Few things are more important in the tire and automotive customer interaction than dialogue. No matter how you look at it, dialogue comes out on top.  

Sure, from a business perspective, the number-one thing is cash flow — not gross profit, not net profit, but cash flow. Net profit comes in at a close second, but if you run out of cash, your doors close for you. Run out of profit and you have a few months to fix cash flow. 

Where does cash flow come from? It comes from paying customers. Paying customers infuse your business with the ability to keep trying to do things right and balance cost, sales and profit so that a customer becomes a repeat customer.  

A first-time customer is drawn into your business for either a coupon service or an emergency. Coupons reduce gross profit and emergencies tend to be high parts repair items, lowering your gross. 

Multiple return customers spend money on the things that your business needs to thrive — high gross — and keep their cars running smoother, longer and emergency-free. 

Retained customers plan better, have fewer surprises and trust more. Retained customers likely over-represent the share of gross profit your business makes.  

What gets you to convert a shopper to a longtime/retained/loyal/repeat customer? Dialogue. 

To speak in generalities, customers have the ability to go anywhere for the exact same services you offer. They have three main drivers when in the explorer phase: price, speed and quality. You have the ability to offer two — never three. Giving three will bankrupt you. (See cash flow, above.) If you meet two of the three expectations, you will generally secure a second visit. This second visit is an attempt to confirm the first can be repeated. The third visit is when communication turns into dialogue. To simplify: 

Customer: “Can you do an oil change for this price in this time frame?” 

Service advisor: “Yes.” 

This is an opportunity to deliver or fail. If you fail, try someone new. If you delivered, repeat the process. 

Customer: “I need my oil change done again. Same price, same time?” 

Service advisor: “Sure.” 

The third visit, which again can be reduced or extended due to other factors, is when trust is built. You have proven capable of carrying out a task in exchange for money. Trust is built. Communication has been established. We understand each other. Now let’s talk about dialogue. 

Service advisor: “Is there anything else you’d like to get done today?” 

Customer: “I think my car is making a noise.” 

These conversations will be vastly different than a first-time visit where the customer says, “My car is making noise.” 

Trust has been established. Expectations are confirmed. Dialogue is exchanged using listening, not talking. 

This is where most advisors/sales/counter people struggle. How much is this, how long does this take, do you do brakes — this is all communication in base form. Dialogue requires speaking when you’re supposed to speak, listening when you’re supposed to listen and thinking when you’re supposed to think. 

Dialogue is thoughtful. It carries empathy and sympathy. It can carry anger and joy, too. An angry customer may still be talking and giving you information. It might not be in the form you appreciate, but it’s open. The problem — and the potential resolution — is still on the table. When trust disappears, so does dialogue. 

There is a big push right now to automate the customer experience with artificial intelligence (AI.) Answering services, vehicle inspection reports, you name it — our industry is all bright-and-shiny enthusiastic about incorporating AI. We all are. And it’s better to see our industry embrace technology than to pretend it doesn’t exist, which is a legacy of this field. 

By all means, use technology to reduce the tasks that take humans longer. If you can build an estimate faster with AI, go for it. If you can bridge the gap between customer contact and waiting for a reply, full steam ahead with tech solutions. 

But please don’t text or email a digital vehicle inspection that needs context or with audio from a robot. Don’t make a customer who is experiencing brake noise talk to robots. That’s fine for base communication. It’s not fine for dialogue.  

For a concrete example, it’s OK to send a video of some faceless person explaining how brakes work, in general. It’s OK to send a photo of a ruined rotor if customers know what a rotor is and what it does. If they don’t, they need a genuine human being to walk them through the process. We aren’t selling sandwiches. This is scary, full of pitfalls and flashing warning signs about “being taken advantage of,” as customers put it. 

They need a human capable of sharing that experience. Automate the tasks, not the dialogue.