I used to be a raving fan of my car dealership, praising everything from the service advisor to the sales staff. I would have rated them 10/10 on a customer satisfaction survey. But recent experiences have me rethinking that assessment. It’s not that they have become “bad,” it’s just that there is no longer anything remarkable about their interactions.
My recent visit involved interaction with a service advisor who was fine, but not “my” advisor who knows my history and with whom I scheduled when I made the appointment. I was called “Elizabeth” throughout — as if they had no relationship with me and didn’t know I preferred Beth. Their marketing department recently sent me a quote — addressed to the wrong person with an incorrect trade-in vehicle — but failed to interact with me in person even though I spent two hours waiting in the showroom. (My arm could have been twisted!) And when I left, the not-mine service advisor handed me the paperwork, sending me on my way with no interaction from my requested advisor. They have become transactional instead of relational.
It’s never the big things that make a difference in establishing brand loyalty, just as it is the accumulation of little behaviors that can erode it. Once you set the bar high, it’s incumbent on you to work diligently to keep it there. “Average” is quite the plummet from “stellar.”
