Focus on the customer gives Tirecraft top spot in J.D. Power survey

How did a company that did not even register in last year’s J.D. Power and Associates Canadian Customer satisfaction survey manage to grab the top spot this year, ahead of such major players as Autopro, Mr. Muffler and OK Tire?

Darell Sept, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Sherwood Park, Alta.-based Tirecraft Auto Centers Ltd. said the award was not only a pleasant surprise when it was announced, but it capped a long-term goal the company had set for itself in improving customer satisfaction and retention across its 200 Canada-wide locations.

“Customer service has always been ingrained in the company from day one,” Sept said. “It is something that we always worked towards.”

To help get a better handle on what customers both thought of Tirecraft and of their overall experience in coming to a Tirecraft location, the company commissioned a comprehensive survey and investigation of its operations in 2003. While that survey showed Tirecraft scored rather well amongst its existing customers, there was still room to improve overall customer satisfaction. The investigation also found more could be done to raise the profile of the company as a whole amongst Canadians, many of whom did not know the Tirecraft brand or its operations.

Sept said the survey helped Tirecraft develop a two-fold strategy for raising both the profile of the brand and reinforcing the goal of providing a quality customer experience so as to keep people coming back. The first part of the strategy was an internal branding process, getting everyone in the company, from the corporate executive down to the technician and service writer, on the same page as to what Tirecraft’s goals were. Every one of the 200 Tirecraft locations was visited by a field agent and the staff was given a presentation on the history of the company, its commitment to improving customer satisfaction and then left with materials and a CD that could be reviewed by each employee and owner, and which also contained materials that could be used to help educate customers on the Tirecraft brand and services.

Building relationships with customers

“There really was a need to start with this,” Sept added. “We really do have a very good thing going here, but maybe not everyone in the organization knows it, and we really had to filter that message down to everyone, right down to the people who are doing the service works and maybe are not exposed to the organization as a whole.”

Sept said the main message of the company is everyone has to strive to go that proverbial ‘extra mile.’ It is certainly a clichd term, but Sept believes it is one that best captures his company’s message on the customer experience.

“It gets down to the relationship and identifying with your customer,” Sept said. “We try to look beyond the sale today and try to look at the sale down the road. We look at the relationship with the customer and try to build a relationship between ourselves and the customer.”

Ivan Brown, owner of a Tirecraft location in Edmonton, Alta. added customers today, with whatever the business they are dealing with, now expect a relationship with that business.

“In today’s marketplace, one of the key things retailers and people in our position tend to miss is taking the time and opportunity to build personal relationships,” Brown added.

Building that relationship means providing a consistent level of performance and work each time a person brings their vehicle in, whether it is for maintenance or a repair, or for something as simple as an oil change to something more substantial as the purchase of winter tires. All Tirecraft shops are expected to provide those levels of service consistently across all of the company’s locations.

The philosophy is similar to what the large fast-food chains operate under. No matter what store or its location in the country, everyone expects that same level of service and customer experience. In a J.D. Power study released earlier this year looking at the tire purchasing habits of Canadians, the most important factor in tire sales, after cost, was the kind of experience someone had at the location where they purchased the tires. Twenty-six per cent of those who responded to the survey said previous good experience was the deciding factor for where they purchased tires with many saying they favoured local independent service providers.

Taking time to speak with customers, educating them

Ken Busch, owner of a Tirecraft shop in Sherwood Park, Alta. said the goal of any shop is to overcome the apprehensiveness people have in bringing their vehicle to a service provider. Many customers are nervous that no matter what the work is they will not understand why it needs to be done and why it costs so much to do.

“People are looking to engage with the shop owner and manager,” suggested Busch. “So we build trust with them and we spend time with them talking about their car, how it is working and what the issues are. People want information about their vehicle so they can make an informed decision about the work to be done. We will take people into the shop and we will show them what the problem is, what that problem means. I’ll go into detail with them, everything from driving with them to feel what the problem is to even showing them a wire diagram, what a part is and why that part is making that particular noise and what that noise means. I find the more information I can give to a customer, they better they feel.”

“We also reinforce the fact that every customer is different and so you can’t treat everyone in the same fashion,” Sept said. “Everybody has different needs and wants, and you have to get a feel for your customer. You can’t take a cookie cutter approach. You will have standard practices, but you have to develop that human relationship and the customer has to see that you have their best interests and needs in mind.”

Busch added Tirecraft also spends a great deal of time providing management training for all owners focusing on customer service and retention, and how to improve overall business operations. Tirecraft also provides regular technician training through NAPA and with various parts suppliers, according to Sept.

“We also have a customer checklist that we ask every customer to fill out and mail back to us, and that checklist is provided to every customer,” Sept added. “It is postage paid and we take that information from the cards to help improve our customer service.”

Sept continued because Tirecraft sell tires as well as provides maintenance and repair services for vehicles, it becomes a one-stop-shop for people when it comes to their vehicles. Each side reinforces the others: if a person has a good experience buying tires from Tirecraft they expect the same experience from its service arm, and those using the service side of the business are more likely to buy their tires from the shop if their experience has been top-notch. This combination has been successful in Tirecraft competing against the growing share of the vehicle service market being taken by dealerships. This year, J.D. Power found that dealerships gained market share in terms of volume of service visits and consumer spending, after experiencing a slight decrease last year.

“We certainly see that the car dealerships are retaining their customers longer and they have expanded more into the tire business,” Sept added. “For us, people deal with people, persons they recognize and most of our stores the person running the store and whom they see is often the owner, and that improves the long-term relationship.”