Customer Service and Tire Sales

Every couple of years I need to buy tires for my car. When it comes that time I call around to the various stores looking for a good price, I search the Internet, and ultimately go to Discount Tire. They are not always the cheapest but they have several examples over their competition. For example, they answer the phone when you call. This may be obvious and simple but it is something that their competition seems to have trouble with. Actually this is just a symptom of a larger difference — customer service.

The attitude of the Discount Tire staff keep me coming back. They are always considerate and helpful. When I walk in the store all I know is I need tires. I would probably want the same kind of tires that are already on my car. Those tires seem to have worked pretty good so far. I happen to know that my tire size is 205/55R16. I’m not really sure what that means. The only reason I know it is because it happens to be the same size tire as my last car (1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse) and so I have had the same size tire for 17 years — can you say rut? My Eclipse used Eagles, my Bug uses Eagles. I walk into the store and get me some.

This year the Goodyear Eagles were not in stock. ‘Austin’ behind the counter offered to get those tire from another store and have them for me in a day or so at no additional cost to me. He did not make it sound like a burden. It was just his way of taking care of the customer. He almost sounded apologetic for not having an infinite inventory of tires on hand. He went on to offer an equivalent or possibly better tire in a different brand that was more suited to my style of driving and the Texas heat. This was a simple, no pressure explanation of the facts.

A few minutes later I was the owner of a new pair of Yokohama tires. The look nice on my car and should give me an extra 20,000 miles of driving which for me is about a year. Customer is happy. The store saved the transport cost of a pair of tires from Grand Prairie.

When I get home I notice a small problem. My VW value stem cap is missing from one of the tires. I notice this about 2 days later because it is on the passenger side. I call them the next day and talk to someone. Once again, they answered the phone. I explained the problem. The manager immediately offered me a set of new chrome caps or I could buy what I needed and bring in the receipt. It was very simple. There was no third degree questioning me about my receipt. In order to get the same caps I had to order them from VW.

It has been over 2 weeks now. I walked in last night with my Discount Tire receipt in one hand and my VW receipt in the other. ‘Ray’ stepped up to help me at the counter. I explained the problem in one sentence. He took the two receipts and within 5 minutes I was on my way with the cash cost of the value stem caps. It was simple. Neither ‘Ray’ nor any one at the store gave me any trouble. I thought again how important good customer service is.

Discount tire spent $15 on me. Yes, I should have notice the cap was missing before I left. Life got in the way and I was in a hurry when I accepted the car. Yes, the tech should have notice the silver cap when he pulled it off and threw it away. In the end, Discount Tires $15 expense on my $300 purchase will continue to result in thousands of dollars in future sales as I won’t even consider taking my car anywhere else.