#CX 32: 5 CX Lessons from a Car Buying Experience w/ Ethan Beute

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.200 A relationship with the right referral partner could be a game changer for any be 2 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:08.509 to be company. So what if you could reverse engineer these relationships at a 3 00:00:08.589 --> 00:00:14.230 moment's notice, start a podcast, invite potential referral partners to be guests on 4 00:00:14.349 --> 00:00:19.510 your show and grow your referral network faster than ever? Learn more. At 5 00:00:19.589 --> 00:00:29.300 Sweet Fish Mediacom you're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B 6 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:33.700 TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vander truck 7 00:00:33.780 --> 00:00:37.609 and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. 8 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:42.250 That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. 9 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:46.689 Most of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're 10 00:00:46.689 --> 00:00:52.159 implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing BEDB companies 11 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:55.399 in the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet 12 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:59.079 fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of 13 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:03.039 the CO hosts of this show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, 14 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:06.790 you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business, will share 15 00:01:06.829 --> 00:01:10.189 the ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. 16 00:01:10.790 --> 00:01:19.859 Just getting well, maybe let's get into the show. So our son 17 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:23.340 just turns six teen years old. We thought it'd be a nice thing to 18 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:29.019 do to give him the car that we drove him home from the hospital in 19 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:32.340 as an infant. And, you know, a seventeen year old car bluebook 20 00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:36.370 value not really high. So a nice gift and an expensive gift in frankly, 21 00:01:36.569 --> 00:01:38.290 we don't have to drive them around as much anymore. So what does 22 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:42.049 that mean? And means my wife and I had to go out and buy 23 00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:46.569 a car. If there aren't customer experience lessons in that, I don't know 24 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:49.439 where else you'll find him. My name is Ethan Butt. I host the 25 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:53.480 customer experience podcast as well as the CX series on the BDB growth show, 26 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.319 and so I'm going to share with you a handful of things that I learned 27 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.879 recently or was reminded of in the process of buying a new car. Now 28 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:05.790 I'm a consumer reports guy. I feel like their objective testing and rating is 29 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:09.629 pretty good. I've read their car issues for years. My Primary Emo in 30 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:14.710 buying a car is less than two years old with fewer than twentyzero miles, 31 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:16.860 so that like new where I don't have to take that depreciation hit off the 32 00:02:16.979 --> 00:02:20.860 lot, but I have a like new car. That's how I wind up 33 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:23.180 driving a seventeen year old car in eleven year old car respectively, and I 34 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:27.099 treat him really well. So I narrowed it down to two choices, and 35 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:30.650 they were very different from one another. One the Volkswagen Golf, all track, 36 00:02:30.009 --> 00:02:35.490 all wheel drive, slightly higher clearance than the average car and a very 37 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:40.849 nice driving experience, or the Toyota Prius, really the practical choice, insanely 38 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:47.159 reliable, great gas milage and very low cost of ownership. So I went 39 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:51.680 online and started looking at those two vehicles. Now I found them all over 40 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:55.240 Denver and Colorado Springs, and with other companies like carmacks or Carvana, you 41 00:02:55.319 --> 00:03:00.469 could actually search the entire country and I reached out on several specific vehicles, 42 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:07.469 which takes me to the first take away from this experience. Timeliness and responsiveness 43 00:03:07.870 --> 00:03:12.229 matter. Several of these companies never reached out at all, others only reached 44 00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:15.900 out with automated messages. Now, if I was super interested in the vehicle, 45 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:19.860 I would actually reply to that automated message in order to start the conversation. 46 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:23.699 They wouldn't call me or email me directly, even though I was a 47 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:25.939 very active buyer who raised my hand. So, as you look at your 48 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:31.689 process, look at how timely and responsive you are to inbound inquiries and opportunities 49 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:36.370 in all of their forms, whether it's online chat, whether it's a form 50 00:03:36.449 --> 00:03:39.490 fill or some other form of contact. I didn't expect, in this case, 51 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:43.960 at two minute response time to an inquiry on a specific vehicle, but 52 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.240 I did expect to be reached out to sometime in twenty four hours or so. 53 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:53.439 So you can't create the opportunity unless you're timely and responsive to these types 54 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:58.509 of inquiries and pieces of communication. Number two, you need to manage customer 55 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:01.389 expectations. My wife and I were so disappointed. We had our eye on 56 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:05.270 a Prius up in Denver. I communicated back and forth with the guy, 57 00:04:05.310 --> 00:04:11.099 we spoke by phone, we swaped emails and we ended up committing to buy 58 00:04:11.180 --> 00:04:14.060 this car. When I told him we'd buy it, he of course had 59 00:04:14.099 --> 00:04:17.699 all of the final paperwork in a PDF, purchase price, dealer and handling, 60 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:21.139 taxes, etc. We were ready to roll in make a cash purchase 61 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:26.569 and he set an appointment with us for two days later at fifteen in the 62 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:29.250 morning. So we were going to get up early, drive up to Denver 63 00:04:29.449 --> 00:04:32.490 and buy this car. He set the appointment on the calendar. But the 64 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:36.250 same day we set the appointment, about two hours later, I get an 65 00:04:36.250 --> 00:04:42.720 email and it has three words in it. It's sold. Sorry. So 66 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:46.319 I immediately pick up the phone and call this guy, like what is going 67 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:49.079 on here? You just sent me a calendar invite, you gave me the 68 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:53.029 out the door price. We made this commitment to come up there and buy 69 00:04:53.069 --> 00:04:57.350 the car, and his response was, we have thirty salespeople on this lot. 70 00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:01.189 They need to eat too. T talk about failure to manage expectations and 71 00:05:01.350 --> 00:05:04.550 failure to empathize with your customer, like we were all in on this. 72 00:05:04.670 --> 00:05:11.180 We had shut down several other opportunities and the gap here was he never communicated 73 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:14.300 that. Hey, you know, if you give me two thousand dollars right 74 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:16.899 now, I can guarantee this as your car in two days. Or Hey, 75 00:05:17.019 --> 00:05:19.740 you know, this car might sell today. If you commit to come 76 00:05:19.779 --> 00:05:23.529 up and buy it today, I can make sure this car is yours. 77 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:27.889 But instead I'm operating from the idea that, because he set the appointment and 78 00:05:28.009 --> 00:05:30.889 I have the final paperwork, that this is my car. I just need 79 00:05:30.970 --> 00:05:34.449 to show up and buy it. He's operating from a completely different expectation that 80 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:38.879 he did not communicate, which is well, if it's around when he gets 81 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:44.279 here, it's his car. So think about expectations that other people might have 82 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.600 at different points in their relationship with you. Are you operating from the same 83 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:54.430 expectation? Disappointment? This is just a lifetip. Disappointment is exclusively a function 84 00:05:54.589 --> 00:06:00.149 of expectation. If my expectations are managed and you deliver at expectations, I 85 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:03.110 can't be disappointed. That's what he thought he was doing, but he failed 86 00:06:03.379 --> 00:06:11.100 to communicate those expectations, thereby failing to manage my expectations. Number three, 87 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:14.980 be honest, because this is a used car story. I don't think you'll 88 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:18.410 be super surprised that there was some dishonesty in the process, and this is 89 00:06:18.490 --> 00:06:23.370 a crazy one. We went into test drive that all track. It was 90 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:26.889 a super fun car to drive. I had already pressed them a little bit 91 00:06:26.970 --> 00:06:30.569 on the price and they had already moved down about three hundred and fifty dollars 92 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:32.439 on it. It was the last day of the month, it was six 93 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:36.360 PM. They were open for a couple more hours, and so I told 94 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:41.079 my salesperson and his sales manager, who is out on the lot with me, 95 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:44.920 standing at the vehicle, Hey, I need to go back. My 96 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:46.040 wife and I are going to talk about it. We're going to sleep on 97 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:49.829 it tomorrow. I'll get back to you the next morning with our decision. 98 00:06:50.470 --> 00:06:55.389 But before I do that, I just want to know what is the absolute, 99 00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:58.629 very best price you can give me on this car. And he told 100 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:01.300 me, Hey, I need to make two hundred dollars on every used car 101 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:04.220 sale and that is where I am. I have no room to move on 102 00:07:04.339 --> 00:07:09.339 this car. I said cool, that's fine. I just wanted the best 103 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:12.300 price you could offer. It's part of the decisionmaking process. will go make 104 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:15.810 our decision and follow back up with you the next morning. So he goes 105 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:17.649 into the building. I'm still chit chatting with my sales rep who I had 106 00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:20.889 spoken with on the phone, had swapped several emails with. He was very 107 00:07:20.970 --> 00:07:26.370 responsive, a great salesperson, and then as we're wrapping up our chat, 108 00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:30.439 the sales manager comes running back toward us. Ethan, I've got exciting news. 109 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:34.720 It's the last day of the month and the salesperson here is sold nine 110 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:39.600 cars so far this month. If he sells his tenth car he gets a 111 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:44.199 bonus. If I could give you five hundred dollars off right now, would 112 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.350 you buy this car on the spot tonight, last day of the month? 113 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:49.550 And I said of course not. I told you I wasn't buying the car 114 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:54.189 today and you just told me you had no room to move on the price. 115 00:07:54.509 --> 00:07:58.350 It's just ludacrous that two minutes later he would think that I might forget 116 00:07:58.389 --> 00:08:01.620 that he told me that he couldn't move on the price. Lyne to your 117 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:05.379 customers in their face is always a bad look. Even if we wanted to 118 00:08:05.420 --> 00:08:09.339 buy that car, I would have refused to buy that car out of principle 119 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:13.290 from those folks. And the sad part was it was not the fault of 120 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:16.089 the sales were up, who, again was awesome, timely, straightforward and 121 00:08:16.250 --> 00:08:22.370 very, very helpful. So timely and responsive, managing expectations, obviously being 122 00:08:22.490 --> 00:08:26.240 honest. That's just basic rules for living. Fourth one here is make it 123 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:33.000 easy, eliminate friction. This is probably the biggest customer experience part of this 124 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:39.279 conversation. Companies like CARMACS and even newer business models like Carvana have identified what 125 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:41.990 makes people like me and you, if you've been through this recently, so 126 00:08:43.309 --> 00:08:46.549 frustrated and they knocked down all those things. So we inquired on a car 127 00:08:46.750 --> 00:08:52.230 with carmacks and I set an appointment. When I set that appointment through their 128 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:54.820 website, which, by the way, had amazing search criteria, I could 129 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:58.700 dial it into exactly what I wanted, including the features, including the mileage, 130 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:03.220 and all these other characteristics, including internal and external color of the vehicle. 131 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:07.860 My wife and I found one that fit what we wanted, click the 132 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:11.129 make appointment button and it immediately disappeared from the website. When I told my 133 00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:13.889 son that we were going to go check out this car and probably buy it, 134 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:16.769 he went to find it online. Couldn't find it. Kind of panicked 135 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:20.929 a little bit. I said they just took it off the website because they 136 00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:26.000 reserved it for me, which was awesome, completely different from the manage expectation 137 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:30.159 story on that priests up in Denver. In addition, as we were thinking, 138 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.240 should we buy this on the spot or not? Seven Day return policy, 139 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.909 absolutely no ask whatsoever. The mileage didn't matter, they would give us 140 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:41.190 all of our money back, no matter what, within seven days. We 141 00:09:41.309 --> 00:09:45.110 were buying this north of Denver, by the way, and they would allow 142 00:09:45.110 --> 00:09:50.710 us to make this return in Colorado Springs. Super Convenient and eliminates any of 143 00:09:50.789 --> 00:09:54.259 the objections on the byside, as well as any of the friction of that 144 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:58.340 buyers remorse. In addition, Ninety Day warranty. They paid for the manual. 145 00:09:58.419 --> 00:10:01.620 There's no manual in this used car we were purchasing. They gave me 146 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:05.980 the link to a website to order it. I submitted my receipt and they 147 00:10:05.059 --> 00:10:09.210 reimbursed me to get a physical copy the manual that I could put in the 148 00:10:09.250 --> 00:10:13.730 glove box. I was in and out of that dealership in ninety minutes with 149 00:10:13.049 --> 00:10:18.129 a car from I need to inspect this car, check it out, I 150 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:20.679 want to test drive it, which was a fun experience, walk through all 151 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:24.639 the paperwork, actually pay for it and all these other things out the door 152 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:28.480 ninety minutes. Last step here carmacks just kills this, by the way, 153 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:33.200 from a customer experience standpoint. As we were doing the final paperwork, someone 154 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.309 was washing the interior and exterior of the car and as we were walking out 155 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:41.710 to approach the car. They had positioned it in a parking bay with a 156 00:10:41.750 --> 00:10:46.789 nice sign behind it, a giant yellow bow right on the hood. Their 157 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:50.460 colors are blue and yellow and as we were going out, our sales rep 158 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:52.500 said, hey, can I have your phone? Go stand just to the 159 00:10:52.580 --> 00:10:56.940 left of the front tire. She took a couple vertical photos, a couple 160 00:10:56.980 --> 00:11:01.419 horizontal photo rose of my wife and me with the new car, absolutely knowing 161 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:03.899 that it's the kind of thing that we would share with our friends in our 162 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:05.929 family, which we did because they wanted to know what we bought and what 163 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:09.769 it looked like. In all these other things. Just really thought it all 164 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:13.409 out in advance. It's just a nice little surprise and delight moment at the 165 00:11:13.490 --> 00:11:18.169 end of the process that builds social proof for them. In addition, just 166 00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:20.519 another quick small note on social proof, as we were sitting in the dealership, 167 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.919 they have these giant monitors all around in their constantly popping up new members 168 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:28.799 of the carmacks family with little head shots and the vehicle they purchased in the 169 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:33.870 city they purchased it in. Just really nice touches that humanize the whole process. 170 00:11:35.669 --> 00:11:39.309 Fifth and finally, here, values matter. Ultimately, we made this 171 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:43.269 decision on moral and ethical grounds. Now, not everyone thinks this way, 172 00:11:43.590 --> 00:11:46.789 but for us it was just difficult, even though that car that I drove 173 00:11:46.909 --> 00:11:50.019 for the past seventeen years, that's still an absolutely amazing shape, is of 174 00:11:50.059 --> 00:11:54.299 folkswagon. We opted against the all track, even it was a great driving 175 00:11:54.299 --> 00:11:58.620 experience for two key reasons. One, it only gets twenty two miles to 176 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:03.330 the gallon in the city, versus forty four for what we purchased, and 177 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:07.289 fifty four a Prius. Right. So we did end up buying a hybrid 178 00:12:07.370 --> 00:12:11.570 car. In addition, Volkswagon got caught in that diesel emissions cheating scandal. 179 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:16.960 Right. So, in this world of finite resources, the idea that we're 180 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.559 going to buy a car that we're going to drive for the next fifteen to 181 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:26.159 twenty years is going to be very fossil fuel dependent, far less efficient than 182 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:31.429 so many other options in the market, from a company that was caught bending 183 00:12:31.509 --> 00:12:35.470 the rules and actively cheating, was just something I couldn't get behind, even 184 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:39.230 though it was an awesome car to drive. So just a handful of tips. 185 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:43.669 They're hopefully that triggered something for you, either as a customer or, 186 00:12:43.750 --> 00:12:48.179 even better, as a marketing, sales or customer success professional, about the 187 00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:52.179 way that you're interacting with your customers or the way you're being treated as a 188 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:54.259 consumer. Hope you enjoyed the episode. If you want to hear more, 189 00:12:54.580 --> 00:13:03.450 visit Bombombcom podcast. That's bomb Bombcom podcast, and I welcome your feedback. 190 00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:07.610 Again, my name is Ethan, but you can reach out to me directly 191 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:16.320 Ethan etch N at Bombombcom. Thanks so much for listening. We totally get 192 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:20.000 it. We publish a ton of content on this podcast and it can be 193 00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:24.000 a lot to keep up with. That's why we've started the BB growth big 194 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:28.470 three, a no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an 195 00:13:28.549 --> 00:13:33.110 entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Fish Mediacom big three. 196 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:37.789 That sweet fish Mediacom Big Three