Problems

Problems

When I was working with Mercedes North America to improve service in their dealerships, I started with the highest-rated dealership in the country and asked the owner why he thought his ratings were so high.

“Problems,” he said.

“You mean ‘no problems’?” I asked.

He told me that every dealership has unavoidable problems, because the business is so complex. Most others tried to avoid the blame or pretend everything was fine. But his people were trained to “own” the problem and fix it—in many cases, even if it were the customer’s fault. If a new car was returned with a scratch on the trunk, another dealership would say, “How did you get that?” and charge to fix it. But his dealership simply apologized and fixed it for free. He gained gratitude and referrals instead of anger and lawsuits.

I can’t tell you what Mercedes service is like today, but once we learned the “secret” back then, we improved service across the country.

Ask yourself when facing a problem: Is this a threat or an opportunity?