21 Secrets Of Creating A Money-Making Customer Experience/Part 3
Module 3: Secrets 6-10
GREG: Welcome back to Part Three in Uncle Frank’s 21 Secrets of Creating a Money-Making Customer Experience. Today we’re speaking with Tracy Myers. He’s a a 7 time best selling author, an award-winning small business marketing and branding solutions specialist and also the owner of Frank Myers Auto Maxx.
In the first part of this course we talked about why it is so important to be different and deliver a winning customer experience. In the second module we talked about the first five secrets, and here in module three we’re going to go through secrets six through ten.
Now, Tracy, the sixth secret is vitally important and it is to call customers by their names. First, what is the psychological impact of using customer’s names?
TRACY: Greg, this is an idea that I actually borrowed from the restaurant industry and I’ve used it in my dealership with great success. I made a reservation at a five-star restaurant with my wife and I and as I walked in they welcomed us by our name. I remember feeling like the king of the world.
Another time I remember is when my wife and I went to Nevis. They dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and they picked us up in a real nice, fancy golf cart. When we arrived at the front of the Four Seasons hotel, they welcomed us by our names and gave us cold mint towels.
Well, I didn’t implement the cold mint towels, but I thought to myself, man, that is the way to go. I implemented the importance of calling customers by their names in my dealership in more ways than one, and it made a major impact in the impression we create with all of our customers.
GREG: I think we can all see the importance of that and I love how you said you felt like you were the king of the world, but I think one of the biggest hurdles for that is getting your team members to remember the names of your customers and then implement them. What are some tips or strategies that you use to help your employees to utilize this very important strategy?
TRACY: The most visible way is when our guests call the store and make a VIP reservation with a member of our Extreme Satisfaction Team, and their name is posted on the VIP Reservation Board, and that just happens to be hanging right in the entrance. In fact, it’s the first thing they see when they walk through the front door.
We also announce the customer’s name over the PA system when they buy a car. We call it welcoming them to the Frank Myers family of customers.
Then last but not least we have a red carpet celebration when a new customer and their noncommissioned sales professional step on the red carpet, the hit the celebratory gong, and they have their picture made. We’ll video this and post it all over the Internet and of course their name is everywhere, and it works like a charm.
GREG: Those are some great strategies. I hope everyone that was listening was really paying attention because you ingrain this secret, really, into your culture, which I think is vitally important.
The seventh secret, now, is to welcome feedback. How do you deal with customer feedback in real-time and how do you know when to take action based on that feedback and to really make a change in your business?
TRACY: Since the Internet has made it possible for customers to post immediate feedback, both good and bad, a business owner must have the steps in place to manage their reputation, especially online. It’s important for me to personally deal with all customer feedback.
In all my businesses, I’m the one who monitors social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter for immediate feedback. I’ve also got alerts set up with Google and Yahoo to monitor things that are being said on review sites and blog posts.
As soon as I see feedback regarding our company, good or bad, I’ll respond. That’s going to be me personally; I’m going to do that. Regardless of the concern, I’ll address it with our team leaders, and if it was negative feedback, we’ll discuss how it could have been prevented.
Or, if it was positive, we’ll discuss how we can duplicate that experience for others. I know that lots of businesses shy away from negative feedback, but I welcome it. My dad always said, “To grow your business, don’t ask what’s right; ask what’s not.”
That’s what I want my customers and team members to do: Give me the facts. Don’t sugarcoat anything. I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s the only way that I can be proactive the next time there’s an opportunity for improvement in my business.
GREG: That’s great, I think that’s really, really important. I love the proactive approach that you take there and I think a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs can really learn from that.
The eighth secret is one that I’m a big fan of and I know that you’re a big fan of too in your business: It’s to make it fun. What are some ways that you keep your business fun, while still putting that customers experience first?
TRACY: Greg, I feel that by promoting a fun work environment, it makes our team members happier people, and the end result of a happy team member is usually a happy customer. There are several ways that we involve our customer and our team members together in the fun, including the red carpet celebration we talked about a little earlier.
We also have the huge events such as our community appreciation picnic, and that’s where anyone and everyone’s invited, whether they bought a car here or not, whether they work here or not, including the families of our team members. This year we fed close to one thousand people at our community appreciation picnic and we had tons of fun and it was just an awesome day of celebration.
GREG: That’s great, I love that. Another great example of having fun, and you shared this in the book Pushing to the Front, is Apple and the Apple store experience. I know we talked a little bit about this in the intro, but can you share why what they do in their stores is so vital to their core business and how fun plays a role in that?
TRACY: Sure. Well, you know, one of the many things the Apple store does right is creating an electronic playground for their customers. You can walk by any Apple store of any time of the day and chances are that it’s going to be the most crowded store at the mall, and you know why? Because people are allowed to go in and have fun.
Life’s too short not to let your customers and let your employees have some fun. Most businesses are far too serious, in my opinion. From my experience, creating a fun environment for customers and employees actually increases productivity and decreases turnover, which in turn increases profitability.
GREG: That’s great, and you know, again, if you haven’t been to an Apple store and experienced that you really need to because you can really learn a lot of things just by walking into one of their retail stores.
Now, moving on to number nine, I think this is a big part of number seven, which is welcoming feedback and it kind of stacks on top of that, is to pay attention to detail.
In business we all know that things can get busy; as entrepreneurs, small business owners, our schedules are hectic, there’s a lot going on, and sometimes we only look at the big picture and the big numbers and we forget about these details.
How can we remember to stop, slow down, and pay attention, and what do think you need to put an emphasis on paying attention to and how do you make the effort to pay attention to these small details?
TRACY: I’m not so sure that you can remember to pay attention; it’s just something that you do. It’s part of our culture here at the dealership and all of our businesses.
I remember when I worked directly for my dad, he always told me that it was the small things that would bite me. He was hyperfocused on things like clean restrooms, cut grass, nice landscaping, and pressed clothes on the team members.
Of course, I was young and I didn’t have a clue why he was so focused on those things, but I understand now and agree with one of the guiding principles of Starbucks, which is everything matters. All of the little details in your business, from the environment to the background music they’re all crucial to the overall customer experience.
GREG: So crucial and so vital, and these are some just great tips to really help everyone listening. As we close out this third section, we’re going to go into secret number ten. I think this is one that gets people excited when they hear that this is one of the secrets to your success, and that’s to actually charge premium prices. What are you trying to get across with this tenth secret?
TRACY: If you look back to the three companies we’ve been discussing- Disney, Apple, and Starbucks- you’ll notice that none of them try to compete on best price. Instead, they’ve made it a point to be more expensive than their competition.
Once again, I’ll refer to some of my dad’s wisdom: he said, “Your customer will pay almost anything if you give them an experience to remember.” Now, keep in mind that your customer will pay more if the experience is awesome, but you also have to deliver a good product to go along with the awesome experience. But when the two join forces and become one, that’s when the magic happens, and you and your business can start commanding premium pricing.
GREG: I think that’s a really important thing that you just mentioned, and what I want to do is I want to help some business owners think about how they can change the way that they price and how they can roll this experience into their price. So, how do you go about changing the way that you price your products and services to move into that premium pricing model?
TRACY: Well, I recommend one of two things. Number one is to test a higher pricing. Now, this is what we do; we test everything from marketing to the products we sell to the prices that we charge.
Just for a week, switch pricing and see if the responses are more or less in comparison to what you normally get. If the responses are more, guess what you do? Raise the price again for one more week, and keep raising the price until you hit the ceiling and the responses drop.
Then you’ve actually, like I said, hit the ceiling and probably can’t charge any more. Number two, if number one won’t work for you, is to give options to your customer. We actually do this in our service department.
If you’re just not sure whether higher prices will be acceptable to your customers, just create two to three variants of your product and give them different options. A great example is my service department has four variations of an oil change that ranges from $9.97 for our budget oil change, up to $32.93. So, once you convert a customer, remember that you can always, always offer them an upgrade if they want to pay more and get more.
GREG: Those are some really great strategies and tips. I think they are some applicable strategies that businesses can start implementing into their business right away.
As we close out this third section, again I encourage everyone to be taking notes and seeing how you can relate these new principles and secrets into your own business.
In the next section we’re going to be going through secrets eleven through fifteen and further showing you how you can deliver an amazing customer experience. Thanks again for reading module three, and we will see you again in module four.
– To Be Continued. Stay Tuned For Part 4 Coming Soon.
– To Read Part 1 Of This Series, Click HERE.
– To Read Part 2 Of This Series, Click HERE.
21 Secrets Of Creating A Money Making Customer Experience/Part 2
Module 2: Secrets 1-5
GREG: Welcome back to Part Two in Uncle Frank’s 21 Secrets of Creating a Money-Making Customer Experience. Today we’re talking with Tracy Myers. He’s a a 7 time best selling author, an award-winning small business marketing and branding solutions specialist and also the owner of Frank Myers Auto Maxx.
In the first part of this course we gave you and overview of the 21 secrets and really why you need to be creating a customer experience and the importance of the customer experience.
In this second module we’re going to be talking about the first five secrets in the 21 overall secrets. Tracy, when we break it down your first secret is really all about telling your story. Why is your story so important to deliver that great customer experience?
TRACY: Well, Greg, I believe that storytelling is as important to businesses as it is to Disney. Stories help people learn to build relationships and move beyond the idea of selling. My dad told me it’s easier to sell something if you’re interesting, and the best way to be interesting is to be interested.
Now, while that’s true, I like to take it a step further and say that it’s easier to sell something when you get people involved with stories.
When people know your story they start to feel like they’re part of it, and when people feel part of something they’ll naturally move in the direction that you want them to go.
GREG: I love that, and I really buy into the whole storytelling mentality. I think a lot of business owners can think about where their story came from, but one of the biggest questions and something you’ve been able to do with your business and your employees is: How do you get your team excited to tell that story and when should that story come out and really deliver an experience to the customer?
TRACY: Our team gets excited about our story because they see that it excites our customers, and of course that always makes it easier. However, I will admit that when you tell that same story a dozen times for several years it can be hard to put on a happy face and share that story with the same enthusiasm day in and day out.
We have to constantly tell our team that they’re like a world-famous rock band and when the doors open, they’re playing another encore every time they speak with another customer.
I kind of relate it to the band Kiss which was one of my favorite bands growing up, and forty years later I can’t imagine what it’s like for them to play “Rock and Roll All Night” every night, and at every event they play.
It must be excruciating to a degree, but I know that kind of liken our sales staff and our team members feeling the same way. When they talk to that customer it’s their encore, it’s their time to play “Rock and Roll All Night” one more time.
GREG: That’s great, and that’s another great analogy because I’m sure from you, from a fan’s perspective, if you went to a Kiss concert and they didn’t play the song, it would be disappointing, wouldn’t it?
TRACY: Of course it would be, because they always end a concert with “Rock and Roll All Night” and that’s what they’re best known for. They’ve got to tell their story and essentially, that three and a half to four minutes, that is their story. “Rock and Roll All Night”, word for word, is the story of their career and of their band, so they have to play that song.
GREG: I love it. I love it. Now, moving on to the second secret, and that is to create characters and you are a great person to talk about characters in your business. First, let’s get started. How do you create characters and how can other business owners create characters in their business?
TRACY: Sometimes our characters are created as natural extensions of our personality and our brand. For example, I went to radio and TV school and I grew up in an era when radio disc jockeys were still fairly relevant.
I dreamed of being a Casey Kasem or a Rick Dees, or even a Wolfman Jack, you know? I was just drawn into that old-fashioned radio DJ persona, and that’s kind of the character I portray in our commercials and our marketing. It’s an extension of who I am, but only bigger, kind of like an alter-ego.
At other times, characters are created entirely by accident, like the Uncle Frank character. I remember when that character was created; we actually were filming a textile commercial and my father was dressed in an Uncle Sam costume.
When he walked out- by the way, getting him in the Uncle Sam costume was always a struggle- but he came out and the videographer, who was knew, said, “Oh, you know, they should call you Uncle Frank, not Uncle Sam”.
A lightbulb went off at that moment and I didn’t own the dealership then but I looked at him and I said, “You know, that’s a great idea. We’re going to call you Uncle Frank.” Well, the commercial came out and it took off; not necessarily the commercial itself but the Uncle Frank character.
People actually started walking into the dealership asking for Uncle Frank, so we knew we were onto something. That was created entirely by accident. So how have characters impacted our customers in our own business? You know, as our business got bigger and bigger and we started growing, it was becoming almost faceless.
The characters that we created in marketing, it gave us a personality in a sea of sameness with all the other car dealerships in town. It gave us a personality and made people feel it was easier to have a relationship with us because we were real people and all the other car dealerships were only logos.
GREG: That’s a great, that’s a great explanation. Again, I encourage everyone listening to have that action guide in front of them, be taking notes, and see what you can learn from this.
We’re only two secrets in and you already should be thinking about ways to tell your story and ways to get your employees and team members excited to tell your story, and thinking about characters in your business. There’s a real importance there and you can see the longevity of it in Tracy’s business as well.
The third secret is to learn from outside of your industry. What are some tips, or strategies to learn from other industries that then you can kind of take and mold and bring them into your own business to make it better?
TRACY: I have a good friend by the name of Jimmy V and he has a great saying that’s really relevant here: it’s “Same is lame”. My dad told me that I wasn’t going to beat out my competitors by doing the same things that they were.
It’s a common sin of most businesses to borrow from within their own industry, but one of the most powerful things I ever learned was to look for inspiration everywhere else. Figure out how to adopt and adapt them and make them unique to me and my business.
GREG: That’s great. As we move on, number four is to create a powerful cast. Start to explain what a powerful cast can look like?
TRACY: I believe this cast actually looks different to everyone depending on what type of business they’re in. For example, my cast at the dealership is probably not the same cast as someone would want at a retirement home.
However, there are three common denominators that I look for in all my cast members: character, charisma, and heart. I think all business owners should look for cast members or team members with those three characteristics.
GREG: That’s great, and now what are some of your best tips to now take those characteristics get your cast to perform and show up for their performance every day on their job?
TRACY: Greg, that’s a great question, and I struggled with that answer for many years. There’s a book named The Experience Economy and I love the subtitle: “Work is a theater and every business a stage.”
I agree with this statement 100%. Like I shared earlier, we have to constantly tell our team that they’re like a world-famous rock and when the doors open they’re playing another encore every time they speak with another customer.
GREG: That’s great, that’s great. It’s a great book and a great reference for everybody that’s looking to get that cast to perform and show up and do a great job and deliver that customer experience day in and day out.
Now, the fifth secret, you say, is to follow a script. Why is what we say to our customers so important and what are some ways to get our team following a script when they’re dealing with customers and different interactions throughout the day?
TRACY: Sure. Well, you know, even the guy sweeping the streets at Disney has to follow an exact script when someone asks him for directions. What we say to people can make a huge difference to the impression we create.
It’s worth making sure that your people know what to say at key moments. The way someone answers the phone has a big impact on how people perceive you. As far as how to get your team to follow a script, the first step is to make it a part of the culture, which means it’s like breathing and it’s a part of who you are.
To be successful at it though, it’s all about P-D-R: practice, drill, rehearse. Scripts have kind of taken a bad rap because most people are really bad at them.
We’ve all heard the telemarketer that’s called us at home that sounds like they’re reading, and you know why they sound like they’re reading? Because they are. They didn’t practice, drill, and rehearse that script.
GREG: That’s great. That’s a great analogy and as we close out this second module in going through the first five secrets, I was really hoping you could share an example of an interaction that delivered that moneymaking customer experience when one of your team members used these defined scripts that you’ve ingrained into their culture to overcome some customer objections or questions and they got the deal done and at the end of the day, everyone walked out happy.
TRACY: Of course I can. In the automotive industry there are lots of variables. Folks go shopping at a dealership and may want a full-size SUV, but they need a monthly payment of $250 a month.
The person they speak to at the other dealership foolishly tells them that the payment on a full-size SUV will be around a $400 a month, but can buy a Ford Focus for $250 a month. So the customers say, “Oh, we’re going to think about it,” and they say thank you, and then they come to my store to shop around and what kind of car do you think they ask for?
Not the SUV; they ask for the Focus. Now why do they ask for the Focus? Because they think that’s the car that will work for their budget, and this may or not be true. So we’ve made it a point to ask every customer: Other than the car you came in looking for, what other types of vehicles have you been looking at?
It’s amazing the range of vehicle types you get when you ask this simple question. It’s scripted and it helps an additional fifteen to twenty folks drive home in a nicer, newer car from my dealership every month with one simple sentence.
GREG: Wow, that’s just really an incredible statement that you just shared. Really, it’s the little things just like that: having that script, that one scripted line, that question, that thing that’s going to get you to get your customers talking and opening up about their problems and their fears and the things that they need to make their life better, and scripting can be a great way to do that.
What I encourage everyone doing now in this second module is to look back at secrets one through five, all the way from telling your story to following a script, and see how they can apply to your own business and see how you can utilize these five secrets to really help you deliver that great customer experience.
In module three we’re going to go through the next set of secrets, secrets six through ten. Thanks again for reading Part Two, and we will see you again in Part Three.
– To Be Continued. Stay Tuned For Part 3 Coming Soon.
– To Read Part 1 Of This Series, Click HERE.
Tracy Myers To Speak In Philadelphia This May
First Class Educators is pleased to announce that award-winning small business marketing & branding solutions specialist, car dealership owner, best-selling author, speaker, business coach and entrepreneur Tracy Myers will be a speaker at the 2013 Automotive Boot Camp taking place May 14-16 in Philadelphia. The annual Boot Camp features over a dozen industry thought leaders presenting the latest and most successful trends in automotive digital marketing.
Tracy is commonly referred to as The Nation’s Premier Automotive Solutions Provider while Best-Selling author and legendary speaker Brian Tracy called him “a visionary… a Walt Disney for a new generation.” He is also a Certified Master Dealer and was the youngest ever recipient of the National Quality Dealer of the Year award by the NIADA, which is the highest obtainable honor in the used car industry. His car dealership, Frank Myers Auto Maxx, was recently recognized as the number one Small Business in NC by Business Leader Magazine, one of the Top 3 dealerships to work for in the country by The Dealer Business Journal, one of the Top 15 Independent Automotive Retailers in the United States by Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine and one of the fastest growing privately owned small businesses in America by Inc. magazine.
Tracy Myers Shares Marketing Secrets In Virgina
Tracy Myers, an award-winning small business marketing & branding solutions specialist shared money making marketing and branding secrets to a capacity crowd in Bluefield, Virginia on Thursday, March 7, 2013.
Myers taught an abbreviated an abbreviated version of the YOU Are The Brand, Stupid! seminar which is based on his #1 best selling book. He showed the attendees how to leverage their greatest asset with a step-by-step guide that shows them how to easily gain publicity and increased sales without having to spend their hard earned money on a pricey publicist.
Over the course of the seminar, Myers taught the group how to…
- Be the media’s go-to expert in their industry, gaining prestige and valuable exposure for free.
- Effectively harness social-media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram to boost their bottom line.
- Host popular events that will have people clamoring to buy their product or service.
- Produce marketing materials that potential consumers actually want.
- Cut their learning curve by two thirds and have a huge leg up on your competitors by sidestepping the top marketing mistakes.
- Utilize 10 brand-building strategies to launch their business into hyper drive, and much, much more!
Click here to learn how to bring Tracy to your organization or function.
About The Sales Executive’s Club
Since its formation in 1954, the Sales Executives Club has played a vital role in advancing salesmanship in the Mercer/Tazewell county area and helps make it the important retailing-wholesaling service center that it is today.
There is a rich history associated with the Sales Executives Club. Formation of the club was sponsored by the Roanoke Sales Executives Club, which is now defunct. For several years, the club was associated with the New York based National Sales Executives Club, which no longer exists. Many things have changed over the years, but the one constant is the goal to provide assistance for our members in improving their own abilities and enhancing the performance of their businesses.
Over the years, some of the nation’s foremost speakers on salesmanship, advertising, public relations and related subjects have addressed the Sales Executives Club. We occasionally draw from the talents of our own members or prominent local executives to make presentations. The club also hosts periodic seminars and workshops available to members and their associates at a fraction of the cost normally associated with such high caliber programs.
The social hour that always preceeds the club’s dinner at Fincastle Country Club is a pleasant and helpful interlude each month. It enables members to get better acquainted and to indulge in “shop talk” in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The social hour also reflects the opportunity for our “Mystery Handshaker”, another club tradition, to circulate and choose two members to receive door prizes. Indeed, some Sales Executives say this networking feature is as helpful to them in their businesses as the speaker following dinner.
Tracy is an award-winning small business marketing & branding solutions specialist, car dealership owner, best-selling author, speaker, business coach and entrepreneur. He is commonly referred to as The Nation’s Premier Automotive Solutions Provider while Best-Selling author and legendary speaker Brian Tracy called him “a visionary… a Walt Disney for a new generation.”
He is also a Certified Master Dealer and was the youngest ever recipient of the National Quality Dealer of the Year award by the NIADA, which is the highest obtainable honor in the used car industry. His car dealership, Frank Myers Auto Maxx, was recently recognized as the number one Small Business in NC by Business Leader Magazine, one of the Top 3 dealerships to work for in the country by The Dealer Business Journal, one of the Top 15 Independent Automotive Retailers in the United States by Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine and one of the fastest growing privately owned small businesses in America by Inc. magazine.
Tracy has been featured in publications such as Forbes, USA Today and Success Magazine, been profiled on The Biography Channel and The History Channel, written for Fast Company, been a guest business correspondent for the FOX News Network plus he’s appeared on NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates across the country. His inspirational stories and strategies for success have given him the opportunity to share the stage with the likes of Jack Canfield, Zig Ziglar (Author of See You At The Top), James Malinchak (Star of ABC’s The Secret Millionaire), Brian Tracy, Bob Burg (Co-Author of The Go-Giver), Tom Hopkins and Neil Strauss (Author of The Game & Co-Author of The Dirt with Motley Crue)…just to name a few.
Tracy is recognized as one of the top thought-leaders in the business world and has authored or co-authored 7 best-selling books alongside Brian Tracy (Author of Eat That Frog), Jack Canfield (Author of The Secret, Creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series), Tom Hopkins (Author of How To Master The Art Of Selling) and many others, including the breakthrough #1 hit YOU Are The Brand, Stupid!. He was also featured in the Emmy nominated film “Car Men”, which won 5 Telly Awards, and is an Executive Producer of the film “Esperanza”.
As the founder of his own coaching & consulting program, Tracy teaches ambitious professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners how to get noticed, gain instant credibility, make millions and dominate their competition by building their expert brand.
Tracy spends his spare time with charities that are close to his heart and has made his home in Lewisville, NC with his wife Lorna and their two children, Presley and Maddie.
For more information about Tracy, visit his website at http://www.tracymyers.com
21 Secrets Of Creating A Money-Making Customer Experience/Part 1
Module 1: Overview of the 21 Secrets
GREG: Hi and welcome to Uncle Frank’s 21 Secrets of Making a Money-Making Customer Experience. My name is Greg Rollett and on today’s program we have Tracy Myers.
If you guys want more information about Tracy, you can visit and learn more at www.TracyMyers.com. Tracy, welcome to today’s program.
TRACY: Greg, it is so good to be here. Thanks for having me.
GREG: We’re really excited to have you and we’re excited to reveal these 21 secrets of creating this money-making customer experience, but for those that are just getting involved in learning about you and what you do, I’d love if you could share a little bit about your passion, how you got into the industry that you got into, and how you made that transition to really helping others.
TRACY: Well, Greg, that’s a great way to lead into today’s program.You know, I really didn’t want to get into the family business. It’s a classic story of something that I really didn’t want to do because I wanted to set myself apart from my father.
My great-grandfather started the very first Frank Myers store more than 83 years ago, believe it or not, and when I was coming up it was just something I didn’t want to do because I wanted to forge my own path.
When I went to college I actually was going to study radio and television and did for a while, and I realized that the jobs I was getting offered was where I could make the money that I felt that I was worth, of course, being eighteen years old and all the experience I had at the time.
But I saw an ad in the paper and it said “Make as much as five thousand dollars a month and work your own schedule selling cars”. Even though I didn’t want to sell cars, I saw this ad and I said you know what, I know I can do that and I can probably do that just through college and I know I can make lots of money and then I can continue doing what I’m going to do.
Well, a funny thing happened while I was selling cars: I actually started enjoying it and making a lot of money doing it, and I realized that it wasn’t the industry that I didn’t like, it was the perception of the industry is what I didn’t like about it.
So I kind of went on a mission at that moment in time to change the perception of the used car industry and really the car industry in general. After working there an entire year through college, I was going to college from 8 to 1 and selling cars from 3 to midnight and my father knew nothing about it.
I called him up one day, and this was after a year and I said, “Dad, guess what? I’ve been selling cars for a year.” He said, “Well, that sounds great.” “And I think I’m ready to come home to the family business, I’m not in school anymore.” And he said, “Yeah, I know.”
Of course, I didn’t think he knew but the older we get the smarter our parents get, you know? And he said, “Yeah, I think I can make a place for you, come on in.”
So I left my job and I was making really good money at that point in time, I’d moved up to a sales manager actually at 18 years old. I came home, came to the dealership the next day, I had my shirt and tie on, and he said, “I think you’re a little overdressed, aren’t you?”
I said, “What do you mean? I’m going to be selling cars.” And he said “No, you’re going to be working in the detail shop.” Well, at that moment I was really angry, of course, but it was the best lesson my father ever taught me at that moment in time.
So here I am today, all these years later, and we’re real fortunate to have the business that we have here. It really has become the mission not only to change the perception of the automotive industry, but to create an experience for our customers that visit the store every day.
GREG: That was a really great story because it really does lead into all the things we’re going to talk about. I know through your experience just being that sales rep and then running your family business you’ve got these secrets and these strategies that have made you and your company successful.
That’s what we’re really going to cover in this first module and what I want to do is I kind of wanted to give everyone an overview and talk about why customer experience is so crucial, not just in today’s economy but in business in general.
– To Be Continued. Stay Tuned For Part 2 Coming Soon!
Frankism #2 – Customers Must LOVE Your Process
“To achieve maximum success, customers must love your process as much as your products.”
The perfect example of this Uncle Frankism is McDonald’s. No matter where you are, Russia, China or any of our 50 states, you can go to a McDonald’s and get basically the same hamburger. Their company’s processes are solid, tested and proven to be effective. That is one of the reasons they have achieved maximum success.
Most famous for their fries, they have the same fries in all of their international locations. They have taken ordinary potatoes (which anyone can buy) and created a product that millions of people around the world love. Whether its Poland or Alaska, McDonald’s fries are cooked the same way, in the same type of fryer, with the same type of oil, and the same amount of salt added. They taste the same and are served fresh and hot (in basically the same types of paper bags and boxes).
They have perfected not only their product, but also their process – what they purchase, how they preserve its flavor and how they cook, wrap and present it.
People want their food fast and consistent. McDonald’s gives them that.
There may be a different or better burger down the street, but if people see a McDonald’s while on a trip, they know what they will get – the same fast food packaged in the same way they get it at home. People know that McDonald’s processes are as good and reliable as their products.
When Uncle Frank was looking for a way to grow his car dealership, he turned to McDonalds for inspiration. He knew he would have to create a process that customers loved, and required that it be customer-friendly. In order to provide such, Uncle Frank eliminated commission-based sales in an effort to remove an outdated, unfriendly process.
He wanted his customers to have a better car shopping experience, instead of being hassled by a salesperson whose next paycheck depended on how much over invoice price they could charge their customers. So, he developed a consistent customer-friendly process of selling cars.
It became a well-known fact that buying a car from UncleFrank was an easy and pleasant process – honesty, fairness, prices posted right on the car, and all the free information that a car shopper wanted, with NO pressure to buy today and a quick and friendly check-out process, but not a hectic all day affair.
The process of buying a car at Uncle Frank’s became as good as the cars he sold. As a result, he sold more of them.
– Taken from the best-selling book Uncle Frank ‘Sez’/Copyright Tracy Myers
http://www.tracymyers.com/uncle-frank-sez/