Odd source of Management Lessons from a Car Wash Guy..

If you’re serious about strengthening customer loyalty, consider this management lesson I learned from an odd source – a car wash attendant. It’s an easy customer service concept that may change the course of your business.
This guy was amazing. I was speaking at a convention in Washington, D.C. My wife and I decided to rent a car to drive to the Civil War battle site at Gettysburg. Here’s what happened as we entered the car-rental location to pick up the vehicle?
Nothing. We stood waiting in front of the counter for at least three full minutes while the half dozen or so employees behind the counter talked on the phone and ignored us. Then another customer entered and, because we’re standing at a long counter, he doesn’t line up behind us, but beside us. So, now I wasn’t only annoyed, I was worried. Maybe we won’t even get served next. I tried desperately to make eye contact with the employees engrossed in telephone conversation. I was painfully aware that they didn’t know how to juggle a phone caller and a visitor. (By the way, you’ll find the secret in an article I wrote called, ?Test Your Telephone Effectiveness.? Download it for free at www.jeffmowatt.com.)
Finally! One employee noticed us, smiled in blissful ignorance of my frustration, and asked with a tone that’s irritatingly perky, ?Who was here first?? Turned out the customer standing next to us was a gentleman. He motions toward us and volunteered, ?These folks were here first.? I could have kissed him (not on the lips)! We rented their car despite the service.
The next day, I went back to the institution's underground car park, rental return area. Think of the slow counter service the day before, I remind myself next time I will rent from their competitor. As I parked the car, that who is cleaning rental cars go past, and expressed willingness to take care of the instrument. We went into his shop. He took out a clipboard, casually asked, how can rent? I stopped. His car wash guy, if I slow service yesterday, complaining of what he would do? I just want to leave there without any trouble. Fine. Me of lying.
That’s where the vast majority of front-line employees would leave it. But he then asked a question that took me by surprise, ?Is there anything you think we could do to improve our service?? I paused again. The guy seems to be sincerely interested. Oh, what the heck. So I told him about the experience at the front counter and suggested a way they could improve without hiring more people or working faster. His response was surprising.
He said he liked the idea of apologizing for the delay, assured me that he would take it at its next session, and then offered, if I take ten percent of the price for this rent, that would be OK with you? That was the CAR WASH Guy! Him, I kissed her on the lips! Not only that everything is fine with me, but I decided that the next time I had to rent a car, I would give them another chance.
That was the best example of how to conduct practical customer research I’ve seen. The magic question is not, ?How is everything?? That’s just a prelude to the much more useful question, which is, ?What do you think we could do to improve our service?? It’s a simple survey that I encourage you to start having your front-line employees conduct on an ongoing basis.
How to ask the magic question
once you begin asking customers for improvement suggestions at the front line, you need a system for collecting the information. That means creating simple customer-feedback forms-not for the customers to complete, but for the employees who are conducting the surveys to fill in. You’ll also need to create a procedure so that the surveys are completed on an ongoing basis. Of course, I don’t advise asking this question of your regular customers on every visit because it could become annoying. You need to adjust the system to make the question appear to the customer to be a natural, logical part of the conversation.
Fixing problems on the spot
When soliciting customer feedback, employees need to be empowered to handle complaints immediately. The beauty of the car rental example is not merely that the car wash attendant asked a great question; it’s that he had the authority to address the issue on the spot without calling a manager and taking more of my time. One of the goals of the survey is to nip problems in the bud before the customer ends their relationship with the company. That’s why it’s so important that this survey method be tied into training for both managers and front-line employees.
You can use this as a morale booster. When employees start asking customers the question, ?What can we do to improve our service?? employees learn that one of their key roles is to become the eyes and ears of the company. That helps them to understand that the company views them as more than just workers. Instead, front-line employees are, in a very real sense, a source of intelligence. Not a bad management lesson from a car wash guy.