Could use a lesson in customer service

So yesterday was my first day off in 10 days, and I don’t have another one until Sat. My car needed new tire so I phone the dealership to set an appointment. I arrived on time and was told it would take an hour or so. Well after two hours I was thinking to myself, surely it can’t be much longer, finally the third hour rolled around so I asked someone how much longer. The service rep (and I use this term loosely) said there was a problem with the “tire machine” and the mechanics were fighting over who gets it next, but it would only be ten more minutes. A few minutes later another service rep comes in to apologize and said it would be another 25 minutes as they were having trouble getting the tires off (I’m a 5’2” female who rotated my tires myself the last time, I assure you if I can get them off with a tire iron the service team should have had no issue removing them with an air wrench). Finally after 4&1/2 hours I was told it was ready. The mechanic came out and offered to reduce the price of service if I wouldn’t give them a negative score on the follow-up service call. Let’s just say by this time I was a “whole nother level of angry”. I have been in management for most of my work career. I understand things happen and it takes a whole lot to get me angry. I do not believe in reprimanding people in public view, so my tongue was literally hurting from me biting it.
In the end I got about $300 taken off of the bill. What I will never get is those 4&1/2 hours back. While waiting in the lobby another lady came in who had dropped her car off the night before and they still hadn’t done the oil change!
All of the stress and loss of money to the business could have been avoided with simple communication. When they realized there was a problem someone should have let me know. Instead the chose to not communicate the issues with the customer and not only lost my business, but I will tell anyone who asks what poor service was offered.
This whole episode got me to thinking about how the same issues arise in the multi-family industry. How many concessions have been given to residents that could have been avoided with simple communication? How many leases have been lost due to poor ratings that could have been avoided by explaining the situation and what steps were being taken to rectify the problem? Most people are rational, they may not always be pleased with the situation, but they can be made to understand and given the feeling that you actually care about whatever inconveniences they are experiencing.
So in ranting to my staff about the tires that took 5 hours of my life away we were able to have a discussion about how that relates to our residents and customer service. Things are going to happen that are out of our control, that’s life. How we respond to those problems could make the difference between happy residents with little turn-over, or vacancy loss due poor service and a bad reputation.

Hello Stephani, you are right on target! My two cents to all is Customer Service is not rocket science. All people have to do is treat others the way they would want to be treated. When taking care of a customer, just put yourself in their shoes and say OK, what would I expect if I am talking to the subject matter expert in this area? I think most of all customer service issues would be solved before they became major concerns!

Now me, I know that there are things which are out of our control, so I try to give the customer a little something for their inconvenience with no strings attached. It is basically to let them know we understand and appreciate their business. If the business was concerned about a rating I would look at it as a bribe and not caring about me as a customer.