Building Relationships in Challenging Business Environments

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SUBSCRIBING TO AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE FUTURE

How Great Customer Experiences Can Create Great Feedback Loops for Your Company

BY FORD MCALEXANDER, SALES PROGRAMS MANAGER, LUCAS OIL PRODUCTS, INC.

I can imagine many of us are tired of hearing about the recent economic downturn and potential of a recession, but we need to understand that companies in the oil and lubricants industry are facing even more challenges than other industries. However, our businesses also have the chance to rise during these times by turning challenges into opportunities. There are several ways you can positively impact your company but for today, I’d like to focus on “customer experiences” as one of the most successful business-growth strategies. Impactful customer experiences have been incredibly e ective at building the Lucas Oil brand because they’ve allowed us to form a genuine and loyal relationship with our customers.

While customer relationships can be developed in many ways, I believe there are three primary strategies to focus on when trying to create meaningful customer experiences. At Lucas Oil, we concentrate on 1) delivering what you promise, 2) making things right if there has been a mistake, and 3) providing excellent problem-solving solutions.

It may seem like a relatively simple principle for a business to deliver what you promise, but it’s also easy to stray when your business is struggling in today’s economic climate. It can be easy to ignore some of the details a customer is sharing about their vehicle because we have all heard many of these issues before. However, this could be an opportunity for you to deliver an unexpected and remarkable experience that converts someone into a longterm, loyal customer. For instance, a friend recently asked me for advice with a slipping transmission, and I could have easily just suggested they try our transmission additive. Lucas Oil would benefit from a new sale, and I could continue with my day, but I did not. After listening carefully to some of the details about my friend’s transmission issue, it became clear that the issues were more than what our transmission additive is designed to correct. Instead, I recommended my friend visit a local repair shop, thus delivering on the promise of providing a great customer experience.

The second strategy to building customer relationships is showing integrity by making things right with all levels of your customer relationship chain. During the challenging, early days of the pandemic, we strived to be as transparent as possible with our distributors. It was amazing to see our entire industry come together to work through several new challenges that we faced in times of uncertainty. Like many companies, we had to deal with sudden quarantines of our workforce due to close contact. These quarantines impacted our production rates, shipping times and other factors. What surprised me was witnessing our employees’ dedication to helping us make things right through their belief in our company’s values. Our production team spent countless hours working overtime to deliver a great experience for our distributors, which allowed us to make things right.

The third strategy is to provide excellent problem-solving solutions. For most of us in this industry, identifying problems and solutions are relatively easy because we’ve seen it all. If you do experience something unfamiliar, you should be willing to put forth the e ort to investigate and find a solution that works best for your customer. Take the steps to find the root cause and match that with a proven solution. For example, a small leak or oil burning issue may not be a major problem, but with more investigation, you can help prepare a customer for a potentially unexpected outcome like a costly trip to a repair shop. This is a great situation for both the business and the customer because you were able to deliver an experience that shows your commitment by providing excellent problem-solving solutions through your willingness to go the extra mile.

Like all of us, I hope the current economic situation improves quickly and we can go back to focusing on the growth of our companies. Regardless, these simple and straightforward customer experience strategies have helped the success of our business for more than thirty years in nearly all types of economic situations. At the end of the day, showing integrity, making things right and having a commitment to sound problem solving solutions will always result in great experiences that build lasting customer relationships.