I believe that service is much more in-depth than what meets the eye. All of you had good points; it's the whole dealership that must be service excellent to win their customers loyalty.

Perception is caused from all areas - If your receptionist disconnects your customers or answers with attitude it creates a bad perception. Compound that if you bill at the end of the month all invoices your accounting and service department have created a perception that you do not have it together.

The bottom line is in order to exceed customer's expectation the dealership need to operate ethically and efficiently.

KEY
* Service
o Trained Mechanics
o Accurate repairs
o Bill fairly (Let your customer know ahead of time) Surprise bills create bad perceptions
o Bill when the work is completed (Not at the end of the month). If you wait it creates a surprise for the end-user, send it when it's still fresh on their mind.
o Do not bill warranty (i.e. if it takes 2 hours to figure it was warranty and the factory won't cover it, don't bill it)
o Explain complex bills (CSS)
o Give updates on repairs
o Follow up (Communicate)
 Hire a part time clerk to touch base with customers to see what they thought about the service, the cost, the dealership, etc....
o Put yourself in the customers shoes
* Put things in writing
o This will eliminate the he said she said issues
 Labor rate, parts discounting, response time, etc....
* THE team
o If one department passes the buck, has attitude, does not follow up, screws the end-user, the perception is the entire dealership is bad. Dealers need vision, expectations of their staff, and hold people accountable for their actions (NOT done very often).
o I agree with the comment about name something's that make the dealer better and different from their competition. I have not seen any real differences in dealers. (LOOK outside the box).
o Remember if your competitor was poor in service it takes time to earn creditability, Customers get gun shy after being shot a few times.
* If someone can show me the dealer that really doe's it correctly, I would love to hear about them. Not many do, not that they are bad they just are complacent and do not think they need to improve or have the wrong management to fix things.