Customer Services Review – AutoZone
Nowadays, as most small business owners know, giving your customers that “special service” is key to keeping your customers happy. Everyone expects the product you and your competition offers to work – it’s the service that gives you the edge.
This post is about Excellent Customer Service.
If you have read my post about my 1966 Ford Mustang rebuilding, you must know I frequently visit my local auto parts store.
There are no fewer than six auto parts store within 15 miles of my house. I’ve been to them all at one point or another.
Time and time again, the one auto parts store that ALWAYS has what I am looking for is AutoZone.
This particular AutoZone location is off of Cobb Parkway, in Marietta, Georgia. For those of you who are familiar with the local landmark, it is about 1 mile south of the “Big Chicken”. (If you don’t know about the Big Chicken, don’t ask.)
This AutoZone location is – by far – the best part store I have ever been to.
Listing a few of the “special” customer service actions they have:
- If you go to the service desk looking for a special part, and the part is in the main part of the store, the clerk will actually go out and get it. Other stores will point to the general location of the item and say “it’s over there”.
- The clerk will show you the items that fit what you need, and not just recommend the most expensive.
- The people in the store actually know what they are talking about.
- If you have a problem with your car, the service personnel will actually go out to your car with you and help you figure out what is wrong with your car, or help you install the item. At no extra charge.
- They are open 24 hours a day. I don’t usually go shopping for car parts at 3:00 in the morning, but, if I got some sudden desire to pick up a fuel pump, I know where to go.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
Also – one of the best surprises I received the other day – free money.
The clerk at AutoZone asked if I wanted to sign up for their “customer card” – you know, the little card that you hang on your keychain that everyone is coming out with?
I am a fan of those cards, and of personalized marketing
I signed up for the card thinking that one day I could see a list of what I had bought at that store for my Mustang. Most of the time I show it to them when I pay, sometimes I don’t.
Anyway, the other day I bought a car battery and some other items. I presented the girl at the register my customer card, and she said “you have a 20 dollar credit”.
I gave her a puzzled look, and said “no, this is not a credit card, it’s your store card”.
She explained that with that card, when you purchase 20 dollars or more on four different visits, you get a free credit of 20 dollars!
Now THAT’S customer service.
They actually told ME about credit they were giving me, without me knowing anything about it. I am sure it was on the information they gave me when I signed up for the card, which I am sure I didn’t read.
But I was so impressed by that, and by their service, that I had to write about it. I was already a big fan, but that extra credit was the icing on the cake. I had to write about them.
A little lesson here…
When you buy something from someone, you expect the product to work to your satisfaction, no matter where you buy it. McDonald’s made sure of that, with their novel franchise that assured you got the same meal that tastes the same no matter what state you get a burger from.
What you are really buying, and where you choose to buy it from, is an emotional experience. You buy from people. You buy from where you feel the best, and from a place that makes you happy.
You don’t buy from a place that makes you feel frustrated, makes you waste your time, makes you wait in line, or cannot help you.
I usually don’t make a big deal about shopping (I am a male, and despise shopping) – but I have been telling everyone about my experience at AutoZone.
And that’s free publicity for them.
Think about it, and think about how you can add that special service for your customers.
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