My View - Gordon's "The Real World"
IT HAS TO BE TRUE, WHY WOULDN’T IT BE?
I believe everything I am told. I believe that everybody tells the truth every time they say something without even a trace of dishonesty. I believe every ad I see, every infomercial, every radio spot, I believe that if someone is advertising a product of some sort they have absolutely no reason to do anything but tell the truth. Now, knowing me as you do, do you believe that? I am pretty sure that you believe what I just wrote as much as I believe you fall for everything as advertised.
Advertising runs the economy; truth in advertising is a kind of double-edged sword, is the ad true or is it just true enough to sell a product? If it is done well it is probably both. Take the car business for example, I think we all know that the cars that we buy need more maintenance than what the manufacture says, is it true that if you follow the manufacture guidelines that you may never have an issue while it is under warranty? Absolutely. Now why would the people selling you a product only worry about their product while it is under warranty? They want to sell you more product right?
Statistics tell us that the average age of the cars on the road is increasing, that means people are keeping their cars longer. Now if people are keeping their cars longer and the company that sold it in the first place is really only concerned about getting through the warranty period what is the possibility that that vehicle is going to need a little more attention than they originally told us? Maintenance is cheap. I believe in my heart that a customer will never remember how much was spent to maintain a car but they will remember every dime spent to fix it. Not to even mention when it is broken they will be mad. Probably mad at you, mad because you didn’t help them prevent it in some way. Warranty or not, people don’t like things to break.
It is impossible to over maintain something. Although I do believe if you still sell a 3K-oil change you are wasting some ones money not to mention your own time. But the idea of an oil change once a year is just plain silly. The cars we work on have become pretty amazing, the problem is they still operate on the same basic things they always have. Most all of the systems need to be lubricated, and these automobiles do a better job now than ever destroying the products installed to do that lubrication. Sure there are synthetics but they are still oil and they break down just the same, they are not a magic pill that lasts forever. You know that, the people that built it know it; unfortunately the people that advertise it do a better job of telling it and selling it other wise than we do.
I want a whole bunch of cars to be sold, new and used, I want them rolling out the door as fast as we can physically get them ready to go. We cannot have cars to work on without cars being sold. It’s the circle of life in the car business. Cars will never be sold with out painting a pretty picture of the ownership experience, and the manufactures recommended maintenance is a pretty picture. That is a part of the plan we just have to live with. Its okay too, it is certainly not the end of the world. Our job is to paint a picture that is almost as pretty but teaches the customer the right way to do things. By the right way I mean you sell what is needed to care of the vehicle the way we know it needs to be taken care of. If we do that for our customer they will never be angry with us.
It is the owner’s prerogative if they want to do anything different than they are being told in the owner’s manual so we have to kind of soft sell the idea of doing anything differently from the first time we see them in our service department. This new car in front of you will someday be some ones used car, maybe even stay in the same family. Doesn’t it make sense to guide some one to make the right decisions for the future? Even if the manufacturer will cover something to 100K how do you think the customer will feel if it is ever broken? I personally don’t like to leave my car in a shop and in my mind it is never the same after a big repair, I am sure it is but hey its my mind okay? I bet your customers feel the same.
Let them know how little time it takes to take care of their purchase the way it should be taken care of. You know the truth, your customer really knows the truth, and you just have to take the time to let them know. Unless of course you do believe everything you are told.
Talk to you next month-
That’s the truth and I am sticking to it-
Gordon
Posted on: January 30, 2012
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