Good Customer Service is Not Up-selling Customers into Oblivion

The new buzz-word in the Auto Industry for customer service is; Right-Selling, your customer. In other words do not sell your customer something they do not need or up-sell them into oblivion. The problem starts industry consultants continually talk about; dollars per customer sale.

In other words how much money did you make on average for each person it came in to purchase something? This is a bad way to judge your business especially if you are in a business which requires a repeat business to ensure success.

Oil change facilities, car washes and many other automotive service businesses work very hard and even pay extra commissions to their service writers when they up-sell the customer. But overselling the customer makes the customer think that they have paid too much and are over budget on their auto expenditures.

One industry analyst says; if the customer’s butt is sore when they leave they are liable not to come back. But I believe it gets even worse than this, because a customer who feels that they have paid too much for service is when the only win in for an $8.99 carwash or a $19.99 oil change and in some paying $24.99 for a super deluxe carwash and hot wax or $149.00 oil change, transmission fluid change, engine flushing and several other ancillary services is not likely be happy.

This is why the term has been developed; Right-selling. And that means giving the customer services within their budget and immediate needs rather than up-selling them into oblivion. By right-selling the customer, you get a steady repeat customer and referrals too. Over selling means you lose the customer and that is just not good business. Please consider this in 2006.