If you want the plain unvarnished truth with absolutely no sugar coating, “Some customers lie to get FREE services”! Not all customers, just some. You can usually pick them out once they open their mouths and start spewing their venomous lies and false accusations. The lies most often center around items that are not covered under warranty or they have damage on their vehicle and intentionally blame your dealership or repair facility for the damages trying to get repair restitution on items that clearly your facility has no responsibility to cover.
Let us cover a few examples of customers that have blatantly lied. There was a lady who came into the dealership with not one but two blown out front tires. Upon inspection it was determined that the rims were bent from an impact and the tires both had two huge sidewall bubbles. My advisor proceeded to price the customer two tires and two rim straightening repairs. Once the estimate was presented to the customer she threw a verbal and physical temper tantrum in front of other customers. She screamed, she cried and then she became downright nasty swearing and name calling when she didn’t get her way.
She had started out by saying that she had felt vibration and lack of control since she owned the vehicle and therefore the tires and rims should be covered under the warranty. I asked her when exactly she started to experience this type of ride and she indicated it started the day she took delivery of the vehicle. While she was talking I was reading the work order, she took delivery two years prior and twenty-eight thousand miles ago. We offered her 10% off the prices to try and appease her sensibilities and that didn’t work either!
I proceeded to tell her that tire manufacturers only offered warranty on defects in material or workmanship unless she had purchased road hazard warranty. She again started swearing and name calling. I asked her politely three times to calm down. She would not. I finally asked her to leave and take her business elsewhere as we were not about to give her free tires and rims. She made sure she screamed at the top of her lungs before getting into her vehicle and streaked out of the parking lot with both front tires flat!
There was the customer that purchased a used vehicle from a dealership more than two years ago and also purchased the manufacturer extended warranty. Used vehicles are sold from that dealership with an automatic ten year one-hundred-thousand mile power-train warranty, whichever comes first.
Several months ago this customer came into the dealership for routine maintenance and was quoted a transmission service and flush, upon inspection it was ascertained that the transmission fluid was burnt and the transmission had never had a service, ever. The customer declined the transmission service and all other maintenance recommendations like filters, belts and hoses.
Two weeks ago the vehicle was towed into the dealership due to the fact that the vehicle would not go into gear. Upon inspection the technician found that the burnt fluid contributed to the clutch pack disintegrating and now the unit was full of filings. The vehicle no longer had the manufacturers extended warranty in effect; it had been out of extended warranty for almost a year. The 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty the dealership offered would not cover the transmission as it is expressly written that ALL maintenance MUST be performed at the selling dealer and all servicing must be adhered to keep the power-train warranty in effect.
The customer proceeded to call the manufacturer customer service center and file a complaint. Customer service did not contact the dealership as they dealt directly with the customer and informed the customer of their rights and entitlement under the contract of extended warranty. The customer then called the service advisor and stated that the manufacturer was covering the transmission. It was at this point that the manufacturer was contacted and they indicated that they had told the customer that nothing was covered; the customer was on his own for all repairs. The customer was contacted again by the advisor and the customer yelled, screamed and carried on and called the advisor names. During this time the customer was driving a complimentary loaner vehicle. When the customer was asked to either repair the vehicle or bring back the loaner vehicle the customer became belligerent and called the manufacturer again stating that the advisor was rude and nasty, apparently this was his excuse to ask for assistance with the transmission repair from the manufacturer again. The manufacturer reiterated their findings and again denied any assistance towards the repair.
It took another week to retrieve the loaner car and the customer is still trying to worm a free repair from whoever will listen. This included stating that they were never informed to perform the transmission service in the first place. Thankfully the dealership did document all declined services on their work orders and they are covered. CYA – this MUST be your first line of defense against lying, cheating deceptive customers, “COVER YOUR ASS”!
People are looking for free stuff all the time and nowadays it is becoming commonplace to see and hear people making up lies for any number of reasons to get their way. If you and your staff are not diligent in your record keeping and or your documentation on your repair orders you will suffer monetarily. Due to the high expense of paying for costly record keeping mistakes from deceptive customers it may be prudent to have a meeting with your staff on proper work order documentation and implementation.
I often ask myself if this type of behavior is indicative of the retail industry and if it permeates into other employment sectors as well. For instance, does this type of behavior happen in a doctor or lawyers office? Probably not! Why do we as an industry allow customers to get away with lying, cheating, deception and dishonesty? I realize there is a lot of competition out there to get customers, but are these the customers anybody really wants? I don’t think so!
The next time this type of customer is trying to back YOU into a corner try informing the customer exactly these words, “Obviously we cannot live up to your level of expectations, please take your vehicle to one of our competitors and try their level of service, they may be able to satisfy your needs”! What would you do if you found out your spouse was cheating and lied to you? Exactly! There is no difference here, sometimes you need to divorce yourself from certain customers. You only have so much time in a day to donate to your customers, why not donate quality time in relationship building with those that truly deserve it. Why waste your time and energy on people that will lose you money. Besides these negative people take so much mental energy from you that could be harnessed in positive business building. When dealing with negative people you sap yourself of the positive energy and become bogged down in the negative.
I recently looked up statistics on lying customers and was surprised to find out that roughly 35% of the people you see on a daily basis will lie or become deceptive to get their way. While looking up that information I also found an article from a doctor named Alan Hirsch. Dr. Hirsch’s research identifies twenty-seven verbal and non-verbal signs that indicate when a speaker, (Customer) is lying. Dr. Hirsch’s work includes over sixty references and twenty textbook references validating his extensive research into body language and verbal clues that indicate when someone is lying. Dr. Hirsch’s work is summed up below as a guide to be used to detect when someone is lying to you.
The verbal signs of lying include:
• Qualifiers &modifiers: not necessarily, but, however, almost, generally, basically
• Denials of lying: frankly, obviously, to be 100% honest with you, as far as I know
• Speech errors: this is the old Freudian slip, changing your thoughts and details mid-stream
• Sentence pause-fillers: filling empty spaces with um, err, ah, uh
• Stuttering: a liar gets tongue-tied, runs words together, stammers and slurs his speech
The nonverbal signs of lying include:
• Less finger pointing
• Lip licking
• Lip puckering/tightening of lips
• Increased drinking and swallowing
• Fewer hand gestures
• Hand-to-face grooming
• Sighs/deep breaths
• Hand and shoulder shrugs
• Handling objects or fighting
• Looking away to the side or down
• Touching nose
• Crossing arms
• Closing hands into fists
Dr. Hirsch cautions against making rash or quick judgments based on one nonverbal sign. Several verbal or non verbal signs used by the speaker raise one’s skepticism about the truthfulness of the person’s message, statement or story!
Please use this as a guide to help detect when people are lying to you. Only you can be the judge of what you are hearing and experiencing and each circumstance and customer is different. Knowing some of the signs may be helpful when making the ultimate decision to divorce your dealership or repair facility from a deceptive or dishonest customer.
Below you can find the video Honesty: Auto Mechanic. It is both funny and demonstrates what may really be going on in peoples minds.
David
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Employee Theft, a Right to Entitlement
There are probably many reasons why employees may steal from their employer. Some may feel that they can get away with it or that they need the items they are stealing. More often than not, the most plausible reason why people would risk stealing from their employer is a feeling of dissatisfaction or frustration with their job, management or the employer itself. They may feel their work goes unrecognized or that they aren't compensated enough for their time.
Others may feel that they have given X amount of time to the employer over several years and haven’t been properly compensated; this constitutes the feeling of a right to entitlement. Over the last two years an increase in employee theft has been documented across all businesses both big and small, this may be a sign of the economic times, however sometimes the theft comes from employees that have been with the same company for many years and these people feel cheated, albeit a feeling from a warped frustrated mind. Therefore they believe they have the RIGHT to steal to make up for the loss they feel inside. This documented theft has risen by almost a third, yet only 20% of employees polled would say that employee theft is a moderate to a big problem.
Most employees who are caught make excuses about why their theft is rational, but the bottom line is that it is unacceptable behavior and definitely should not be tolerated in any work place. To most honest, non-stealing employees, there is a feeling of dismay, however others may sit back and quietly watch as others pillage their workplace. Most of the silent watchers feel that the place they work in does not hire valuable and trustworthy employees.
As a result the morale of the teams involved with the company goes down and further robs the company of potential revenues by attitude alone. It can also be recognized that an increase in employee stealing means a decrease in profits for the business, more often than not the company must make up for those losses in some way or another, most likely in the form of wage freeze or employee cutbacks. This again robs the business because now you cannot sufficiently serve your customer base, CSI drops and the business loses customers.
I have personally witnessed the right to entitlement in a dealership I counseled. The theft was rampant from previous management on down to employees entrusted to serve the dealership clientele. Management was committing warranty fraud and everyone from the service consultants to the technicians were benefitting from this by reaping larger compensation checks. Once the manufacturer caught on to the game there was a warranty audit conducted and the employer was forced to pay back over $200,000 worth of ill-gotten money.
Once the audit was conducted the employer cracked down and forced management to scrutinize the warranty claims. Unfortunately it didn’t end with just fraudulent claims. Once the warranty scheme was uncovered the employees needed to find new ways to top up their incomes that would not easily be detected, so they openly advocated to customers, “Discounts for tips”. You read that last sentence right, “Discounts for tips”!
The quiet disposition of revenues to employee’s pockets was taking place and other long-term employees turned a blind eye towards the new scheme. In my mind that makes most players involved or not accomplices to the act of a new and even more sinister type of fraud. The employer was not aware of the situation because management was once again involved and providing cover. The total revenue lost per month was into the thousands of dollars and could have been caught had the employer been directly involved in overseeing the effective labor rate, hours per RO and dollars per RO.
Within weeks of this coming to light numerous people quit, were fired or went to senior managers pleading ignorance. My advice to most employers is to monitor your numbers and unfortunately get directly involved in your day-to-day operations and study your numbers religiously. You cannot afford to have thieves running your business, especially long-term committed thieves. One quote I heard from employees was this, “So and so would say he put all his kids through college on the tips he took out of the business”.
One last thought – “INSPECT WHAT YOU EXPECT”!
David
Others may feel that they have given X amount of time to the employer over several years and haven’t been properly compensated; this constitutes the feeling of a right to entitlement. Over the last two years an increase in employee theft has been documented across all businesses both big and small, this may be a sign of the economic times, however sometimes the theft comes from employees that have been with the same company for many years and these people feel cheated, albeit a feeling from a warped frustrated mind. Therefore they believe they have the RIGHT to steal to make up for the loss they feel inside. This documented theft has risen by almost a third, yet only 20% of employees polled would say that employee theft is a moderate to a big problem.
Most employees who are caught make excuses about why their theft is rational, but the bottom line is that it is unacceptable behavior and definitely should not be tolerated in any work place. To most honest, non-stealing employees, there is a feeling of dismay, however others may sit back and quietly watch as others pillage their workplace. Most of the silent watchers feel that the place they work in does not hire valuable and trustworthy employees.
As a result the morale of the teams involved with the company goes down and further robs the company of potential revenues by attitude alone. It can also be recognized that an increase in employee stealing means a decrease in profits for the business, more often than not the company must make up for those losses in some way or another, most likely in the form of wage freeze or employee cutbacks. This again robs the business because now you cannot sufficiently serve your customer base, CSI drops and the business loses customers.
I have personally witnessed the right to entitlement in a dealership I counseled. The theft was rampant from previous management on down to employees entrusted to serve the dealership clientele. Management was committing warranty fraud and everyone from the service consultants to the technicians were benefitting from this by reaping larger compensation checks. Once the manufacturer caught on to the game there was a warranty audit conducted and the employer was forced to pay back over $200,000 worth of ill-gotten money.
Once the audit was conducted the employer cracked down and forced management to scrutinize the warranty claims. Unfortunately it didn’t end with just fraudulent claims. Once the warranty scheme was uncovered the employees needed to find new ways to top up their incomes that would not easily be detected, so they openly advocated to customers, “Discounts for tips”. You read that last sentence right, “Discounts for tips”!
The quiet disposition of revenues to employee’s pockets was taking place and other long-term employees turned a blind eye towards the new scheme. In my mind that makes most players involved or not accomplices to the act of a new and even more sinister type of fraud. The employer was not aware of the situation because management was once again involved and providing cover. The total revenue lost per month was into the thousands of dollars and could have been caught had the employer been directly involved in overseeing the effective labor rate, hours per RO and dollars per RO.
Within weeks of this coming to light numerous people quit, were fired or went to senior managers pleading ignorance. My advice to most employers is to monitor your numbers and unfortunately get directly involved in your day-to-day operations and study your numbers religiously. You cannot afford to have thieves running your business, especially long-term committed thieves. One quote I heard from employees was this, “So and so would say he put all his kids through college on the tips he took out of the business”.
One last thought – “INSPECT WHAT YOU EXPECT”!
David
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday Service or Profit Saturday Service!
I am quite sure that most of you reading this post will agree that life is sometimes to hectic and we all need a break from working the excruciatingly long hours demanded of our time by this business, Saturdays being no exception. Personally I hate Sunday shopping, I believe Sundays are a day to spend and reconnect with family. Saturday is also the day that everyone in the automotive repair industry wishes they had off as well.
Saturday service is unfortunately a MUST for most dealerships as the mindset of consumers is such that if you are closed on Saturdays, your customers will just go elsewhere for routine servicing and minor repairs. The reality is this, if your customers go elsewhere and like the service they receive, they might not come back to your establishment.
Due to the hectic pace of life, commutes to and from work, balancing the needs of family, work and the upkeep of the household and the family automobile have become a daunting task. There just are not enough hours in a day to accomplish all the tasks that life presents to us. Therefore, Saturdays in most households is spent cleaning, shopping, fixing, finding and yes, taking the family vehicles in for service. Let’s face reality, Saturdays may be the only day some people have to get their vehicles routine servicing done or repaired due to a breakdown.
Some of you might say, “Saturdays are not profitable” and you may be right due to your unique circumstances, demographics and your offerings in services to your customer base. Unfortunately when you are closed, your customers are going other places to fill the need. The damaging factor is that when your customers go elsewhere they are being up sold in most cases and you are missing out on opportunities. Plus, the truth is that most vehicles out there have at least one to two other issues that could potentially become bigger repair jobs for your facility.
I treat Saturdays as the loss leader day, meaning we are open for all types of work yet we cater to those in need of routine servicing. Routine servicing doesn’t add to the building of bottom line GP, albeit the courtesy inspections provide the tool to up sell and create GP potential. Monday callbacks of Saturday declined services usually reap benefits in booking future mechanical repair appointments.
If you implement Saturday rapid lube service by having two C technicians working together on each vehicle you can turn around an oil change in 30 minutes or less including the courtesy inspection. Once the inspection is complete the advisor can attempt to up sell the additional found items and turn the repair over to an appropriate technician to facilitate the repairs. This is how you can turn your average Saturday into a rewards Saturday! If the customer declines the repairs your BDC should be calling these customers off your declined service log and book them back in for a future repair appointment.
The return of declined calls that book appointments is usually between 25% and 45% in most cases. Therefore Saturday service can be a benefit IF you formulate processes to sell more work and follow up on your declined services. You MUST be prepared to do what it takes to keep your customers at your facility!
To keep moral higher on Saturdays and to give your employees something to look forward to, try having breakfast at break time for your service employees, bagels, donuts and coffee can go a long way to keep spirits high as well as profits. A little bonus can sometimes go a long way in promoting team as well as putting a little zing in everyone’s step.
The best dealerships in the world recognize that Saturdays are a necessity yet they also realize that rewarding their employees with major holidays off, speaks volumes. Major holidays are a time especially set aside for families and friends, giving your employees these days off during the year will not only energize your employees it will ignite more passion in them upon their return.
My fear is that we are heading for Sunday service in the near future and this I oppose as most people in this industry work exceptionally hard the full six days we are currently open. Sunday service will surely help in providing gross profit to struggling stores yet we have enough employee burn out with the hours already logged in the average work week.
Make Saturday profitable and continue reaping the rewards of a closed Sunday!
David
Saturday service is unfortunately a MUST for most dealerships as the mindset of consumers is such that if you are closed on Saturdays, your customers will just go elsewhere for routine servicing and minor repairs. The reality is this, if your customers go elsewhere and like the service they receive, they might not come back to your establishment.
Due to the hectic pace of life, commutes to and from work, balancing the needs of family, work and the upkeep of the household and the family automobile have become a daunting task. There just are not enough hours in a day to accomplish all the tasks that life presents to us. Therefore, Saturdays in most households is spent cleaning, shopping, fixing, finding and yes, taking the family vehicles in for service. Let’s face reality, Saturdays may be the only day some people have to get their vehicles routine servicing done or repaired due to a breakdown.
Some of you might say, “Saturdays are not profitable” and you may be right due to your unique circumstances, demographics and your offerings in services to your customer base. Unfortunately when you are closed, your customers are going other places to fill the need. The damaging factor is that when your customers go elsewhere they are being up sold in most cases and you are missing out on opportunities. Plus, the truth is that most vehicles out there have at least one to two other issues that could potentially become bigger repair jobs for your facility.
I treat Saturdays as the loss leader day, meaning we are open for all types of work yet we cater to those in need of routine servicing. Routine servicing doesn’t add to the building of bottom line GP, albeit the courtesy inspections provide the tool to up sell and create GP potential. Monday callbacks of Saturday declined services usually reap benefits in booking future mechanical repair appointments.
If you implement Saturday rapid lube service by having two C technicians working together on each vehicle you can turn around an oil change in 30 minutes or less including the courtesy inspection. Once the inspection is complete the advisor can attempt to up sell the additional found items and turn the repair over to an appropriate technician to facilitate the repairs. This is how you can turn your average Saturday into a rewards Saturday! If the customer declines the repairs your BDC should be calling these customers off your declined service log and book them back in for a future repair appointment.
The return of declined calls that book appointments is usually between 25% and 45% in most cases. Therefore Saturday service can be a benefit IF you formulate processes to sell more work and follow up on your declined services. You MUST be prepared to do what it takes to keep your customers at your facility!
To keep moral higher on Saturdays and to give your employees something to look forward to, try having breakfast at break time for your service employees, bagels, donuts and coffee can go a long way to keep spirits high as well as profits. A little bonus can sometimes go a long way in promoting team as well as putting a little zing in everyone’s step.
The best dealerships in the world recognize that Saturdays are a necessity yet they also realize that rewarding their employees with major holidays off, speaks volumes. Major holidays are a time especially set aside for families and friends, giving your employees these days off during the year will not only energize your employees it will ignite more passion in them upon their return.
My fear is that we are heading for Sunday service in the near future and this I oppose as most people in this industry work exceptionally hard the full six days we are currently open. Sunday service will surely help in providing gross profit to struggling stores yet we have enough employee burn out with the hours already logged in the average work week.
Make Saturday profitable and continue reaping the rewards of a closed Sunday!
David
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