The Engine

As we open the hood of a vehicle and look inside; what do we see? What is the purpose
of it all? If it is a performance car its job is to produce horsepower. As the horsepower
increases so does the degree of satisfaction the driver experiences.

This does not take place randomly. All engines large and small rely on a series of parts
to achieve an ultimate goal. There is no one part greater than another. Some have an
immediate purpose while others are installed to protect the engine from running
inefficiently and wearing out faster. When all parts are working together the engine runs
at peak efficiency.

No matter how great the engine is engineered it really is no greater than the sum of all its
parts. If the water pump is leaking or the alternator is not charging the vehicle will not
run right. All eight cylinders must fire sequentially in order to turn the crank. If one
spark plug is fowled it will cause the engine to misfire and every other part of that engine
will run inefficiently.

It makes little difference how great each part is individually. We can install all the high
performance parts that we want, but if one part is off the entire engine runs poorly. A
poor running engine will only contribute to a negative driving experience and create
driver frustration and dissatisfaction.

Producing satisfaction is constant in all things. Even our bodies, environment and the
most profitable organizations rely on the sum of all their parts working together to
produce an intended purpose.

The key to satisfaction is no one thing. It takes a group working together and supporting
each other in all ways. There is no one person more important than another in any
organization. Position has no bearing, salary has no effect, and length of employment is
not a determining factor.

Recently, I was speaking to a coworker about the customer survey situation in our
organization. The company places a lot of stock in customer satisfaction and these
surveys are meant to measure how well or how poorly we are doing. We can’t fix what
we can’t measure. These surveys are very important. In fact how they come back totally
effects the reputation of the sales consultant. However, if the customer is dissatisfied
with one experience with any other member of the team the survey will tank. I have
personally been the victim of the inability of another team member to satisfy a client on
two occasions. Both times I called my customers to discuss the issues they may have had
and received very similar responses. They would say, “Oh no Ron, you were wonderful.
This was one of my best experiences with a sales consultant. It was just a problem I had
with so and so.” It would seem that regardless of how well we performed others were
working inefficiently and ineffectively. They were not satisfying our customers. Often it
was as simple as not being honest with them or making promises that we could not keep
and other times it was a lack of common sense, but the majority of the time it was caused
by customers having to spend excessive amounts of time at the dealership.

The bottom line is that we could not do it alone. We needed an entire organization to
accomplish our goal. A team of people working together at maximum efficiency is the
only way to satisfy our clients.

Sometimes it was coworkers trying too hard and other times it was coworkers not trying
at all. My initial survey came back at fifty percent. I was astonished! I remembered
going well beyond the call of duty to satisfy my client. In fact she even commented on
how helpful and accommodating I had been throughout the process. Her smile and
handshake as I delivered the vehicle more than confirmed that I would be receiving high
marks on the customer satisfaction survey.

What had happened? Well, a well intentioned coworker had rescheduled the delivery
date on my day off without me knowing. His intentions were to get the customer her
vehicle a few days earlier. However, he was not aware of the client’s tight schedule on
Friday’s. I had scheduled her delivery for a Tuesday after discussing with her what
would be the best time for her to pick up her new car. I knew without a doubt when the
paperwork would be completed, the car could be registered and the accessories would be
installed. He ended up making promises that we could not keep and in the process
caused my client to rearrange her entire Friday’s schedule for no reason. He tried to fix
something that was not broken and in the process of failing to produce was caught lying
to the customer and created extreme customer dissatisfaction.

As we hold strong to truth it is truth which we can always fall back on.

Never ever lie to anyone. Honesty in all areas is the best plan for success in any
organization. Mistakes will be made, but if we own up to them and learn from them we
are less likely to make the same mistakes again. As we continue to lie we fail to resolve
the issue and set ourselves up for continuous failure. Besides, we can always fall back on
the truth, but we will rarely recall the lie and dishonesty never produces satisfaction.

The second failure stemmed from a miscommunication between departments. The

management and receptionist continually patched a customer through to my voicemail on
my day off. The customer needed information that anyone could have gave her, but
instead of helping our customer they decided to pass the buck to my customer. In other
words, they assumed that I was not handling my business, but in actuality I was not there
to handle our business and the customer was not satisfied. The customer only
remembered that she left several messages on my answering machine and nobody
returned her call. This equaled poor customer service and was reflected in the survey. If
one person took the initiative, checked the schedule or simply used common sense the
survey would have came back at one hundred percent satisfied.
My coworker’s issues were much the same. Yet, in my experience excessive time spent
at the dealership is the biggest issue. We can always make more money, but we can’t
make more time. The key is to spend time wisely.

I’ve heard coworkers say, “Why are you doing his dirty work?” I’ve also seen coworkers
spending time talking about how others are not doing their jobs properly while gaining
joy from witnessing their mistakes. I’ve seen them standing around in groups doing
nothing while watching others juggling responsibilities. Short sightedness was prominent
on the sales floor. It seemed as if some coworkers were just thinking about themselves
and when they had nothing to do they did nothing but complain about others. The reality
is that the time belongs to the customer; not to us!

As we help our coworkers our coworkers are better able to serve our customers. This is a
recipe for customer satisfaction. Time is being freed up for everyone and after all aren’t
we all each other’s customers?

If we help our sales managers with their customers won’t they have more time to help us
with ours? As we help those in other departments they will be able to serve our
customers more effectively and efficiently. This allows clients to spend less time at the
dealership. Less time at the dealership produces more customer satisfaction.

We are the engine! Every one of us plays a crucial role in what the engine produces. The
engine is only as great as the sum of all its parts. It is our job to keep the system
lubricated and running smoothly. We must filter out the dissatisfaction and maintain a
constant air flow. By working together for a common goal we will run at peak efficiency
with less effort and ever increasing results.

Team Work Seminar

Begin by having the sales consultants gather around any performance car on the lot. Have
a sales consultant open the hood and ask them to explain what they see. Have them talk
about the engine. What is its function? How much horsepower does it produce? In what
way does the performance of the engine effect the driver? How do all the parts affect one
another?

After they are done explain how the organization consists of a team and relate it to how
an engine works to create horsepower by the sum of its parts which in turn delivers driver
satisfaction.