This has been great reading all these posts. I am like most people out there and would also like to work for the best dealership. The dealership I now work with, wants to be "the best in the U.S." Within our staff
we have about 30% with over 20 years and 15% with over 30 years and the rest 5 years or less. We have around 60 technicians, 20 sales, 12 parts, 4 managers, 2 supervisors and around 12 support staff. Our dealeship is usally fairly busy. Our tecnicians are extensivly trained, all have laptop computers (some with air cards), GPS in all service trucks, cell phones, credit cards to puchase parts, procedures in place to aid everyone involved from the first line Field Tech to billing the customer. Unfortunitly thats where our customer service stops. When the procedures are followed the system works great. But when they are not the customer is the one to suffer, usally in the pocket book. I have worked for this dealership for many years, have seen many managers come and go. It seems we have a managment change every couple years. The problem we have at this point is lack of respect between managment and the "People on the floor" which trickles down to the customer. I have been told by customers "the only reason they do business with us is because of a certain technian or parts person". I had to do shop repairs in the field because the customer refuses to send the job to our shop (usally prior bad shop experiance. All of this infighting is a great waste of time and effort with the customer suffering. I know I may sound negative about this but i'm possably the most positive person at this dealership. I always take care of my customers which sometimes means being a shield between the customer and the dealership. I see it as a real shame and waste that a large dealership in one of Americas largest cities can not be the best.

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.

More Follow Up........"Fair is Fair and Right is Right". If you had a customer dispute a service bill, and you felt that you were completely in the "right" and being fair with the customer, but the customer was still upset, what would you do?? Would you force him to go to your competition because you were being fair and he wasn't? I don't think so, or at least I hope not. In Sales/Service Right and Wrong DON'T MATTER. The customer's
PERCEPTION of right and wrong is what matters.

I am absolutely saying be prepared to be shocked at how high the customers' expectations really are, but your second question leads me to believe you misunderstood. Companies like FedEx DON'T have greater expectations, but they deliver and perform well beyond what most other companies do, creating the higher expectation for you and me. Doing the job right the first time doesn't cut it any longer if you're doing the exact same job any other service dept. is. What are you doing that makes your customers' service experience memorable???? Don't you think every forklift service dept. in the country would tell you that they try to do the job right the first time???? Big deal. What's that doing to create customer loyalty? Wouldn't every customer in the country EXPECT you to do the job right the first time?? Quite frankly, my time is worth more, which is why I personally refuse to wait any longer than 15 minutes ANYWHERE, i.e. Doctor's office, supermarket, etc., etc.. I wonder how the climate of business would change in this country if everyone tried that.

My personal opinion is that most companies don't have a clue as to what customers' expectations even are. Nowadays, expectations are sky high because people are used to doing business with companies like FedEx, Amazon.com, etc., etc. You've got to give customers something they don't expect. The question you should be asking yourself is "What am I doing differently, and what am I doing better than any other forklift service department?" If you're going to say that you exceed customers' expectations you better be prepared to back that up, and be prepared to be shocked.

to me service excellence are the three E's

E-EFFICIENT
E-EFFECTIVE
E-ECONOMICAL
....... You can have combination, but to excel means to have it all.

Speaking from actual experience:

1) Repairs done correctly first time.
2) Repairs done economically.
3) Target quality repairs to last for 5 years, no patching or quick fixes.