Integrity Auto Care Shares the Trick to Treating Their Customers
Integrity Auto Care Shares the Trick to Treating Their Customers
The story below was shared by Philip Evans, Service Manager at Integrity Auto Care Center in Stow, Ohio, at a recent Mitchell 1 Shop Management Workshop. It’s a great example of an auto repair shop going above and beyond to “wow” their customer…and the tremendous impact that a little gesture can have on creating advocate customers and ultimately, the bottom line.
“We had a young woman come to us once for an oil change, and although it represented a straightforward maintenance service, she was impressed enough by our approach to the care of both her and her vehicle that she later accepted a repair recommendation of ours. She scheduled a followup appointment for continued service. On the day of service, however, she called apologetically stating that she was very ill, and couldn’t get to us to have the repair done. Although she assured us she would be in, she just felt horrible about not being able to give us better notice.
“After we hung up, one of my service advisors indicated that he genuinely felt bad for her. She did, indeed sound pretty sick, and he imagined her in bed with a hot compress, and a box of tissues next to a nightstand full of medicines. I asked him, “So what are you going to do about it?” With little hesitation or discussion, we decided that the young woman’s state of health was more pressing than the basic repair we might be losing out on. So he went to a local store and bought her some hot chicken soup and a “Get Well” helium balloon that we all signed with a marker. He delivered this to her door a short while later, and encouraged her to be well, and get some rest.
“The reaction from this woman and her family was nothing short of amazing. Her family was so grateful that we had taken the time to show how much we cared about them that she baked us fresh, homemade cookies for our lobby. And then did so again the next week. And the next week. As a matter of fact, she’s brought us a variety of fresh baked cookies every Friday without fail for the last 2 1/2 years!
“And as if that was not gratitude enough, during that same time period she and her husband have been back for multiple service visits and referred us to their family, friends, co-workers and neighbors to tune of more than $40,000 — $16,000 of which came from work performed on their own family’s five cars.
“I don’t know about you, but I think THAT must’ve been some FANTASTIC soup!”
