Empowerment Starts at the Bottom

By Christopher Kourtakis, director of sales and marketing, 360° Industry Solutions — Never let a customer out of your dealership mad or without a solution to their problem.

There is nothing worse than hearing someone say, “There is nothing that I can do” or “I am sorry about your issue.”

Empower your front line people to make decisions.  Allow them to assist the customer.

There are levels of empowerment.  Not everyone in the company can give away $1,000 worth of accessories or a gift certificate for a free winterization.  However, there are other things that can brighten up a disgruntled customer.

Maybe their part did not come in on time from the supplier and they will not have their boat for the weekend. To make up for it, empower the service writer to offer a free bottom clean or outside wax or an interior cleaning of their boat. Go a little further and offer to deliver the freshly cleaned customer’s boat to their launch so that they do not have to go out of their way for a second time.

Even the kid at the gas dock should be allowed to make decisions. Maybe it took too long for the customer to get service. Allow your dock attendant to apologize and offer a free bag of ice for their inconvenience. Maybe they have children onboard. Allow the children to go pick out an ice cream of their choice for having to wait so long. These little things add up and the customer remembers them.

Train your employees so that they can learn a higher level of empowerment. Constant coaching using decisions that have been made are the best teaching tools. By teaching on the job and from recent experiences, your employees will increase their ability to handle stressful situations and more customers will leave your facilities with a positive experience. The ultimate goal is for the customer to return. The more positive influences that they receive; the more likely they will be to return and to tell a friend.

Now, if you constantly have to increase your good will account, there is something else going on and something else that needs to be addressed. Go through your training procedures and make sure that your front line people are not just giving things away or that the first sign on conflict that they are caving in.  Yes, there are times that the customer is wrong. However, there is ways to turn a negative encounter into a positive one.

Work on role play training. Allow the employee to think through the situation. Customer service is not an easy job, but giving your employees the tools and training to succeed will only grow your business and allow you to develop relationships with your customers for years to come.