Don’t let the rules determine the outcome for the customer. As Todd Duncan points out in his book, The $6,000 Egg, empower your teams to make decisions that enhance the customer experience. Serve them. Go beyond. Approach them with open arms.
Mr. Tom Harper
Harper Dealerships
9735 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37922
Dear Mr. Harper:
If my memory serves me correctly, it was about 10 years ago when I had my first Harper Auto Square experience. I was a few months into the ownership of a ’01 VW Jetta when I experienced a brake light switch failure for the second time. After limping it into Harper Volkswagen your technicians promptly resolved the issue, in under 45 minutes if I remember correctly.
Fast forward to 2011 and here I am, still visiting the Harper brand. The service I received long ago at the VW dealership led me to purchase my last two cars from a Harper dealership – Harper Acura to be exact.
Since January 30, 2006 I have been taking our Acura’s to Harper Acura for routine maintenance. On January 18th I made a special trip, one that included routine maintenance but also a user error fix. After a failed personal grille replacement procedure I put a call into Richard Tompa and his crew and explained my dilemma. Richard got me a quick slot on the books and I was all set.
When I arrived at the dealership the morning of the 18th I was greeted by Kenny Rolen who confirmed the reason for my visit. I snatched my loaner car, which was clean inside and out I might add, and headed to work. A couple hours later I received a call from Richard who explained the procedure needed to replace the chrome grille trim and a very fair quote for the fix. I approved the work and a few hours later I was back in the service bay retrieving my ’06 TSX.
When they pulled the car around I inspected the repair work and it was, as expected, top notch. During this visit, I believe Brian Brown was the tech that worked on my car. In any case, the Harper experience that day was just as they all are for me: prompt, well-explained and full of genuine interactions from all the folks that work there.
In the future I’m confident I’ll continue to receive the best service at Harper Acura so kudos to you Mr. Harper for pairing remarkable customer service with remarkable automotive brands.
Keeping it between the lines,
Casey Peters