3 Words Affecting Your Dealership’s Customer Experience

One simple page from the reception desk is a direct reflection of your current customer experience.

I write this with 3 days left in the month. Auditing my social media feeds I see many dealership staff and vendors posting messages of positivity towards finishing the month strong. I see it every month actually, it’s nice, they are messages of encouragement to get us all working together in order to reach our collective targets.

As the level of urgency raises over these next few days at your store I want you to keep count of how many times you hear “sales to reception” over the dealership’s intercom. It may seem like a silly exercise but it may shed light on one of two scenarios.

“Sales to Reception”

The first is the “where is everybody” scenario. In an earlier post, 5 signs of a Sick Sales Floor, I talked about how without a proper rotation or team accountability salespeople may not be the most attentive to what is happening on the sales floor or who’s walking through the door. There’s nothing like having a customer, walk-in, appointment or be-back standing around looking for anyone to help. Eventually, the receptionist engages them and the intercom fires up, “sales to reception”. Even then they’re not even sure who will answer the call.

Which sets up the second scenario, maybe you’re understaffed on that shift, or just in general? Your floor traffic, if measured properly, can show you if you have enough coverage out there. Enough staff to manage your inbound customer flow properly. Remember that your marketing is pouring it on right now too and that is tirelessly trying to push people through the doors. You don’t want to sully that by missing opportunities that could turn into another dealer’s internet lead because you are under-staffed. “Sales to reception”…

Keep a count going over the next few days. A “low-fi” data experiment. Your final tally will shed a lot of light on your dealership’s ability to deliver that optimized customer experience you expect from every member of your staff. Let me know how you made out after, I’d love to write a follow-up piece to this with your findings.

Send your numbers to me and we’ll do an anonymous data dive after – bwees@thenextup.com.

And yes, I hope your dealership has a fantastic end to the month.