When Chevrolet was first looking to improve customer service at its nationwide network of dealerships, they turned to a rather unexpected organization for help. Disney runs a special customer service oriented workshop through its Disney Institute, and Chevy has been sending its employees there since 2011.
TIME magazine says the workshop is part of General Motors’ post-bankruptcy strategy to make car buying a more enjoyable experience. The Disney Institute has coached employees from many different industries on customer service, like Haagen Dazs and United Airlines, for example, and instills the same wisdom in all of its pupils: to behave like theatre actors.
Disney tells sales reps to behave like they are on stage, acting as if they are a “gracious host,” TIME says. This allows them to better connect with the customer and focus on pleasing them. The course is also intended to instill some consistency across all Chevrolet dealerships. The automaker wants its stores to feel the same no matter which one you walk into, like a McDonalds or Starbucks, for example.
GM executive vice president Alan Batey recognizes buying a car or visiting a dealership is an unpleasant experience for some buyers, as it can sometimes be stressful. With the internet, consumers are more educated on products, and a dealer’s job is less about selling and more about simple customer service, which is where the Disney workshop comes in.
Dealership managers paid either $2500 or $2700 to send each of their employees to the workshop, plus additional costs for airfare and accommodations. To date, more than 4800 employees have attended the separate training seminars in Orlando and Anaheim. Most of Chevy’s dealers have already attended the workshop, but one dealer pointed out it’s hard to tell if it made a difference, as the auto industry’s resurgence coincided with the training.
Comments
Seems pretty simple for that dealer to tell if the training made a difference: pay attention to see if his or her employees’ customer service skills are improved. If the dealer can’t tell by observing, consider hiring secret shoppers or surveying customers before and after the training. If the lessons are being applied, it seems logical that customer satisfaction scores and customer retention will improve. If not, maybe they should look into their hiring practices and setting expectations higher.
The problem is many dealers are only as good as their management and anything below them is often not any better than their efforts..
Bad manager or owner can lead to just a bad dealer.
The issue is GM being able to force the bad dealers into doing better as their options are limited. They try to leverage discounts to the dealers and even popular models and other things but it is difficult for them to force a dealer out of to shut a bad dealer down.
If given the ability to document a bad dealer and shut them down without the fear of government intention or lawsuits you would cure the bad dealer issue fast. Till then bad dealers have little to fear from GM.