The following are a few ‘best practices’ account managers at Dealer HD like to use as guidelines to maintain our unparalleled customer service.

Always greet your Clients with a friendly smile.  This can be just in the tone of your voice or actually a physical smile if you’re in person.  Admit it, no one wants to be greeted by Oscar the Grouch.

Listen.  There is a fine line between listening and hearing.  Don’t just hear what the Client has to say, listen to what they’re telling you.  It may be a very important emergency, or it may be how their day is going-nonetheless, you need to listen and give them your complete attention.

Give feedback.  This goes hand in hand with listening.  After you’ve listened to what the Client has to say, let them know that you are aware of the problem and give them a preview of the next step in the plan of action.  You don’t want to leave a Client hanging, not sure of what’s going to happen next.

Keep the Client updated.  Don’t forget this one-it’s a biggie.  It’s an excellent practice to get in the habit of keeping everyone ‘in the know’ and updating the Client on the progress of the situation and where everyone is at with the project.  It reassures them that you’re taking care of it and may help them relieve some stress, too.

Follow up.   Once the task is completed, it’s pertinent to follow up with the Client.  This is important so that both parties are aware that the problem has been completely taken care of, and that everything is functioning as intended.

Ask if there is anything else you can do to help.  This one is pretty self-explanatory.  That’s what we’re here for…so let us know if you need anything else. 

Information travels fast. As soon as news happens CNN.com has it on their home page, RSS news aggregators have delivered the content to subscribers, hundreds have written blog posts, it has a Facebook group, the footage is on YouTube, people are having a conversation about it on Twitter and Google, MSN and Yahoo! have indexed it for the world to discover. All of this happened while you were designing you newsletter and everything you were going to say has already been around the world. The simple fact is, Web 2.0 moves much faster than you. Today’s information is instant. Social Media helps connect us and distribute information faster and in new ways. If you’re thinking about sending out a newsletter, consider the following alternatives:

• Create a Facebook Group: By creating a Facebook group you allow people that are interested in your dealership to join your group. Facebook groups are great places to add photos, introduce new staff members, upload video of new vehicles and answer questions. It is one of the largest social networking sites on the web. There is no reason not to create one.
• Create a YouTube Channel: Creating a YouTube Channel is simple. In fact, if you have a Gmail account you’re already on your way. Upload videos to your YouTube account and be sure to tag them with relative keywords to help people discover your content. People interested in your videos can subscribe to your channel (something YouTube sets up automatically) and be notified when you upload new content as soon as it is available.
• Create a Twitter Account: I absolutely love Twitter. Once you sign up for a Twitter account, you’re on your way to connecting with your customers in a very unique way. Twitter allows you to send messages under 140 characters to the “twitterverse”. Your message is placed on the public timeline where it can be viewed by millions of other users. These users can follow your messages and every time you post a message (”tweet”), the people who follow you receive your message instantly. Other Twitter users can send you messages, comment, ask questions and even direct message you, for a more private conversation.

These are all viable alternatives to delivering the same content that you would normally put in a newsletter and send to your subscribers. The services listed above will have a profound impact on the way we communicate. Email is becoming less frequent, Cell phone minutes are being used less, text messages are being sent more and mobile Internet usage is on the rise. People want instant and the web is listening.

I do not recommend stopping your newsletter all together but do think you can safely start shifting the direction a bit. Start using your newsletter as a vessel to drive people to these “instant” marketing avenues. For example:

• Month One: Create a Facebook Group, YouTube Account and a Twitter Account and announce it in your newsletter. Explain briefly what each outlet is for and provide a link for your subscribers to visit each. Be sure feature this content in the newsletter to ensure people see it.
• Month Two: Move the Facebook Group, YouTube and Twitter information to an area in your newsletter that will be permanent. The placement of these links should not change from now on. Continue with your newsletter content as you normally would. Be sure to dedicate a few short paragraphs each month to each of these new areas. A brief summary of what happened, such as “We received 200 new members of our Facebook Group. Click here to keep up with our Dealership”.

Remember, persistence is key. People may not join or use these services at first, but as other companies and people start talking about it more they will use these new mediums to connect with you. Everything I mentioned is free and you can set all three accounts up in less than 10 minutes. Following these three recommendations will provide your dealership a way to connect to your customers in real time and can be used in conjunction or as alternatives to your monthly newsletter.

Everyone gets stressed out from time to time.  I’m sure with all the news of “recession this” and “economical turmoil that”, people are feeling more stressed than ever these days.  The truth is times are tougher than they have been before but the key is to stay positive and have a good survival plan.  There are indeed many businesses going out of business these days but what about the ones that are surviving?  What about the ones that are posting record profits?  Clearly they are doing something right.

Watch THIS VIDEO for our weekly “The Office” series.  I guarantee it’ll lower your stress level.

After watching the video ask yourselves the following questions and try and relate it to your buinesss.

1. Are you stressed out at your job?
2. Why do you feel this way?
3. Do you have a survival plan?
4. Does your plan help just yourself, or the people around you?
5. What are some things you can give up or sacrifice so that you succeed and survive?

There are a lot of things we can do to help ourselves.  I think what’s most important is to try and have a plan that helps both us and the people around us.  Your job may not affect the well being of those around you, but for some it does.  It’s essential that in these times we band together, as a company and think of ways we can help it survive.  The doom and gloom talk will all end soon enough, and when it does we’ll all be stronger for having survived it.