The Nice Customer: Not Always Nice for Business

Don’t mistake a nice customer for a satisfied customer; they can often be two different things. What is a nice customer? He or she is much like the person described in the excerpt of the letter below. Many of you have seen it before, but even if you have, a gentle reminder certainly doesn’t hurt.

The Nice Customer Letter

I am a nice customer. You all know me. I’m the one who never complains, no matter what kind of service I get. I’ll go into a Bank and wait quietly while the tellers or customer service officers gossip and never bother to ask if anyone has attended to me. Sometimes someone that came after I did gets attended to before me, but I don’t complain; I just wait. And when I go to a store to buy something, I don’t throw my weight around. I try to be thoughtful of the other person. If a snooty sales lady gets upset because I want to look at several things before making up my mind, I’m just as polite as can be. I don’t believe rudeness in return is the answer.

 

The other day I went to an eatery and waited for almost five minutes before anyone came to take my order. And when she came, no apology was made for keeping me waiting; my meal was served cold. But did I complain about the service? Of course not!

 

I never kick. I never nag. I never criticize. I wouldn’t dream of making a scene, as I’ve seen some people do in public places. I think that’s uncalled for. No, I’m the nice customer. And I’ll tell you who else I am.

 

I’m the customer who never comes back!

 

Nice customers like this are the ones a dealership will never know they’ve offended, but they have … and as a result, they will never consider their dealership for their next sales or service visit. If that doesn’t hit home enough, consider these stats on the reasons why customers quit going to certain retail establishments.

 

3% Move away

14% Develop relationships with competitive businesses

14% Dissatisfaction with a product

68% Attitude of indifference by the owner, manager or some employees

 

Now, let’s take that one step further. The typical dissatisfied customer will tell 8-10 people about their negative experience – think about that one for a moment or two! And right or wrong, the customer’s perception means everything!

 

So remember, each time anyone from your dealership makes contact with a customer, it’s of utmost importance that they consider themselves the “face of the dealership” to that customer … because that’s exactly what they are!

 

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