Doom-doom-doom-doomity-doom-doomdoomdoom"
"Yeah, Yeah can I help you"
"I'd like to schedule an apointment"
"Heh, heh, heh, heh...He said apointment"
...Or you just ran into G'r the mechanic!
When I sit there on hold for several minutes, going through the briefly-pick-up-long-enough-to-put-back-on-hold bit once ever 20-60 seconds, then call back again, then go through the same routine again, then get answered, put back on hold, answered again, inadvertently hung up on, call again, sit on hold for a while longer ...
"Grrrr" is just about right.
And let's hope that this thread becomes as popular as the USBank thread.
*grin*
Hrm. I hope not. :-)
But if someone from Stevinson's should happen to see it, I wouldn't mind.
I think it was probably just a bad day. I normally swear by those guys when it comes it my 4Runner. Wanna hear my Burt story? I promise after that you will appreciate Stevinson's more.
To be fair, yes, most of my experiences there have been good ones. And the guy manning the service desk did seem to make an effort (once he finally stopped cycling me onto hold) to find a real service associate, and, eventually, passed on some info.
But it was still irksome.
I forgot to tell you yesterday - The answer they gave you is dead wrong. There is no reset button. I even read the manual.
"Hey...we have some annoying crank on the line. First he ranted about customer service, then he asked about X in the car and how to fix it."
"Well tell him that all he needs to do if hit the reset button...That'll keep him busy until at least next Monday."
FWIW, the answer they gave me turned out to be correct. The users manual in the car, though, could use some work.