3 Ways OPENLANE Provides Excellent Customer Service
3 mins
While our customers are dealers, we also know that dealers have their own customers, and that’s why we’re sharing a few insights about what OPENLANE does to provide excellent customer service. Customer Service Week is celebrated in October here in the United States, and there’s no better time to think about how providing customers with a first-rate experience can promote loyalty and cultivate business success.
We listen to our customers and provide solutions based on their feedback
While the old cliche that “the customer is always right” may not be entirely accurate, there certainly is nothing more important to business success than listening to a customer and understanding their needs.
The best businesses are always engaging in active listening and providing a personalized service.
One of the best ways of listening to a customer is prompting them to share their feedback with you. By using communications to prompt a customer into writing a review, a business can nudge them to share their experience, whether positive or negative. While positive reviews are always great, even negative reviews can provide actionable feedback to help a business improve.
Here at OPENLANE, listening to the voice of the customer is a vital part of our business operation. For the US marketplace, that starts with OPENLANE’s dedicated customer service team. Our team provides customers with a tailored, consultative experience, focused on making wholesale easy. By providing our customers with a dedicated partner who truly understands their business, we can ensure their needs are met, and they have someone who is always just a quick phone call or text away.
We also routinely engage with our customers, providing them with brief periodic surveys — after a transaction or service as a general check-in. This information helps us better understand the customer experience, what’s working and what we need to improve.
We educate our team on the industry, business and our customers’ needs
A customer should always feel they are speaking with someone who is knowledgeable, and willing and able to help them. That’s where having a dedicated and comprehensive program to train and develop employees can play a vital role in business success.
All employees who interact with customers should have in-depth knowledge of the products and services offered by their employer. Customers should feel they are able to bring questions and concerns to the attention of a business and be provided with solutions.
By investing time in training employees on the business, the industry as a whole and general customer needs, we can strive to provide the best possible service. On top of that, a robust training program empowers employees to learn, grow and succeed in the workplace.
Here at OPENLANE, we are committed to providing our customer-facing employees with the experience to meet the needs of customers like you. By spending time growing their knowledge base and level of understanding, we can provide our dealers with a truly consultative service.
Clear and honest communication
When it comes to engaging with a customer, there are some key things we focus on to set ourselves up for success. First, anyone dealing with a customer needs to be an active listener.
Second, we try to make sure we show empathy toward a concern or problem a customer is having and specifically how it’s impacting their business. By empathizing with the challenge a customer may be experiencing, we can better understand the issue and find ways to mitigate or fix it.
Finally, good customer communication always balances empathy with honesty and clarity. It may sound obvious, but being upfront and clear about what can and can’t be done in a certain situation can save you from headaches down the road. We try to be direct and not exaggerate or over-promise and always remember to match words with action.
Practicing Exceptional Customer Service
While Customer Service Week is a great time to reflect, the customer service experience is something that should be top-of-mind at all times. To learn more about how OPENLANE is dedicated to making wholesale easy, visit our website, openlane.com.