Customer Service
‘Everything speaks’ in our business and branding is key. We all wear a branded uniform and try to keep it clean. Customer service starts with all the unspoken cues and indicators that customers experience even before they react with our staff. Our core colour scheme is sky blue. This blue colour is proven to be able to help people relax and build trust. It is calming and inviting. Also the neutral timber panels etc and comfortable couch in our waiting room encourage customers to be at ease. Many of these things can be taken for granted however they were well considered by us from the outset. We looked at how colours and environment affect peoples behaviour. We had brighter uniforms too but found that they were just too hard to keep clean in the workshop. Customers are offered refreshments, and there is TV and reading material as well. The old building was very run down and on the limited resources we have had we’ve managed to make it quite inviting. Our toilet facilities and small kitchen were gutted and rebuilt to a higher standard. Clean towels etc are always provided should customers require.

I’ve had a customer spend six hours in our waiting room one day. We were doing a significant job on his vehicle and he decided this was a better than heading home or finding a space in town. Armed with free WiFi he spent most of the day working on his laptop computer.

Staff are encouraged to interact in a friendly and polite manner with customers and we always work to exceed their expectations. When things are busy customers who are waiting are always acknowledged and told they will be served shortly. When we first started, our new mechanic was keen to show me a nude model calendar displayed in the workshop. He might have got away with it in 1975 but we needed to talk carefully about what the expectations of our business in 2015 were. It is no surprise to me that this staff member is no longer working for us. Unfortunately there are still some negative attitudes to race and gender in our communities however they have no place at Instant Auto.
We encourage female clients and work hard to make them welcome. We’ve had many comments about how intimidating male dominated workshops can be for women and how easy we are to deal with. I am very proud to say that Chloe is the only fully trained female mechanic in a Blenheim auto workshop. She is a great asset and helps to ease the stress of car headaches people experience.

 


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Communication

We pride ourselves on communicating what a car needs and have a screen in the waiting area that will display all the common tasks we complete. We also carry a number of small components in the waiting area to show customers what they are and what they do. 
Of significance is our workshop software. It is important that customers receive a clear invoice which describes the job done fully. Many is the garage who hands over a bill with a big number on it and little else to explain where the customers hard earned money is going. 
In a small business customers like to interact with the owners. This is great and we really enjoy this interaction. As we build we’d love to have systems robust enough that the experience is uniform no matter who the customer deals with in the business. A McDonald's Big Mac is the same in Paris or Taihape because the products and processes are the same and that’s where we’d like to be. ​

Feedback

Customer feedback is very frequent however locals are very reluctant to review or post about their experiences. We are very proud of our online feedback and there is now enough that it drives people in our door.  In more recent times we’ve started asking people to review us and offer an incentive to do so.

Complaints

Complaints are few and far between and we’ve never had a negative customer interaction. Any errors are promptly rectified. We have had a vehicle spill diesel once after a seal on a filter we fitted failed. We headed to the site of the spill. Used lime chip on the driveway to draw the stain out. Took the van away and replaced the defective filter. Then returned the following day to remove the lime chip. Once that was tidied up we used biodegradable detergent and scrubbed the stain. This was awkward because it was unprofitable time out of the business however the customer was very happy with our response. In short it's the putting right that counts. ​