/>Emotional engagement and creating enthusiasts is all about how customers feel when they do business with you. How they feel effects the stories they tell when they leave.
Enthusiasts’ feel good about doing business with you and take it upon themselves to promote your business at every opportunity.
Always Impress
When a Lexus customer leaves their vehicle at the dealership for service, a service manager will typically provide a loaner vehicle that is at least one model class above what the customer is currently driving. So, as an example, if the customer leaves their ES350 they will normally receive a GS350 or an LS460 as a loaner.
Why does Lexus give customers this special treatment? The on-the-surface part of the answer is Lexus is the premium division of Toyota and this special treatment is very much in line with their brand image. The underlying reason is Lexus understands the correlation between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, and this practice ensures that customers feel better, not the same or worse, when they leave their vehicle for service.
Think about it…You’re a Lexus customer and you drop off your ES350 and the service manager assigns you a GS350 to go about your business while your vehicle is serviced.
Driving around in an even more premium luxury vehicle doesn’t make you feel the same and it certainly doesn’t make you feel worse. You feel better.
Oh, and conveniently, you’re taking a test drive in a more expensive vehicle your dealer would love to see you own.
Now take the same scenario, but this time when you drop off your ES350 the service manager gives you 1983 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with rusted quarter panels, a grubby interior and all the luxury of a Sherman Tank. Now you don’t feel the same either. You feel worse, much worse.
This is the hallmark of creating enthusiasts.
Always make the customer feel better doing business with your dealership than if they took their vehicle elsewhere for service or tires.
Always impress. And the best way to do that is to be an enthusiast yourself.