Sales and Service skyrocket with rollout of new Customer Experience strategy

Overview:

A major player in the retail auto services category was looking to set itself apart from competitors while improving customer satisfaction scores.  In order to achieve these goals, the retailer partnered with customer experience consultancy The DiJulius Group to utilize their proven Ten Commandment process.

The company formed a Customer Experience Steering Committee to act as an oversight team of both tool creation and implementation.  Workshops were scheduled and held with key stakeholders to create the following tools:

• • A Service Vision, to act as an action statement reminding all team members what they are purposely trying to achieve each and every time they are interacting with a customer.
  • A list of Never/Always behaviors, acting as a company-wide guide of what behaviors and actions we always follow, or never do.
  • Word Class Internal Culture, to ensure that leaders, including store managers and supervisors, are consistently delivering an employee experience that lives up to the experience the company is seeking their team to deliver to external customers
  • A Customer Experience Cycle was created, focusing on the key interaction points that team members have with customers, and creating consistent standards to be followed by all team members while in those interactions.
  • Zero Risk Playbook to ensure that employees are able to handle difficult questions with a consistent answer.

 

Implementation:

The above tools and strategies were created mid-year 2018 and rolled out in Q4 2018 and Q1 2019.  All team members were invited to a Dallas area hotel ballroom for a training event.  The event included breakfast and lunch and felt more like a celebration than a traditional training session.  At the session, the retail teams not only learned the newly created tools, but also worked together on exercises focusing on increasing customer empathy, focusing on delivering solutions as opposed to saying no, as discussed real life examples of successful interactions using these new tools with their customer base.

After the roll out to all team members, managers were equipped to lead huddles when they headed back to their individual retail locations.  Leaders (store managers) gathered their teams to discuss and reinforce the tools, as well as recognize team members for a job well done.  A new focus on praising publicly and coaching privately became part of the culture across the Dallas market.

 

Results:

 

2019 year-end:

• • Sales up 20% over previous year
  • 8 on-line rating (on a 5.0 scale)
  • NPS score of 81 for Dallas market
  • Beat largest competitor in the market in CSAT scores for the first time in chain history

 

2020  (Q1 and Q2):

• • Q2 NPS score up to 87 for Dallas market
  • Sales up 20% over 2019 (40% over 2018)
  • Sales are 40% higher than rest of chain
  • 2020 numbers include COVID-19 pandemic, with retail locations operating 25% fewer hours a week.
  • Market reported “best June ever” in 2020
  • No marketing budget used in market in 2020 outside of SEO.

 

All of this happening in an industry that is referred to as “flat at best.”  The organization credits much of this success to their new Customer Experience strategy (Service Vision, World-Class Internal Culture, Customer Experience Cycle, and Zero Risk) as well as a strategic shift in hiring.  They are now focused on finding “service minded” candidates, not simply people with industry experience.