Problems and Opportunities

The problem with problems is that sales people see them as mistakes and not opportunities.

Wouldn't it be amazing if a customer's problem with a job led to a great outcome? In fact, it'd be cooler still if the result was a level of customer satisfaction that would not have happened had the problem not occurred in the first place!

A couple of blogs ago I wrote about a bad car shopping experience. As stated, I ended up buying the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. The buying experience was less than stellar, unless you enjoy being repeatedly lied to, mistreated and blamed. If that's the case, it was awesome!

I'll spare you the details of the transaction but everything went wrong. Everything.

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?

Nope. They delivered the wrong color car.

I asked for white and of the 10 people I asked to name its color, none have used the word, "white" in their description: Pearl, Champagne, Taupe, Cloud....anything but the Candy White color I was told would be showing up. Silly me. I should have asked for a PMS color.

Come on, guys. How do you screw up "white???"

Me being my usual calm, peaceful, understanding self, I ended up making a suggestion that the sales manager park the car in a place that is anatomically impossible. Mr. Bigglesworth was definitely angry at this point.