All right, hello and welcome to this morning's webinar. Our speaker today is Christine Corelli, but before I turn it over to Christine, I'd like to let those of you who are live with us know that you may submit questions during the webinar via the Q&A tab at the bottom of the screen. This webinar will also be recorded so that you may watch or re-watch on demand at your convenience. With that, I will turn it over to Christine. Well, good day, everyone. I hope everyone is having a good day so far. Our program today is Today's Customers, Will They Be Yours? And more important, not only today's customers, but will they be yours tomorrow? Because customers are changing. So, yep, just want to move my slide here. Just one minute, give me a minute. Okay, there we go. And so, you know who I am, most of you. I've done a lot in the industry. I've worked with numerous dealers and many, many manufacturers and been a speaker at a lot of AED events. So, it's my pleasure to be with you. Now, what I'm going to deliver to you today, much of it is based on research and also my own experience having worked in the industry for quite a while. So, please keep that in mind. So, today's customers, wow, today's customers are really happy that COVID is over. I even hate saying the word, but customers are very demanding and they are very cost-conscious now more than ever. So, those are some things we have to keep in our mind. All right, a question to you. What would be the kiss of death for any business? What would be the kiss of death? Anyone? Well, I think it's because they thought their service was good enough. Good enough does not exist today. It has to be superior, exceptional, superb. Next question, when does customer service begin? Whenever I ask this question in a live seminar, which I wish that I were live with you right now and I could see your faces, et cetera, but when does it begin? And I ask this in the seminar and they usually say, oh, from the first phone call. And then some would say, well, when they go to your website. But when it really begins is your reputation. The reputation you have established in your area, in the industry, in the association. So, that's what is so important and our reputation has to be exceptional. The other thing we need to do is internalize what customers want, need, and expect. We also have to internalize how they are feeling today. So, what do they want, which is the obvious. They want solutions, they want value, they want to receive knowledge, communication. They want you to follow up and they want a fast response time. They want your website to be easy and easy to do business with you. They want respect and, of course, they want you and everyone in your organization to be great listeners. They also want to be able to trust you because the number one ingredient in any relationship is trust. Customers today have very high expectations. Actually, they pretty much always have. They want to feel that they have a real deal. They want everything on demand and they want awesome service. They want to be treated like VIPs. All right. Now, they also want state-of-the-art technology, especially in the business systems. So, the business system that you are using must be really great for service. And then they also expect efficient and technologically advanced equipment, which, of course, has been projected to drive global equipment market growth. So, those are some things we have to keep in mind. Now, they want messaging, they want video chat, and they even want live chat available early morning. Because when you go on some websites, you'll see a little, would you like to chat with me button, and then you click on it, and it says no one is available right now. So, those are just a few things to keep in mind. They're very skeptical. Is the equipment going to perform as you said it's going to perform? Will you be able to get this on time? Am I going to get a surprise when I get the invoice? So, they're skeptical. So, it's important to always be upfront and honest with them. Today's customers are better informed, they're more discriminating, they're also global, and they're more cost-conscious, as I said before, than ever. They're more multi-ethnic, and they are getting younger. Today's younger generation customer, now, again, this is based on research. I've written dozens of articles on this topic. But today's younger generation is, again, better educated, they think globally, they're far more discriminating, they want instant gratification. And so, that means they want very fast service, and they know they have the power. And it's been stated in research that they have zero tolerance for error. They are also less loyal, they're environmentally and socially conscious, they want green vehicles, there's a big demand for that. They want to do business with companies that have a cause. This is all very important to the younger generation. They are more impatient than their predecessors. They have a short attention span, and they will leave your website if they can't find what they're looking for in 12 seconds. And some of the research even says five seconds. So, those are things we have to keep in mind about the younger generation customer. Today's younger generation is what they call the now generation, and they want to be treated like kings and queens. They're also ready for the new and ultra sophisticated technology that has emerged, and that is yet to emerge. And if you read about some of the equipment and diagnostic equipment that is being developed right now, it's not quite out yet, but it is absolutely amazing. How has coronavirus changed the industry and our customers? I bet you could answer that better than anyone. Well, of course, they have higher expectations for service excellence. They have a greater need for it as well. They expect to be able to help themselves online because people, customers have become more adept at being online because of COVID. Also, there's been a greater number of rentals that are being done online or have been done, and there's been a dramatic increase in digital interactions. So, those are all things we have to keep in mind for today's customers and the customers of the future. All right. So, whoops, hit the wrong button. Okay. So, those are things that are important. Now, here's how else it's changed our industry and our customers. Manufacturing and supply chains have been disrupted, causing many challenges for you. Many dealers are struggling to meet the demands. Equipment and parts suppliers need to focus on becoming e-commerce enabled. And many dealers have more than one IT person because of the importance of technology. Today's customers of every generation are striving to seize the opportunity for business growth. It appears, and I hope I'm right, that the economy is growing very rapidly. And yes, I know a lot depends on government, et cetera, et cetera, and what's going to happen, inflation, et cetera, rising costs. But still, they are all striving to seize the opportunity for business growth and profitability. Coronavirus has changed the industry and our customers. So, there's a greater need for state-of-the-art technology and proficiency. So, and a lot of people have become more proficient because, frankly, they just had more time to be able to learn systems and master systems, et cetera, and even our customers have. All right. There is a dramatic increase in the need for service excellence strategies and implementation of best practices. So, right here, right now, I thought that I might give you some of the best practices that I have learned or observed or have taught that has really made a difference for dealers. And even if you get one, just one idea that will make a difference, that would be great. And the other thing is you may already be doing some of the things I'm going to mention. I would hope so. But the thing is, is how well are you doing them? Where could you use some improvement? So, how can we excel in customer service and position our businesses to win over today's customers and the customer of the future? Well, all right, best practice. Here are best practices. Number one is set the highest standards for performance. All right, performance, regarding quality, productivity, professionalism. You and your dealership must portray a higher level of professionalism than your competitors. A lot of seminars that I do, I ask the employees, what is professionalism? And sometimes they get stumped, and they say coming in on time. But it involves a great deal more. So, professionalism is very important. And of course, safety, safety, any practices regarding safety are very important. And then guiding principles should be created. You and your team and the different departments, and this should be ongoing, on how you will treat customers and each other. For example, if we know the customers or recognize them on the phone, we will greet them by their first name. We will ask customers how they would like us to communicate with them. Would it be email? Would it be a cell phone? Would it be text? And of course, more and more customers are asking for text. It's very much the way of the world nowadays, especially with the younger generation. So, guiding principles, here's another, we will make sure that we don't go home without putting every part back where it belongs, and things like that. Okay. Now, best practices would be, in my opinion, inquiries or technical support answered instantly or in two hours max. Provide parts and service managers on training on how to motivate and manage employees. Now, I work with many, many dealers. And as you all know, there are many technicians who are proficient at what they do. And so, what happens is when a service manager is needed, they give them the position of manager. But what they forget to do is teach them how to manage and motivate their technicians, and how to get them to work as a team, and how to be a great leader. So, that is all very, it's an important best practice. And you can also have them do some online learning if you don't have time to give them some leadership training. All right. Here's another thing. Train one individual to step in and assist the service manager when they get bogged down. All right. Because I know, and you know, service managers, and I know if there are some listening today, and I hope that there are, they are so busy. It just, it gets crazy. And it seems that the busyness happens all at once. But, so, figure out ways that you can help the service manager when they get bogged down. And service managers, of course, tell people. And so, these things are very, very important, even if it's just to answer the phone while you're busy helping a customer. All right. Streamline operations. Get rid of red tape. Make sure the dealership operates like a well-oiled machine so that, and if you're a dealer principal or a manager, that means if everything is streamlined and operating like a well-oiled machine, you can focus on the most important person. And that is the customer. And, of course, your employees. That is what's important. And then business growth. All of those things are what is most important. And if your business operates that way, that's great. If you have a general manager that helps you to do that, that's wonderful. It's to streamline operations. All right. Examine every touchpoint of the customer experience. And think of how you can enhance each. I did a session for a very large dealership, a successful dealership, family-owned, in the state of Wisconsin, actually. And we talked about the customer experience. And we talked about how we could enhance every touchpoint. And so that is what, you know, they might call it defining moments or moments of truth. And that's what we can do. So let's imagine someone walks into the dealership. You want to roll out the red carpet, of course. Not that you want to fall all over them. But we want to roll out the red carpet for our customers. And again, it's all about the customer experience. And think of your brand. Consistency is key. Great brands are the result of consistently great experiences. Now, that's what I mean is consistent. Have you ever gone to a restaurant and said, I've never had a bad meal there when you tell other people? It's always great. Or the service at X, Y, D dealership is great. They take care of my machines. They keep me up and running. I have very, very little downtime since I've been working with them. So it's consistently great experience. And that's what develops your reputation. All right. Now, here's something interesting. I know a lot of you have very sophisticated customer satisfaction surveys and very sophisticated employee satisfaction surveys. However, what is a lot of dealers do, and I've had the privilege of working with some award-winning dealers given awards by their manufacturer, and some of them do this. You conduct a yearly customer satisfaction survey, but you also do an employee satisfaction survey. Why? Because they're related, and employee loyalty and customer loyalty are related. All right. And then sit down, analyze what you receive, and identify what are three most critical areas for improvement with customers, and then make a commitment to employees. Okay, so we need to be better at such and such, and we are going to make every effort to do that. Now, why is that important? Because happy employees equal happy customers equal long-term profitability. I'm a believer in that, a very strong believer in that. So that is something that is really, really important, and it can be very simple also. All right. The next thing, and this is so very important, is to eliminate business silos. There has to be consistency in service excellence across locations, and critical idea-sharing best practices is also critical. Now, many times, let's use this for an example, branch managers, I'll ask the HR person or the president of the dealership, you know, who's your best branch manager? And they'll tell me, and I'll say, well, why is that? Well, they get their paperwork on time, they're always trying to help. But what happens in branches is sometimes they're competitive with each other, and they don't always share best practices and information. They do not work as a unified team. And so that's why it's so important to break down those business silos. You are one team, one company, and it's really important that that happens. All right. So a lot of dealerships, and I learned this, by the way, from Harley Davidson. I've worked with them extensively, the dealers, and they have, oh, and also Goodyear Tire, they do this as well. Weekly meetings to discuss hits. What was a big hit this week? Where did we run, and where did we drop the ball? So hits, runs, and misses. And that's good, because then you can figure out, well, what was it we did that we shined, or a salesperson shined, or a product support person shined, and et cetera. And if we drop the ball, we have to figure out why. And that's coming up. All right. Another thing, monthly, and I know you're thinking, who has the time for this? Well, it's important to make the time, maybe come in 15 minutes early on a Friday to do these things, or on a Monday, and that's what a lot of dealerships do. Okay. Monthly virtual or phone meetings between branches to just discuss the same, and best practices in sales, and service, and product support. And it's important that people do this, and understand that they are expected to do this, to share ideas. All right. Weekly sales meetings, all right, because I said best practice. Where a different salesperson does a product walk-around presentation, all right, and they are judged or graded by their fellow salespeople. And, of course, the salespeople for best practices are trained in every aspect of sales excellence, negotiation, responding to objections, communication, all those important things, building relationships, that's super important as well. So, that they are so well trained, and I knew of a very successful sales manager. Now, this is going back a while. Today, I don't think he has the time to do that. We're going back about five years, but he's a very successful sales manager. And he's in Canada, and he keeps getting stolen from, by one dealer, taken away from them. And what he does is he said he gives them six weeks of training, and part of that is, you know, mentoring, part of that is shadowing, part of it is training on time management, territory management, et cetera, six weeks of training, because then he said they hit the ground running, which is great. Too bad we don't have the time for that, but if you can modify that somewhat, that would be great to have your new salespeople train that way. All right, now, I'm sure you hate this, but remember the award-winning dealers that I talked about, they have a practice where if it gets slow, they role-play during downtime, but they make it fun and interesting. And they, first, they do, here's the worst service example that you can imagine, and I remember someone saying, playing the customer and walking up to the service manager and saying, oh, listen, I really need some help. And the service manager says, why don't you talk to someone who cares? And they all start laughing, and then they role-play the right way to take care of a customer. And no one likes role-play, including me, but it does work. It's good to do. All right, now, this is a controversial subject, but performance reviews. All right, performance reviews, I'll tell you, I'm working with a dealer principal that wants their management team to conduct four performance reviews a year. That's a lot. Some conduct two, some conduct one. A lot of research has revealed that one isn't enough. And, you know, managers need to be comfortable sitting down and talking to their employees. So those are some things that are important, and they do make a difference in performance. All right, and by the way, management is also reviewed by the executive team, and the executives are reviewed by managers, and it's an interesting process. All right, please market and advertise your green equipment and your practices. This should be on your main page of your website, especially the green movement is not about to reside. It's going to escalate. It's going to get bigger. It's going to get stronger. We know that, and I am a commissioner for the environmental well-being in my community. So, and I'm a strong believer in that, and we have to be, too, especially women, and I know you're getting more and more women customers, but women, and especially the younger generation, they want green equipment and practices, and as I say, this is going to escalate. They truly care about the environment, where things are made, how things are made, et cetera, and this is another one. Proactive complaint prevention is a best practice. Now, here's a few ideas for you, and this is simple. Maybe this would be what your proactive complaint prevention process may look like. So, check and double-check every order, every shipment, every entry into the system. Why? Because sometimes we get busy, and problems occur, or a part has been sold, and someone neglects to enter into the computer system, that that part has been sold, and another one needs to be reordered. So, things like that happen. Don't suggest the warranty until you're sure it applies. Have a team of three people trained to find a part if it's not found in 30 minutes. I know of a dealer that trained their office manager, and they were having a really difficult time with finding a particular part, and she found it for them. So, that's a great idea to do, and also keep your rental machines in top condition and your warehouse impeccable. And, you know, I believe that every employee should know what they're supposed to do in downtime, and sometimes it just might be helping out in the warehouse and keeping it neat and well-organized. All right, here's another thing with proactive complaint prevention is manage customer expectations. How do you do that? Be upfront and honest at all times. If a machine is going to take longer to repair, let them know. If you found a problem, let them know. Explain what you can do and what you cannot do, and don't overpromise just to make a sale. I've been told that every once in a while a customer will come in and say, well, the salesman told me that, and then the rest of the team has to jump through hoops to make that client, the customer, happy. So, those are some things that we can keep in mind. All right, train managers and anyone that has customer contact how to handle difficult customers. You can never assume people automatically know how to handle difficult customers, especially that new service manager. And by the way, if you wish, I'm going to give you an article I wrote on dealing with difficult customers that did receive accolades from dealers, and it was published at AED, the CED magazine, a couple of years ago. So, if you pass off a problem, Make sure it's been handled, because sometimes you pass up a problem, and that individual might be so busy that they forgot. OK, salespeople, ask the right questions. OK, here comes a real world story. So a machine, a water truck, keeps breaking down, keeps breaking down, and that shouldn't happen. The customer didn't use it for a long time. Well, finally, the service manager said, well, what's your application? Where are you moving this water to? And he said, oh, it's pretty high uphill. Well, the salesperson didn't ask enough questions, and therefore, the truck wasn't strong enough. He needed a bigger model to carry that much water. So sometimes, the right questions are not answered or asked. And so that's why it's important to know the customer's business, know the use, et cetera. OK, the people that provide the best customer service make systems and procedures for everything, and that helps to prevent complaints. Now, I remember teaching a program to, I'd say, about 20 managers. And I said to them, well, in this industry, by the way, when I said, you need systems and procedures for everything, one of them said, hey, the minute you start talking about systems, I'm out of here. And I said, yeah, but why do FedEx and McDonald's, why do they have systems? Because they work. And it can be tedious, but if a complaint comes in, there should be a process on how the complaint is handled. All right, keep in mind, today, customer satisfaction is not enough. And one of the things we need to do in our companies is make customer loyalty, increase the levels of customer loyalty, a major strategic business initiative. Maybe give it a name, but those things are really important to provide the highest level of service. All right, and that's how profitability increases. Whatever you do for your service excellence strategy, how can we be better? How can we make it easier? How can we make it faster? How can we be more professional? How can we deliver? How can our delivery improve? It must be better than your competitors. You have to be far better and far more creative. Keeping this in mind, there are two things your competitors cannot duplicate or get elsewhere, and you know what those are. Number one is you. No one can duplicate you, and if you have a strong relationship with customers, they can't get there anywhere else. And if you provide great service, same thing. The other thing they can't duplicate is your employees. Your employees should be your strongest weapon against your competition. All right, now, right now, I'm going to go to seven steps that you can create for service excellence, and there are many, many more best practices I could share with you, but those are some of them. And I'm going to give you the seven steps for service excellence, step number one. Now, again, I'm sure you have very sophisticated service excellence surveys that you have, but right here, right now, or even in a little group without that level of sophistication, rate your level of service. But here's how you have to rate it. How well your dealership serves your customers. Well, if the answer is poor, you wouldn't be in business, so that shouldn't even be on there, which is why I put it on the left. If it's average, that's not good enough. If it's good, that's not good enough. It better be very good or excellent. And maybe you have a word above excellent, like awesome or amazing, but rate the level of service that you believe your dealerships, how you serve your customers. Now, the next, rate how you think you serve your employees. If you're not in a management position, how you serve your team. How about this? How your employees or your team serve you. What do you need from them? Ask them. Tell them. Explain to them. How your employees serve each other, because if it doesn't happen on the inside, it'll never happen on the outside, as far as service excellence is concerned. And that's why teamwork should permeate your entire organization. I should be able to walk into your dealership and feel the energy level right away. And the overall service culture. We hear so much about culture nowadays, and they say culture beats strategy, but it's very true. Culture, simply put, is how people think about your dealership. Or if you're a manufacturer, how they think about your entire manufacturer department, how they think about your executive team. So how is your overall service culture? There's always room for improvement, because no matter how good you are, you should always want to be even better. And that's the one thing I've learned, that great companies, even great stores or restaurants, are always seeking ways to be better. All right. Again, service excellence cannot happen on the outside if it doesn't happen on the inside. And sometimes I have conducted team building programs, where we put people in the departments in different groups. And we say, how can we better serve sales? How can we better serve product support? How can we better serve our service managers? So that is really important, and they come up with some good things. The next thing is to be ever so cognizant of what customers want, the causes of dissatisfaction, and how customers judge us. Well, we talked about what customers want and causes of dissatisfaction, of course, is downtime, or somebody didn't get back to them, or somebody didn't follow up. But here is, based on research now, all right, and I don't want to tell you what I got it from, but it's just common sense, actually. Here is how customers judge your dealership. On the left, communication. It should be high level communication, like you have really sharp people working for you, that you listen, they listen. That you follow up. Follow up is so important, because if you don't, they won't trust you. That you display empathy when needed. That you say, oh, that's really tough, let me see how fast I can help you. That you care, that you demonstrate caring about your customer. That you keep them informed, that they don't have to guess, well, what's happening, or are they still looking for the part, or how much longer is it going to take? They want you to be accessible to them, and they want reliability. They want knowledge and expertise provided, and they want problem solved and complaint resolution. If there is a complaint, they want it resolved. All right, now on the right side, this is more personal. It's the attitude of the entire workforce. Always possible, always positive. I worked with a dealer once, and I walked into the dealership. They were not expecting me, actually. And actually, the person at the desk did not greet me. Never said, oh, hi, can I help you? Didn't say that at all, just kind of ignored me. And I walked up to the service department and said, hi, guys, how are you doing? And anyway, I got a very negative impression, and I advised the GM to fix that. OK, they should have the attitude, I'm here to serve you, what can I do to help you, anything. They want ease in doing business. They want you to exceed their expectations. They want fast response time. Strength of relationships is really how they also judge your dealership. And those who survived COVID are the ones who did everything in their power to help their customers. And they had that relationship, and in some ways, relationships were enhanced. They want to feel connected to the individual and the dealership. And here's something else that is interesting. And the award-winning dealers were also graded on this, friendliness. They want to be known as remarkably friendlier than any other dealership. So anybody remember who this is? Depends on your age. And the interesting thing about him is, of course, that's Norman Shears. He knew everybody's name. Customers want to go where everyone knows their name, and that's why relationships are critical. And you must hang on to them and continue to help customers in any way that you can. Now, the second is consider the key elements of service excellence. Key elements. All right, values. Everything starts and stops with the values. The values in your company should drive all you do. Your people, every single employee, should know what they are, and they should be displayed. So the values are really, really important. Dynamic leadership must be demonstrated by every leader. Where leaders demonstrate their values, demonstrate service excellence, and set the tone and example to be followed. Of course, we've all heard that expression before. Where they consistently communicate service excellence. Come on, folks. Got to be better than others. Got to be great at what we do. And so they're consistently talking up service excellence and their values, and they value employees, and they have a strong character, and they're supportive. True story. A customer came into a dealership. He was an established customer. He barged in and kind of looked kind of nervous. And a young man, a new salesperson, approached him and said, hi, can I help you today? I want to talk to the owner. And he barged right past him. And what did the owner do? Instead of saying, oh, hi, this is John. He can help you. I'll stand by. And if he has a question or a problem that he can't take care of, I will. Instead of supporting that person, he made him feel very, very small that he didn't trust him. And by the way, supported is one of the most important things from employees, that they have strong character, that you are supportive, they can trust you. All right. The other key elements are knowledge of the industry, technology, expertise, what customers want, need, and expect, and causes of dissatisfaction. Those are key elements where people internalize all of that. Standards, we talked about service and performance standards. I have a new client that I'm working with. It's a pretty new company. And it's about two years old. And just when they took off like crazy, COVID hit. So it threw a wrench in their works. But what happened is now they're up and running. And one of the executives asked one of the managers, actually it was a supervisor, for a report. One week later, he still didn't have it. So why didn't the supervisor quickly respond with a sense of urgency to serve his own executive? Why was that? I knew right away. Because the new manager of that facility did not set performance standards, such as we will display a sense of urgency to serve customers and each other. And so that was something that has to be fixed. All right. OK, delivery, managing, meeting, and exceeding service expectations. And communication, communicating with customers, both through human contact and technology. Communicating with employees and team communication. Whenever I say, what area do you think your dealership or department needs to improve upon, they always say communication. Always. I don't think they've ever said anything else. And I've been doing this like 28 years now. So communication can always be improved upon. So your company should make a decision on how you're going to communicate with each other and when you're going to communicate. I know one thing, a lot of salespeople, if there's a problem in fixing equipment, they want to be informed so that they can talk to the customer. Other dealerships do not want to get the salesperson involved. You have to decide what is best for your dealership. All right. Number three, examine where the gaps exist. And eliminate them. So let's look at this. Is it with your values? Are there gaps where people are not demonstrating safety? Where they're not putting safety glasses on? Or there's not teamwork in the values? And these are just some values that I put down, including accountability, continuous improvement, focus on quality. And right here, the earth and the environment should be one of your values, most important. So is it your values? Do you need to remind people of your values? I know of a manager who holds up a sheet with the values on it for every single meeting. All right. So where are the gaps? What needs to be improved upon? Is it the knowledge? And how can you improve upon them? Where can you obtain knowledge? And sometimes I tell people, just spending 20 minutes a day learning something every single day will help you expand on the knowledge, if it's about the equipment, if it's about the industry, whatever it may be, if it's about your dealership. And they never want to talk to customers, never want to talk on the phone thinking someone doesn't know something. All right. Set the highest standards for performance and service. So have you set those high standards and do you make every effort to meet them? Is it communication? So where specifically do you need to improve? And is it on your delivery where you need to manage expectations and work harder at that? So wherever there are gaps, think about them. What jumps out at you? Is it your values? Is it your standards? Do you need to set higher standards? And I worked with a dealer, a very successful dealer, with several branches. And the president of the company had a performance standards that was like about three sheets long that he had created. And when he said, is there anything we should add? No one raised their hand. OK. So standards are important. Now, I am a firm believer in that values should drive all you do. But everything starts and stops with leaders. So if you are an owner or a GM or a service manager or in a leadership role of any kind, HR, direct your leaders to identify and fix areas where improvement is needed. Demonstrate the values and service excellence yourself. Serve employees exceptionally well. That's important. And treat them exceptionally well, as well as your best customers. Now, another thing that I believe is so critical to business excellence and customer service excellence and retaining customers and getting new customers is establishing accountability. But here's where some management goes wrong, is they talk about accountability. And that's very simply obtaining a positive result in your job role. But the problem is they are not specific. And each department will have a different area where they need to be accountable. Maybe let's just be generic. I will be accountable for bringing a positive attitude to my team and my customers every day. That's a simple, simple one. But so to be specific, we will be accountable to keep the warehouse impeccable. We will be accountable. Whatever is important to you is where you need to establish the accountability. And as I mentioned before about principles, guiding principles, ask your employees where they should be accountable. And it's really challenging if you ask them. By the way, sometimes if you have a group of employees and ask them, what is accountability? Everybody has a different answer. But simply, it's being responsible for a positive result in your job role. All right. And OK, another thing that is important is that if there's a problem or a problem develops, always identify the root causes of the problem. And you may have heard of this before. It's called peeling the onion. So when there's a problem, you'll know about it, of course. And then you have to find out the cause. But you have to find out the root cause and then correct it. Such as the water truck that was not performing, the root cause was because the salesperson didn't ask enough questions. All right. If a technician is great and put into a management position and just can't seem to keep the technicians performing, the root cause is because he wasn't trained. He or she wasn't trained. And then correct it. All right. How about this one? An employee was hired and the employee just is not cutting it. And you know right away when that happens. Is the problem the person you hired? All right. What's the cause? The cause is your hiring process needs to be improved upon. So those are some really important things for service excellence. Number four. Involve your employees in idea sharing, problem solving, proactive complaint prevention, internal customer service. How can we improve internal customer service? So that's step number four. Involve them in proactive complaint prevention, how to improve communication, internal service, and again, establishing accountability. Now as you're listening, you may be saying, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We do all that. But again, how well do you do it? How can you do it even better? And also, when you create problem solving teams or teams like that, rotate people. Don't use the same people all the time. All right. Involve them in an idea sharing across branches. Weekly meetings to discuss those hits, runs, and misses. And how to better support sales. And the service manager. The service manager is crazy busy and sometimes stressed. How can you better support your field techs? And how can you better support the team? So all that is really important when it comes to service excellence. And it's an important step to service excellence. All right. So those are things that are so very important. All right. And number five is to focus on continuous improvement. No matter how good you are, you should think of ways to be, again, better, faster, easier. And when I first started talking about customer service, a lot of companies just didn't get it. They just didn't get it. You'd walk into a place of business and someone would be on the phone and they would just keep talking and ignore you. And you knew it was a personal call. Well, today, that person, no one would tolerate that. But years ago, you'd see some improvement. But then those who were really smart and progressive were really starting to take customer service seriously and focus on continuous improvement. So in fact, I know of a dealer who had a contest. And he said that any, he broke people into teams. And he said any team who comes up with an idea that we implement and make work that will help us make it easier to do business with us or provide better service to customers, that team's going to get $1,000. And so the team will have a choice. The team can either divide the $1,000 up or donate it to their favorite charity. And of course, at the end of the year, they did donate it to their favorite charity. And I thought that was a great idea, very progressive dealer. All right, number six, develop an obsession for delivering the highest level of service with every customer, everyone, every day, everywhere. An obsession is just so very important. And as I said, I should be able to walk into your place of business and or walk into your service department. I should see people busy. I should see a high energy level. And even if it's just a little slow that day, I should see people that are helping other people. So it's delivering the highest level of service. And folks, I talk a lot about culture. If you can create the type of culture where people actually enjoy coming to work each day, enjoy their team, and they have a boss they really look up to and admire, you will be in a far better position to keep the customers that you have, establish higher levels of customer loyalty, et cetera. So those are some things that are so very important about customer service. And customer loyalty and keeping today's customers and the customers of the future. So that's important. Now, I want to thank you. But before I do, I wanted to let you know that if you have interest, and I'm going to take questions if we have any. Liz, let me know anyone. And if you'd like to have an article on dealing with difficult customers for free, I'm happy to do that for you. And I will happy to send that to you. And I have been told that it's a pretty darn good article, and there is some good information in there. So again, now, anybody have any questions at all on anything we've talked about? Anyone? I'm not seeing any questions, Christine. But if someone does have a question, say 10 minutes from now or something, something pops into their head, can they email you at your email address there? Absolutely. I would welcome any email. And I am at your service, by the way. I will help you in any way I can. I want to see you successful. I want to see your dealership successful. I want you to be able to keep jobs and have more jobs. And that's how you get it, by establishing service excellence. And I did allow time for questions, but we don't have any. But I do hope that you will send me an email with any questions you may have. Maybe you have a question you don't want to ask in front of somebody else, because I know some of you are sitting in a room with your team. But I hope you got some value out of your time that you took today. And I wish you all the best. I love delivering presentations. And again, good luck. God bless. Thank you. Thanks, Christine.

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