Do you know that the automobile dealers earn more by servicing your car than selling it to you?
That's true!
Not only do they earn on labor charges but they also earn double the margin on selling spares that too recurring than selling the car that's one time.
That's why they keep proper record of your last servicing and remind you without fail to get your car serviced.
Last time when I went to repair a dent on my car, the service station promptly told me that the car was not serviced for last two years. That I'd not changed the engine oil nor the brake oil.
I told him that resort to condition based maintenance (CBM) rather than time based maintenance (TBM).
As a TPM (total productive maintenance) practitioner, I knew how to check the condition of the oils rather than blindly change it just for the sake of it based on time or the kilometres run. This is especially true if your car is yet to run the kilometres specified by the manufacturer.
The other day, I got a call from the refrigerator company reminding me to renew the service contract that was going to expire at the end of the month.
I called him for the last service of the previous contract in force since it wasn't cooling adequately. A worker-turned service mechanic arrived. He quickly trained me and my wife on how to optimise the settings: The rotary temperature switch, the diffusers near every shelf as well as inside the deep freezer, etc.
When I told him about my reluctance to change the gasket as told by the earlier mechanic, he demonstrated to me that there wasn't any leakage at all.
In fact he showed that the gasket was a magnetic one: a typical mistake proof (Poka-Yoke) design.
The younger service mechanic who had suggested replacement (saying "बदल डालो") was an employee of the outsourced service contractor. Typically they earn more on spare parts as I said earlier in case of an automobile.
In quality parlance, we call this as overselling!
The worker-turned service mechanic of the manufacturer didn't oversell!
I was impressed, offered some juice to the guy!
No doubt that I renewed the contract at once!
Became the Brand ambassador!
Brand image is built like this!
So next time, you think of servicing, remember this blogpost.
You may lose in the short run if you don't oversell!
But, customer will keep coming back to you!!
You'll win in the long run!!!
