Now more than ever: Under-promise and over-deliver

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With part shortages causing delays for shops to cycle through customers, be sure to give “silly” extended timelines to your customers, advised a shop coach.

Clint White, a service advisor coach & shop consultant with CWI recommended always adding a ridiculous amount of time to the end of any job. If you know a job will take four hours, tell the customer it’ll take a full day, even two. If something takes a few days, tell them a week.

That’s because, White noted during his session Delivery: Reselling the Value of the Repair at the recent Midwest Auto Care Alliance’s Vision Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City, things can — and often do — go wrong.

Especially these days with supply chain issues, parts could be delayed. And when the part comes, it could be broken or wrong or missing a piece. You just never know. And customers these days are generally more understanding of delays because they’re seeing them in many places.

“We’ve got to stop promising when we think it’ll be done and put a buffer on it,” White said. “How much of a buffer you say? A silly one — a ridiculous silly buffer.”

Yes, there’s something to be said of service speed. But customer experience is much more important. So you want to under-promise and over-deliver. You can tell them it won’t be ready for two days. But when it’s instead done in one day, or less, the customer is ecstatic. They see you as a hero for getting it done faster than you promised.

Still, White recommended keeping the vehicle overnight just to make sure nothing leaks or breaks after installation. Have a look at it again to make everything is in place and working as expected.

He calls that “comeback prevention.”