When Gary Chaney sells customers a car, he doesn’t bury them with a lot of extra add-ons. He gives them a competitive price, makes it simple for them, and, as a result, his customers tend to come back to Chacon Autos in two or three years to trade in and get a newer vehicle.
He’s creating customers for life as CEO of the automobile dealership, but it’s not just himself who’s doing this. He’s bringing his 160 employees along with him in the process.
Smart Business spoke with Chaney about how he grows his business by focusing on customer service.
What are the keys to growing a business?
Well, it’s customer service. People ask me that all the time. We deal with customers who have damaged credit of some sort, most times. They are very appreciative when we can get them a car financed. These customers, they are human beings — we treat them with respect, we give them good service. We give them some value for what we are giving. They are giving us their money and buying a car from us, so we give them some value. We give them service. We just treat them well. We have a lot of referral business. We sell people cars, and later on, their kids buy cars from us. We’ve even got a few grandkids coming and buying cars. So, we have a lot of repeat business.
What do you think is the key to having strong customer service in a business these days?
Not using lip service. A lot of big companies say we are going to give good customer service and the management says we’re going to do this, but it never follows all the way down to the employees that actually deal with the customers.
We are very attentive. We’re pretty hands-on people. It’s a family-owned business. There’s a lot of family members who actually deal with customers ourselves. So we show our employees how we are supposed to treat customers. Just work with customers and treat them nicely, even when they are angry. We don’t lose our temper. It’s just the process of you do this yourself. And they see this. We have had a lot of experienced people that have been with us for years. People know what we expect, so all of our new employees see that from the longtime employees also.
What tips could you give other CEOs looking to improve their customer service?
Some businesses are different. In our business you have to treat the customers fairly. You have to make sure the employees do that. You have to give the customer good value if you expect the customer to come back in two to three years.
We talk to customers, and when we ever hear a complaint, we take it very seriously and we dig into it to find out what is going on. Talk to the person involved. Call the customer. Try to give the customer a hand. Try and figure out what we can resolve. Talk to the (supervisor of the involved employee).
Your people play a big role in your service, so how do you retain talent?
There are several things to do. One is all of our employees are sort of like our family. We know these people. We know their families. We have a good pay structure, too. But, we also know the employees. We go and visit them in different locations. We treat the employees fairly also. We have parties. We go talk to the employees — Christmas parties or different events. We have quarterly newsletters that we send out to the company through the Dallas/San Antonio area.
If you take the time to get to know your employees, they are going to be happy about working there. They are going to feel that they are important. It’s the same things as showing them how to treat people.
How to reach: Chacon Autos, (877) 242-2661 or www.chaconautos.com
