I read an article today on the "Slow Death" of Best Buy despite the fact that they sell 1/3 of the electronics in the USA and the lack of large competitors.

I must say I was a little shocked due to the recent demise of one of their largest competitors last year. You may remember Circuit City went out of business last year. In addition in the Canadian market they own their largest rival Future shop. This is interesting because the business or sales model at both stores is different. Future shop uses a sales team that are paid commission where Best Buy's employees are paid a base salary plus a small bonus for volume I expect.

The main problem however with both stores is the lack of customer service and "service" in general. The question is what happened to these retailers. Have they forgotten the lessons taught by Wal-Mart. Have they forgotten that customers just want help finding things they are looking for. When you look at retailers like Apple you can see that "service" is not only possible it makes sense.

Why do some retailers get it while others don't. The answer is simple, accountability, and a great process that they use every time. This process is not new, large successful companies have been doing it for years. If your management team accepts poor results, poor customer service and is not on a path to fix the problem you may go the way of Best Buy in a few tears.

The questions is would any of the owners, managers, salespeople, service people, and parts people really choose poor customer service over excellent customer service. I don't think so. There is a reason why Starbucks can Charge $5 for a coffee when dunkin' Donuts can only charge $2.

What should you do at your dealership to fix the problem?

One: Don't accept the fact that your staff will get it done. In order to get good at anything you must not only train the right process you need to practice it every day. Don't accept poor service and when you see it train your staff the right way.

Two: Have a process for everything and make sure that process is the best process possible and that it is followed every time. It drives me nuts when I call a dealership and try to speak to the parts department only to hear the following "parts, please hold" every time! Would you do business with this parts department if you had a choice of something better?

Three: Don't wait for online services like True Car or Car Cost to force you to improve your sales process. As industry professionals we should improve the way people buy vehicles. If customers don't like how we deal with them we need to stop blaming the customers. This has always driven me nuts, we use 30 year old tactics and don't make it easy for customers to understand or buy vehicles. Stop selling out of fear and give the customer the information they need to buy the vehicle today!

Four: If you don't know please don't guess. Customers don't trust car dealerships, because we don't give them the right information and then they assume all the information is bad. Start by answering the questions you are asked by the customer. If you don't know admit it and ask get the answers. We dig out own holes in a lot of cases at car dealerships because we create the problem in the first place.

Five: The more transparent you make the process, the more you answer questions, the easier it is to not only help a customer but to sell and service cars. Now I am not going to tell you every customer is easy, but if you start by treating customers with respect the process is not only easier it is a pleasant one for both parties.

Go out there and show the True Car's and the brokers and Jiffy lube's of the world how it is done. We loose customers because of how we treat them not because of how we price products and services anyway.

If you have questions, need help or want to give me your thoughts, I am all ears.

Make it a great day and create lots of happy customers in 2012!

You deserve real growth in your business. If you need help call 1 877 452 2753 anytime.

Ian Nethercott

Performance Coach

Proactive Dealer Solutions

http://www.bdcexperts.com

inethercott@bdcexperts.com