admin, Harare.
My friend who is based in the United Kingdom exported a Lexus for his father in Zimbabwe. He requested me to collect the car from Manica Zimbabwe and facilitate servicing of the car before I handed it over to his father. My colleagues referred me to Motor City in Graniteside.
Allow me to share my exhilarating experience at Motor City Harare. I telephoned the company last week on Monday to arrange service for the Lexus the following day. The lady voice from Motor City politely requested for my name and the registration number of the vehicle. She confirmed my booking for 8am on Tuesday.
One critical element of customer care is the ability of your staff to politely extract important customer information in the shortest period of time.
I arrived at 7.50am hours the following day. On arrival I was greeted by name by just looking at the car registration. There is nothing which makes me feel more important than people who address me by my name. All people want to feel important by being recognised. It is mandatory for employees and managers to take interest in remembering people’s names. Many service providers commoditise customers by calling them “sir”, “biggers”, “big dhara”, “mother” and so forth.
For goodness sake calling me, “big dhara” does not make me feel more important than calling me “Mr Chiganze”. In our culture it is also important to remember people’s totems. In addition to being called Mr Chiganze I also feel good if someone says “how are you Chihwa?” Addressing the customer with his name or totem makes her or him feel special, unique and important. Rule number one of customer care is to greet and address customers by their name or totem or both.
By 8am the Lexus was booked and I left. They kept their promise on time. Customers penalise suppliers or service providers who infringe on their time through unnecessary delays or lack of commitment to meet agreed deadlines.
At 9.30am I got my first progress report. Customers are dissatisfied with service providers who keep them in the dark. However, the service provider needs to guard against information overload on the other end.
At 11am they called me to advise that it was unlikely that they would finish servicing the car that day as they had encountered challenges with the locknuts on the front wheels. This would delay their ability to check and service brakes. One of the greatest sins committed by service providers is the habit of telling the customer what they think is favourable to the customer instead of telling the customer what is achievable given the circumstances.
Some service providers lie even if it is not necessary. The trust between the customer and service provider is lost the moment the customer discovers that the service provider lied to them. Lying gives the customer temporary happiness and permanent ill-feelings towards your company.
At 9am the following day they called to confirm that the service was progressing very well after removing the lock nuts, had finished repairing the air-condition container and were now re-gassing the vehicle .Though service providers are not used to giving customers progress reports, it is always important to keep the customer informed to reduce unnecessary anxieties. Progress reports demonstrate that the service provider is genuinely concerned about the customer.
At 11am the garage confirmed that they had sent the car for a road test.
At 11.30am Motor City texted me a reasonable bill and advised me that the car is now being washed. One of the major areas of customer dissatisfaction is on billing. Most service providers still believe in mark-ups of plus or minus 150 percent.
Once the customer realises that he or she has been ripped off, they stop giving you business unless your company is the sole supplier of that service. Greediness backfires in the long run.
At 1.30pm they advised me that the car was now ready for collection. After signing the satisfaction note I collected the car in very high spirit after receiving world class service. I was given the names of technicians (and their contact numbers) who attended to the vehicle. They also notified me of the option to return the vehicle if I am not satisfied with the service done and the numbers to phone should I encounter any problems in the future.
It appears the staff at Motor City have been drilled to be so customer oriented that even the behaviour of the sweeper up appears to have been aligned to serve the customer better.
Though they have different responsibilities, managers and sweepers are on the same wavelength as far as customer care is concerned. Most of the things they do comes out naturally because they have repeated these behaviours over a long period of time.
It might not be easy to replicate Motor City’s customer care methods to your organisation, but the philosophy which is guiding them is also applicable to your organisation.
Online Reporter