An Interview with Tim Dibbs MD of Crown Honda on their commitment to achieving customer delight

Any regular readers of this blog will know that I take a very keen interest in the Owner / Drivers or MD’s of companies who have a strong commitment to achieving excellence in customer care and high levels of customer satisfaction.

I was therefore delighted when I recently got the opportunity to spend an hour with Tim Dibbs, Managing Director of Crown Honda to discuss his company’s ongoing commitment to achieving “client delight”.

Crown has won too many awards for their customer service to list here and I have to say my own personal experience has never been anything other than excellent.

This interview will be published across two days with part one below.

GT: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today Tim, how is business?

TD: Very good thank you, we have had good results recently in spite of tough trading conditions.

GT: Must be down to your ongoing commitment to customer service!!

TD: Of course it must be!!

GT: So for the purposes of context how long have you been driving the business at Crown forward for now?

TD: 7 years in total

GT: And has customer care always been at the top of the agenda?

TD: It has certainly always been a key point but I would say for the last three years we have really made it a virtue and a key differentiator in our business.

GT: So where did you start?

TD: We started by looking at the design of the customer experience.  We wanted to make sure that each time a customer has any kind of experience with us, be it small like a routine service or large like the purchase of a new vehicle, that customer leaves us delighted.  This starts with things like how easy it is to park and then runs through reception, into sales and then beyond to after care.

GT: How did you begin this process of looking at the customer experience?

TD: We worked very closely with our customers and still do so on an ongoing and regular basis.

GT: In what format?  Is that through customer satisfaction surveys and similar tools?

TD: Yes we use all of the basic tools but we also regularly hold customer clinics to see what we are doing well and what could be done better to improve the overall experience.

GT: Tell me a little bit more about the customer clinics.

TD: We have an average of 10 people and we run them as often as possible around the three month mark wherever this is feasible.

GT: How come I have never been invited??!

TD: We will have to do something about that of course.

GT: How much input does Honda have into your customer service at Crown?

TD: As you would imagine with Honda being Japanese they are very into TQM (Total Quality Management) and therefore they are fiercely committed to ensuring excellent customer service throughout the network.  We have in fact received several awards from Honda such as Dealership of the Year in 2008.

GT: Does Honda carry out mystery shopping?

TD: Yes they do and this looks at people, premises and process and gives an assessment score based on this.

GT: How is that conducted?

TD: It is a mixture of physical, telephone and email mystery shopping.

GT: Is Honda’s the only mystery shopping you undertake or do you look at this from a Crown perspective too?

TD: I am obsessive about customer satisfaction so yes I make sure that we carry out our own independent mystery shops periodically.  They can be a great way to benchmark performance and shine a light on our business and processes.

Tune in tomorrow for part two of this interview where we will be discussing the drive for consistency at all times and the need for staff to have the right attitudes.