Thursday, July 31, 2008
WITSOC
An old marketing acronym, which always amused me as its spelled wrong, stands for ‘Walk in the shoes of your customer’. It reminds me of the wise old sage who asks us all “before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes, that way when you judge them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes..”
Whatever your role in the dealership, you have a duty of care to see what your customers see the first time they walk in to your dealership.
Manufacturers still place substantial emphasis and bonus money on key franchise attributes, parking, signage, showroom standards etc. for a very good reason – this is the face of your business, and you need to view your business through your customers eyes.
This task is hard, but pays real dividends. The number of showrooms we visit where boxes of archive files are stacked on view to clients, the display areas are messy, threadbare, poorly stocked or with out of date information is incredible – but you see this every day, so it becomes the accepted norm, the standard.
It is for exactly this reason that mystery shopping exercises are conducted. They allow the dealership to get feedback on how they appear to customers, as well as how the sales process is executed.
So, how does your business look ? is the stock lined up and priced clearly? Of course it is, you probably do that every day – but what about other customer facing areas? Take a look at your business right now and ask yourself the following questions;
How clear is dealership signage, does it look fresh, or old & tired
How easy is it to park, or are the customer bays full of pre-prep stock, yesterdays swappers, staff cars & Demos, or non-sales vehicles
How tidy is the showroom area
How well stocked are the customer info and literature points
How good does the coffee area look, good, bad or Beirut
What does the loo look like, is it fresh and clean or a bit dismal
Give yourself 10 minutes to walk around your site, take ownership of the problems you find, and don’t assume that it is someone else’s problem. If you’re not empowered to do something shove the problem up the line and get it dealt with – all you can be accused of doing is improving the image of the business, which makes you look more professional, and will increase the probability of you doing more business.
As an illustration I visited a Mercedes dealership in May, with fabulous stock presentation and a showroom floor a hospital would have been proud of – but the sales literature was stored in boxes in the showroom, whilst the shelving racks which probably cost the dealership a few hundred remained empty, and the toilet looked like it had been imported directly from a Slum in Delhi.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
Whatever your role in the dealership, you have a duty of care to see what your customers see the first time they walk in to your dealership.
Manufacturers still place substantial emphasis and bonus money on key franchise attributes, parking, signage, showroom standards etc. for a very good reason – this is the face of your business, and you need to view your business through your customers eyes.
This task is hard, but pays real dividends. The number of showrooms we visit where boxes of archive files are stacked on view to clients, the display areas are messy, threadbare, poorly stocked or with out of date information is incredible – but you see this every day, so it becomes the accepted norm, the standard.
It is for exactly this reason that mystery shopping exercises are conducted. They allow the dealership to get feedback on how they appear to customers, as well as how the sales process is executed.
So, how does your business look ? is the stock lined up and priced clearly? Of course it is, you probably do that every day – but what about other customer facing areas? Take a look at your business right now and ask yourself the following questions;
How clear is dealership signage, does it look fresh, or old & tired
How easy is it to park, or are the customer bays full of pre-prep stock, yesterdays swappers, staff cars & Demos, or non-sales vehicles
How tidy is the showroom area
How well stocked are the customer info and literature points
How good does the coffee area look, good, bad or Beirut
What does the loo look like, is it fresh and clean or a bit dismal
Give yourself 10 minutes to walk around your site, take ownership of the problems you find, and don’t assume that it is someone else’s problem. If you’re not empowered to do something shove the problem up the line and get it dealt with – all you can be accused of doing is improving the image of the business, which makes you look more professional, and will increase the probability of you doing more business.
As an illustration I visited a Mercedes dealership in May, with fabulous stock presentation and a showroom floor a hospital would have been proud of – but the sales literature was stored in boxes in the showroom, whilst the shelving racks which probably cost the dealership a few hundred remained empty, and the toilet looked like it had been imported directly from a Slum in Delhi.
DATED: 31.07.08
FEED: PTL
