What We Can Learn From Stupid Car Sales People

Okay, you say, so what’s the big deal? So, they lied about contacting my insurance agent and sure, they forgot to tell me that it takes TWO days to register a leased car with vanity plates (“ASPIRE”) and okay, so a sales rep who goes home instead of fulfilling the promise of returning a phone call can be a little aggravating, but once I got the car all was forgotten, right?

That’s what I thought, until the car was delivered to my house today. Remember my description of the car? It was supposed to be a White VW Jetta Diesel. Instead, a White-Gold Jetta Diesel pulled into my driveway (during a webinar I was doing, btw, despite my specifically asking for it not to arrive until 1:30pm).

I’ve asked 10 people so far what color the car is and not one of them has used the word “white” in their description: pearl, champagne, taupe, cloud...anything but the candy white color I was told would be showing up.

Why didn’t I see it before buying? you might ask. Well, I drove a similar vehicle but this one was transferred from another location and the rep told me it was white. Again, the word he used was, “white.” Silly me for not ask for the PMS color.

Okay, enough venting. Let’s talk about the lessons to learn from stupid car salesman (am I being redundant?):

1. Apologize when there is a problem! The first words out of your mouth need to be something like, “I am sorry for the inconvenience?” and then follow them up by saying, “What do you need in order to make this right?” It wasn’t until I got to the owner that those two phrases met up.

2. Investigate and find out what happened. Angry customers want to spew. Let them. Often times that act alone with take care of 90% of the problem and a solution can be engaged properly and immediately.