Customer service is one of those phrases that gets thrown around in advertising and promoting businesses, but far too often it ends up being more "lip service" then customer service. Serving your customers means stepping out and looking at the entire process from those customer perspectives. If you spend all your time organizing and building your auto repair operation from your perspective then it is inevitable that real services for the customer will get left out.
So....what is Customer Service for Customers?
Repair Shop owners that take the time to step outside their own business mindset and "look back in" from a customer perspective, will find that perceptions customers have can be quite different then what you might think. Even more importantly, customers that feel real customer service will talk about it and as a natural flow, produce free advertising and promotion of your repair service business.
One the most needed customer service aspects of the repair service business is the ability for customers to drop off vehicles for upcoming service at times that are best for them. Busy work and family lives create limited opportunities to get their vehicles dropped off for repairs. Making sure your service operation has a complete early bird or after hours vehicle drop off system that is visible and easy to accomplish, is critical for creating customer confidence and allegiance. For those repair service operations looking to go even further, establishing a "ride system" for those customers who need help getting home or to work, adds a high level of customer service and will go a long way in promoting loyalty from your customers.
Along with the envelopes for the car keys, having a specific pre-service check in form located with those envelopes creates a standardized method of communication for all customers. These pre-service check in forms will also allow your customers to place check marks in boxes that pertain to what they need serviced and what might specifically going wrong with their vehicle.
These are just a couple areas where auto repair operations can work to create loyalty with their customers. The entire chain associated with the customer vehicle repair process has various links and in each link area there are opportunities for the business to create customer service opportunities to build loyalty and create free advertising from the customer base.