Like vultures sitting on a telephone line…
Mike Owen
Industry expert Mike Owen gets fired up about bankers and customer expectations
Let me be totally upfront with my feelings, I don’t want anybody to misconstrue my opinion on such a delicate matter – bankers! I am astounded, beyond incandescent with rage, at the temerity of this these ‘professionals’. I’ve just referred to Google for the collective noun for the banking fraternity and the best I can find is ‘a parasite of bankers’ how true, how true.
It doesn’t matter where you look there is a cadre of ‘suits’ that have inveigled their way into regulations that secure their existence – always paid for by people like us who try to turn an honest profit, When questioned they smugly reply that they exist to keep the artisans on the straight and narrow. The problem is that to a greater or lesser extent they are right!
All the time the artisans – in our case, the motor industry, has a chink in its armour, questionable standards or a failure to focus entirely on the customer’s needs (not their vehicle) then we will be forced to support regulative bodies.
Walk the line
Provision of vehicle service and repair, now more-so than ever before, walks a fine line between what a customer wants, his vehicle needs and what he can afford, worse we are held accountable for respecting these needs. This is not like aircraft maintenance where cost is secondary – a vehicle coasting to a standstill is very different than an aircraft plummeting from 39,000 feet! That said vehicle safety and ‘fitness for purpose’ is just as important as that of an aircraft and this is why we have to shape up with how we manifest our expertise.
Managing expectation, another bit of inane management speak, is actually where we fall down – across the whole industry! In our haste to handle customers we leave too much to assumption and implication and fail to properly communicate our undertaking or pre-contract terms.
‘He’s off on one now’ I hear you say but let me expand on what I’ve suggested. ‘Which!’, who mount their all to regular castigation of our industry, work on one basic element, there is rarely if ever a schedule for work to be undertaken therefore introducing faults is an almost sure-fire way of getting a result. Using a pre-determined (detailed) schedule of work; I always advocate always using the manufacturer’s requirements however sourced, as the basis of contract, limits the liability to introduced faults that are outside of that regime – but I go further.
Unsolicited work
Unsolicited work is that for which no instruction has been given, as such there is also no obligation to pay for it! This is a loophole that is often exploited by street-wise customers as they are also aware that the vehicle cannot be retained against payment. What to do – get a signature! That signature is your instruction to proceed. However, I also, within the signature panel, insert a codicil that there are no known faults undeclared by the customer that should be made known prior to or to be included in the execution of the contracted work – beware, this does not release you from basic ‘duty of care’.
Failure to show diligence at this level exposes you to the wrath of the law (and the press). But you’re too busy! (let’s see you offer that one up to the judge as a plea for mitigation) Front of house, where you meet and deal with customers is where you make commitment for work and create those dangerous implied terms of contract; I have stated before, reception is the finest skill in the service and repair garage – the wrong person there and the rest of your business could end up ‘in the can’.
No more mend and make do
The Institute of the Motor Industry offers CSA – ATA, yes Customer Service Advisor accreditation and this details the requisite skills for those who work front-of-house and is as good a place to start as any; accreditation alone only measures competences that already exists, you may need to look elsewhere to gain those skills in the first place!
There are some other initiatives starting to come to the fore aimed at developing those customer-facing staff and the garage of the future owe it to themselves to start embracing these tout-suite.
The days of the well-meaning garage that can mend anything using a boy-scout knife and a ball of string are history. Please accept this fact! Obligations, regulations, laws, even common-sense decree that we must make our industry more professional and this consigns make-do-and-mend to the bin.
Hokum and bunkum
Detailing work operations – using a schedule indicates that we know our job, and at the same time limits our liabilities. This instils trust and understanding in our customers. The majority of you won’t do it, too busy or even blame it on the customer not having time – bunkum!
‘We’ve got away with it for years without problems’ - perhaps that should have the codicil ‘without getting caught out’! Let me ask you a question, would you accept that from the surgeon poised over you, scalpel in hand? I don’t think so, I think you would look for something far more robust – in the future so will your customers.
Pieces and mending
In my time I’ve had the sorry job of picking up the pieces of thriving businesses brought to their knees by litigation after things have gone wrong, it’s not pretty and, by default, the business owner has always starts the conversation “If only…”
Lack of diligence reflects badly on us all, worse it allow the ‘kite-hawks’ to prey on us, always belittling the whole industry not just the transgressors. As a result we find out entire industry relegated to the ranks of ‘sub-prime’.
The ‘professionals’, Accountants, Lawyers, Architects, Health and Safety, even Doctors although the latter appear to be more focussed on being financial entities than mending people nowadays, I can understand their role even as a necessary evil; with the application of that rare commodity, common sense one can keep all of them at arm’s length, …but those bloody bankers!
Find out more at www.tascpartners.com
