[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy]
Remember, another dealer will ALWAYS beat the previous dealers best price. There is no such thing as a bottom line. If I will sell you the car for 36k, another dealer will sell it for 35,900 just to beat me. It is the way it is.
[QUOTE]
Not to torpedo you here, FMG, but this is exactly what happened when we bought my wife’s Highlander. We went to our Schaumburg Toyota (maybe someone will read this from my area and save themselves a trip!), and they gave us a price. We then went to out much closer Arlington Heights Toyota, and gave them the number (we were intending to do all of our maintenance at the dealer, and woudl have preferred to use the Arlington Heights location). They told us to pound sand, that “no-one woudl sell it for that price”.
We bought at the promised number from Schaumburg. We also do all of our maintenance there when we get coupons. Great service department, by the way.
Question: to what extent does the excellence/crappiness of your service department affect your return business? You mentioned that you have a good amount of return customers…if a 5-car customer complained about the service they received, would you go light them up?
Service definitely has an effect on business. A lot of people (not all) will try to buy at the dealership closer to their home, mostly for the fact they will do their service there. You always should get a little better service where you buy your car from.
If one of my customers have any kind of service problem, I am right there to assist them, whether it is going to the service advisor myself (with a little tip if necessary), going to the service manager, switching to another service advisor, or going to the general manager.
It helps that customer service is huge here and people are buying pretty expensive cars. Do not expect the same service treatment from your SALESPERSON at a smaller lower price dealer. Chances are the salesperson will not be around a long time anyway.
BUT once again, to answer your question, I do my best to make sure service is good and satisfactory for my clients. If someone has a bad service taste, it will be a taste they will have for a long time.