The Art of Customer Experience: Creating Lasting Impressions

I’ve been thinking a lot about customer experience lately. You can’t build, manage or protect your reputation (online or off) without a thoughtful process and culture that puts the customer first.

Customer experience in one of the most difficult environments.

I managed car dealerships in Beverly Hills for 15 years. It sounds glamorous but trust me on this, it’s really not. In some ways, yes, it’s exactly what you think it is but in many other ways, it’s nothing like you imagine.

The customers are very demanding, which can be said for most dealership market areas. But there’s an added layer of, shall we say, entitlement that I’ve only witnessed in Beverly Hills. The standard BH customer believes at their core that they deserve everything, anytime, no matter what.

I don’t say this as a judgment or as a complaint, but only to illustrate the level of skill required when creating a consistently positive, memorable customer experience.

My friend Laurie describes it pretty well: “The BH self-image is either “I am somebody,” “I know somebody,” or “I’m going to be somebody.”

The absolute best place to craft a customer experience and customer service policies is Beverly Hills.

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

We worked with many celebrities, and the thousands of people in their orbit. We had many film industry types, including lawyers, agents and assistants. We served actors, rockstars and opera singers. Our store was #1 in sales, service, parts and customer satisfaction.

Everyone on the entire team worked very hard everyday for those numbers. It doesn’t come easy but when outstanding leadership principles meet quality management systems and processes, the result can be remarkable.

I will never forget my experience there, and I’m reminded of it every time I’m subjected to another poor customer experience. I KNOW how good it can be not just for the bottomline, but for customers and employees alike.

“Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

We had signs on all our entry doors that said, “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” Remarkable customer experience requires this specific mindset in all customer interactions.

Sadly, I’m astounded by some of the treatment I’m seeing in dealerships right now. I have a large network and people feel compelled to share their experiences with me, which I will always welcome.

I myself have also recently been subjected to a terrible customer experience, which I will now share with you.

Once you lose customer trust, it’s difficult to get it back.

Make sure the lasting impression you leave is a positive one. Here’s one way to fail.

As you may know, I’m on the board of non-profit Hanaeleh Horse Rescue here in Orange County, CA. We needed to buy a truck because our current truck had 250K miles on it and the repairs were becoming frequent. I reached out to a friend who referred me to someone they knew at a local Chevy dealer. I typically work deals over the phone, text or email, which alleviates the need to spend hours at the dealership wasting everyone’s time.

I contacted the person, who said he was a sales manager, and the experience was just dreadful. I had to tell him over and over that I was from the car business and that he needn’t use all the “tricks” on me. It was becoming quite frustrating as I’m accustomed to working with professionals who simply tell me the numbers and we move forward without issue.

When I asked the “sales manager” for the numbers, he sent me a screenshot of his computer screen(?) (not a purchase order), which included an added line item in the amount of $1900. When I asked what that was, he tried to explain that it was “already installed” and “couldn’t be removed” (another terrible trick that’s also a lie).

I finally had to call the GM, wasting more of everyone’s time, and he turned the deal over to his “Internet Manager” who ended up being very professional, courteous, knowledgeable and straight with me. He even delivered the vehicle to the ranch and everyone is now happy.

The whole transaction made me sad.

Covid has been very kind to most dealers’ profitability. Many made more profit on vehicles than they can remember and that’s fantastic. But somewhere along the line, many dealerships have foregone even the most basic customer service principles. Now that things are returning to normal and most vehicles are not hard to come by, I am wondering how those dealers are going to right their customer experience ship. I’m questioning how they will build trust again with a public they’ve spurned for the last 2–3 years.

One thing I know for sure is that those who rise to the challenge and deliver something remarkable win. And it won’t be as difficult as before because I’m not seeing a big rush to treat customers fairly, or in some cases, even with common decency. The bar is so low right now, it will be easy to delight a customer if some modicum of effort is applied.

I’m going to share with you a quick example of how a small gesture can mean so much to a customer, and how that distinguishes your organization in the customer’s heart and mind.

Creating lasting impressions.

I recently took my car in for service. My car has a lot of horse “ranch dirt,” particularly on the inside. The trunk has horse stall shavings all over it because I put street cones out each week for parking and the cones live the rest of the time in one of our horse trailers, where shavings cover the floor. My trunk and all its contents are covered in shavings and it’s a mess.

When I picked up my car after the service, I was so impressed with how they cleaned the interior of the vehicle. I mean, it was like a detail job, except it was free and it’s because they care. I didn’t look in my trunk until the following weekend, and when I did, I saw it was completely shavings-free. A big smile appeared on my face. I knew they cared about me and I will now always service my vehicle there. I’ve also already referred them to two other people.

Once you lose customer trust, it’s difficult to get it back. But if you instill a culture that puts the customer first and back it up with thoughtful management processes and techniques, you’ve got a potential customer for life. Seems like that would be a better way to go, right?

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