by Frank Swiatek

One of the four fundamentals in our book is to “Keep the Customers You Already Have!”   You can do that with exceptional customer service, delivered consistently.

But, here’s a major problem.  To deliver exceptional customer service often requires a team effort.  If part of the team is not aligned, the customer experience falls apart.

I had an experience with my Buick, which is my signature experience of how an entire team comes together to deliver customer service.

I was doing a series of 5 leadership consultations in the northeast corridor of the United States in about a one-week time frame.  I decided it would be easier for me to drive to these sessions than jumping on and off airplanes for a week.

My first session was in Philadelphia over the weekend.  It was about 11:15AM on a Friday, the first leg of my trip, when I suddenly realized I was losing power in my car.  I had the accelerator down to the floor and I was going 15 miles an hour. I had a problem!

I took a ramp off the highway and parked in a parking lot of a senior citizen center.  When I got out of my car I noticed a long trail of a yellow liquid from my car down to the ramp―not good!  I immediately called my client and notified them of the situation and grabbed a cab to my meeting.

When I got to me meeting at 12 noon, my contact encouraged me to do whatever I had to do to resolve my issue.  So I sat there deciding who to call.  I decided to call the person who sold me the car.

I called and said, “Hi Paul, this is Frank Swiatek, and I bought a car from you 2 years ago.”  He said, “Yes, of course, I remember.”  I said, “Paul, I have a problem!”  I described the problem, and he said, “Frank, you don’t have the problem, I have the problem!”  Wow, was that refreshing!

He said someone would call me within the hour.  The next call came from a district manager of Buick in Philadelphia, who Paul called to describe the situation.  The district manager, said to me, “Frank, it must really be unsettling to have car trouble on a Friday, beginning a long business trip.  I am going to work on this immediately.  Someone will call you shortly.”

It was now about 2:30PM.  A little concern started to sneak in.  The phone rang, and the voice on the other end said, “Frank, this is Marty and I’m the tow truck guy.  Can I meet you at 3:30PM to take your car to the local dealer in downtown Philadelphia?”

Marty was on time.  The last place I expected to be at 3:45PM was in a tow truck, with my car chained up, and heading to be repaired.

When we got to the dealership I immediately got discouraged as I looked at all the repair lifts and the waiting room.  There were cars on every lift and the waiting room was crowded.  I thought to myself, “Three days!  That’s what I should plan on for with this repair.”

The service manager greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the tow truck.  He said, “Frank, I am going to do what I can, in the next hour (their closing time), to get you back on the road.  I should tell you that some of the cars on the lift are not due until next Tuesday, so we can get you on a lift immediately.   I’ll put my senior mechanic on it right now.  Have a seat in the waiting room.”

At 4:55 PM, the service manager came in to the waiting room with a big smile.  He said, “Frank, we found the problem.  It was a seal leak.  We fixed it and gave it a test ride.  Here are your keys.  This one is on Buick!”

I was stunned at what happened.  I know that you may be thinking that this was special treatment for me, for one reason or another.  This is not true.

When I got back to Buffalo, I sent Paul a thank you note.  A few days later, I visited with Paul to personally thank him.  In his office, on the wall were numerous letters (including mine), thanking him for exceptional service from the Buick team.

I got the feeling that he saw his job as creating “legendary customer experiences.”  What a great way to keep the customers that you already have!