‘We came, we saw, you improved’
Challenge
We were asked by a major car company to look into outlets suffering from low Customer Satisfaction Indicator (CSI) scores and the lowest customer loyalty and staff morale in their group.
Approach
We carried out a 2-day visit, observing all areas including sales, service, used cars and the parts department. Each team member completed a bespoke anonymous questionnaire which showed us that:
- Each area did not fully understand the roles and responsibilities in their department or the dealership as a whole.
- There was little or no process for customer follow up, and what there was, had limited success.
- There was a clear process issue between service/sales and the valet area, causing frustration and confusion which had a knock-on effect to promises made to customers.
We devised a plan for each area, carrying out regular in-house workshops so that teams recognised the role they all played:
- We helped them to increase the efficiency of communication between service/sales and the valet team
- We set up a process to increase used car turnaround
- Most important of all we introduced a method ensuring all departments supported each other and recognised their importance to the overall business.
The impartial observations of each department and the team questionnaires gave us sufficient data to provide bespoke coaching sessions and process improvements for each department. We also worked at management level to bring all the areas into one team.
Impact
- The manufacturer’s CSI scores improved by 20%. A staff satisfaction survey for the team we worked with was recorded as the highest in the group at 89%. Both improvements will lead to increases in customer loyalty and bottom line earnings
- With the benefit of access to all department managers, and the workshop for all team members, we introduced some quick, low and no cost options to improve the site as a whole
- We ran three similar programmes and carried out a staff satisfaction survey for all 5200 employees across the PLC.