Expectations After A Vehicle Purchase

In this conversation, Daniel Little and Jeff Dignan discuss the importance of customer service and relationship building in the automotive industry. Jeff shares his philosophy on providing quality service, maintaining connections with customers, and the significance of repeat business. He emphasizes the need for dealerships to establish a good reputation and the value of personal relationships in sales. The discussion also touches on memorable customer experiences and advice for potential vehicle buyers, highlighting the emotional aspects of the sales process.

Takeaways

• Quality customer service is about being available and responsive.
• Building relationships with customers can lead to lifelong loyalty.
• Follow-up after a purchase is crucial for customer satisfaction.
• Repeat customers are a significant source of business.
• Establishing trust is essential in sales.
• A good reputation is vital for dealerships.
• Personal connections can enhance the customer experience.
• Price isn't everything; service matters too.
• Memorable experiences can create lasting bonds with customers.
• Sales professionals can have a profound impact on customers' lives.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Customer Expectations

02:53 The Importance of Quality Customer Service

06:08 Building Long-Term Relationships with Customers

08:51 Advice for Vehicle Buyers

12:11 Memorable Customer Experiences

15:09 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (00:00.174)
you

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (00:08.818)
of A Little Vehicle Purchase Training. I'm your host, Dan Little Jr., here with our product professional, Jeff Dingman from Apple Chevrolet. 29 years in the business and he's gonna help me out with this next exciting topic for today, which is expectations after the purchase of a vehicle. Go ahead and say hi, Jeff. Hey, Danny, and hello everyone. Thanks for inviting me, appreciate it. I appreciate you coming in. So we're gonna jump right into it with our first question.

Jeff, what's your philosophy on quality customer service? Get it. You know, I feel that you really need to stick with a customer throughout the whole process. There's going to be a lot of things you're going to need to listen to from that customer. That's going to be important for them. That's not only going to help close the sale, but it's going to let that customer know that they're buying that vehicle from the right person. Yes, they're buying it from a dealership, but you are the representation of that dealership.

And then not only that afterwards, you need to be available so that people can reach you. get calls all the time. Sometimes on Sundays, they need to know they have somebody to speak to as opposed to just calling a switchboard, getting put on hold because it's going to happen. Dealerships are busy. There's a lot of personnel. And as you know, a lot of times these days, everything's automated and AI automation isn't the best thing. It's a great thing. So.

And then I just like to stick with my customers, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, let them know they can reach me anytime, email, text, whether it's set a service appointment, help them out. I've changed spare tires in people's garages when roadside assistance couldn't make it. You know, you just got to go above and beyond and that's how you earn a customer for life. Gotcha. Hey, that's great to hear. You know, we're in a day and age where everybody's looking to go online to do a purchase and we're always have that constant battle of explaining what the benefit is of going to a quality representative.

at a known dealership as comparison to, you know, doing something online. I know a lot of people that did their purchase online and you're right, it's an 800 number and a whole lot of waiting. So it's good to hear something like this. Well, you know, as a consumer too, when you experience poor customer service, then as a sales rep or a customer service rep, you have no excuse but to give them the best because there's nothing more frustrating than needing customer service, not being able to get it.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (02:23.926)
And then hopefully that karma comes around, you know, and you get good customer service on the return end, regardless if it's an appliance or, you know, if somebody does your roof and you have a problem. So a lot of times that does come down to the quality of the personnel and the quality of the company you're doing business with. Very nice. And you touched on it already. The next question is going to be, how do you maintain relationships with your past customers? I know you brought up a bit about your follow up routine. Is there anything else that you do above and beyond the norm?

You've been in the business a long time too and you know, basically establishing that report, earn a customer's trust a lot of times. I want to say you become part of the family, but it's not just myself, but other sales reps that have been in the industry a long time, it's the same thing. You know, they're included in family events, birthday parties, stuff like that, obviously. You know, you can't always make it because I can half the time barely make my own family stuff, but.

You know, it's, it's, it's genuine to know that people do consider you to be more than just their car sales person. That's something that you earn, not just by helping somebody buy a car one time. That is something that's acquired over years, really just kind of makes being a sales professional rewarding in a personal way as well. Very nice. So what percentage of your business would you say comes from repeat customers in comparison to any other sources?

Well, I'm going to say 10 % is internet. like the, um, the challenge that acquiring a customer via the internet does, um, provide a lot of times you do have to do something a little bit different to earn that customer. You might just have to be somebody that appeals to or say the right thing or provide them like that key information, which is tough because a lot of times

As you know, when you're sitting down with a person and you get an idea what their, let's say hot buttons are, like what they really like, right? Is it features? Is it safety? Is it room? Is it comfort? Is it luxury? Is it technology? You don't really get that with an internet customer. So I'd say 10 % there because I do still like that challenge. And I'd say probably 85 % would be.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (04:41.419)
You know, repeat referral customers. can't hope for success. You've got to work for success. You know. I'd say you're doing a really good job if you're bringing in that much traffic off for referrals. So good to hear that. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, you know, and that's always the best. you almost have like a rapport because a lot of times that person sending you in, you know, it's kind of broken the ice for you. So that person comes in with a little bit of trust and you can almost start as a friendship.

as opposed to earning that friendship too. So I always consider that to be a blessing and that's obviously very rewarding as well, having somebody refer you a friend or a family. And every once in while you get that somebody that's gonna refer you over and then they give you a call and they go like, hey, this guy is so and so or whatever. And they've got maybe not so many positive things to say, but I'm sure you can handle it. And they do need a car and it's like, well, hey, thanks for thinking of me and I'll do my best.

That's that's always funny to us. Okay. Well, you did say you like those challenges on this show We're gonna have a lot of people that are currently in the market for a vehicle So what would you say is a good piece of advice that you could give someone that's in the market right now? Okay, so You know, I mean if I was a consumer out looking to buy a car and I and I realize that is not the Probably the most rewarding experience. However, it can be exciting. It can be positive

So I do think it's important to find a dealership that's got a great reputation. I feel it's important to find somebody that's somewhat local to you. I do think over time, especially if, you know, like younger people that buy cars, you know, over three, four years is their family changes. It's nice to establish a relationship. Like with Apple Chevrolet, where I work, we have many employees that have been there 10, 20 years or more.

And a lot of our customers that have been customers there for even a short, well, a year, two years, five years, 10 years, 20, 30 years, 40 years. I've got customers that have been buying there since the eighties, but everybody knows their name. And that's how Cheers became such a popular show. You want to go somewhere where everybody knows your name. And is that important? Everybody know. But I think if you're just looking online and you're just looking at pricing, and then you and I know this as well.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (06:58.453)
If you're seeing the lowest price and nobody's got a price that'll touch that, there's definitely some asterisks after that. So I'm not saying as a consumer, I would skip that because everybody always wants the lowest price, lowest price not always being the best deal. But you still want to do a little bit of investigation and, you know, and obviously I don't want to use any derogatory terms here, but you you want to deal with somebody that's somebody you can relate to, you know, somebody that's just not out to try and sell you a vehicle.

not gonna help you down the road. So I think I would do a little research on the dealership. I've had people that have actually done research on who they wanted to do business with. You know, just going through the About Us and looking at their employees and maybe just, hey, this looks like a guy I could get along with or read the bio on somebody, read their Google reviews. You know, obviously you can do a lot there as opposed to just price shopping. I think that's a great way of answering it. You know, you're right.

As a consumer and as someone that's been in the industry a long time as well, you see it a lot where a consumer gets wrapped up way too much into looking at the price of the vehicle or their trading value and they forget all about the deal as a whole. You know, from start to finish. And as we're talking about it right now, to me as a consumer, it's always more important to make sure that I'm with somebody that's with me for the long haul and not to just get that quick commission and forget all about me. So it's good that you're in line with the way that I think.

When it comes down to it, anybody can sell a vehicle for the same price. And I think a good service department with good quality reviews is important. And obviously, every company, every product, every person is gonna, you can find positive and negative stuff, but you gotta kinda look at the overall. And most people are intelligent enough to be able to glance over a few reviews and get a pretty good idea.

I think that there's a lot of quality dealerships out there. know definitely I work for one. That's why I've been there so long, but there's a lot of good family owned dealerships. You know, there's a lot of corporation dealerships and stuff. Well, Jeff, you've been doing this a long time, so you helped out answering all those questions about this topic. So while you're on the air with us, I thought it would be pretty cool to see what one of your most memorable deals was, or maybe your most memorable customer. Man, I got a lot.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (09:21.069)
Obviously, and I should, you know, good. So I had a customer that like was looking at the CA Corvette for two years, you know, when they were talking about building this car and the mid engine design. And he's always been a Corvette fan. always had many cars. lived really close to the dealership. They moved, you know, about 40 minutes away, but they remained good customers. And he was actually, him and his wife were like one of my very first customers in 1996 when I started.

Apple share relate. And that was one of those customers that, you know, we just became very close. You know, they lost their son at 21 and, you know, that was very devastating. He was also a very good customer of mine and the world lost a great person with him. So we had been through a lot and that when my son was born, you know, she brought him all kinds of gifts and stuff like that. So that was like an established relationship, but that's, know, going back to like early 2000s, but getting back to the story.

So he had talked about this car, the color, exactly the way he was gonna build it. And finally, as you know, we had a waiting list for that vehicle. That waiting list, I don't know, but I remember he was like number 26 on that list. And that's how long it was. Now this is 2020. So I was able to get him bumped up that list because they had been customers for so long. Well, so we ordered the car for him.

It's about a six month delivery span. And then about three weeks to a month later, he called me and said he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. So, and he had just retired and he, you know, he worked hard his whole life and he was 64, 65. And obviously that's a devastating thing. so he's like, you know, I'm going to have to cancel the order. And I'm like, you know, Wayne,

I'm like, listen, we've talked about this car for two years. We've built it. I don't know how many times we would sit on the phone and just build it. And I'd be like, Hey man, this looks cool. Don't it? And we would just sit there and share our screens and stuff. So we did this. I'm like, listen, I'm not going to cancel your order. You know, we jumped through some hoops to get them a bill date. So I'm not going to cancel it. I said, I want you to have something that's just going to keep you optimistic. And you've looked forward to this car for a long time. And I said, Hey, if it comes in and you don't want the car.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (11:44.96)
Completely no problem. I said we're building a badass car here and it will sell. But I want you to know that it's being built with your name on it because I ordered a plaque that had his name on it. You know that's mounted in the center stack console. we did get delivery of the car. As soon as I got the car I sent pictures. I him hold the Matchbox car the same color. was the Corvette.

make sure he's holding the car and then it like a magic trick. Then I had him hold his hands out and then I had the Corvette pulled on the showroom floor. So I was like, it came, you know, I don't know if you're, I have it somewhere and then I videotaped our test drive and everything. And he was like a little kid in a candy store. We went and we filled it up at Shell and we're coming back and I was videotaping and he punched that thing. I mean, we got a little squirreled, but obviously the Corvettes got amazing traction handling. And just the look on his face was just amazing. And,

Unfortunately, Wayne passed away. Wow. So that's probably a memorable experience for me. I would, you know, I could have came up with something a little bit more positive, but that just happened to be something that I'll probably never forget for the rest of my life. From the time I first met them and I remember it, like, cause I was a green pea brand new, walked on the lot. They bought a 97 Tahoe for me. The 97 Tahoe had just came, come out.

In cherry, which was the color of the Corvette. And after that, they probably bought, I don't know, 10, 15 cars for me, their kids. And just the nicest people in the world. And I still talk to his wife. In fact, his wife and I are very good friends and I had another customer that passed away and her husband was also a Corvette aficionado. Every year they would go down to the plant. They were just Corvette geeks basically, but

You'd never know they had, you know, they had money, but not like that kind of money. But, so when her husband passed away, I introduced the two ladies and they had become best friends. and they were two of the best customers that I've ever had because these are customers be like, Hey, we're to stop in. Do you have time to talk to us and be like, yeah, absolutely. Can we bring a coffee or anything? No, you don't need to bring me nothing. And they would just come by talk. And it was just like, they were like happy to see me in that. That always makes a person feel good.

Daniel Little (A Little Training) (14:09.557)
So that was like my best thing that I did, I think, on a, on a personal and spiritual level was putting them two together because whenever I talked to either one or like, you know what, that is such an amazing thing because I love her to death. So I think those two people are have some of the most memorable stories for me as being a sales professional. And look at that. So you pair customers with cars and you pair customers with other customers. That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, and then here I actually. So while I don't have a picture of the one, but here's the one where would that be OK? OK, so that's a Z06 right there. God rest his soul, so obviously this stays in my house close by. Next to my grandmother and my grandfather and my family. So these are people that mean a lot to me and that's. That's part of it, man.

It's more than just a job. It goes to show you there is more than just making a commission and you can get a lot of this there too. Yeah, you really relate it to being family. Well, Jeff, if anyone wants to get ahold of you and ask any questions or maybe to purchase that next vehicle, what's the best way for them to reach you? Yeah, I'd be more than happy to help anybody out with anything I can. And I do appreciate you giving me this opportunity. So even if it's not for a sale or anything, if I can provide any kind of advice.

My personal cell phone number is 708-227-6936. First name Jeff, last name Dignan, call or text anytime. Very nice. Thanks again, Jeff. So that's going to be the end of our episode for this week. Be sure to tune in for next week's episode.