This is a continuation of my car buying experience – with baby number 3 due later in the year, we’ve had to change my car so that we could fit all 3 kids in the back – my old car really had 2.5 seats and there was no way I could fit in the new baby’s car seat, Kenzie’s group 1 car seat and Megan’s bumper seat, so we had to find something suitable within budget.

Check out last weeks article sharing the bad experience I had and the lessons you can learn from that.

So, it was back to the drawing board and Auto Trader to look for something else.

I found a few options but nothing really grabbed my attention, unless I wanted to pay £3,000 above my budget which I wasn’t prepared to do!

And then I found it, THE car for me.

It was a car that I’d completely dismissed in the past as I didn’t like them but something was different with this car.

The mileage was only 33,000 which was amazing given the age and price of the car.  The price was bang on budget, it had rear parking sensors and they were happy to do a part exchange – all ticks here.

But it kept getting better.  This car was loaded with extras like front parking sensors, parallel parking aid, cruise control, DVD player with TVs in the headrests, built in sat nav system, tinted windows, panoramic roof, and so much more!  It was quite overwhelming with all the kit included.

They also did a 3 month warranty and the beauty was, it was a main Citroen dealer who knew exactly what they were doing as this is what they specialised in – great boost to my confidence knowing that they were experts.

But there was one problem.  I’d seen the car advertised on Auto Trader on the Sunday night and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go along to see it until the Friday, so I was unsure if it would still be available.  So I called Thursday morning to check and was told that someone was due in this afternoon to see the car.  But the garage promised to phone me after they’d been to let me know if it had been sold to save me a trip the following day.

I wasn’t sure if he would call, but he did!  And the person who was due to look at the car now couldn’t get there until Saturday – so I had good feelings and knew it was going to be mine!

The sales guy wasn’t pushy, he was honest about a common fault that had resulted in Citroen recalling all cars to fix the fault and explained that it would be covered for life if there is a problem.

The deal was done and I asked the question when would it be ready.  Bearing in mind that this was 10am on a Friday morning, I was expecting them to say the middle of the following week.  I was then shocked when he said it was ready to go and could be collected this afternoon (it just needed an MOT doing), so I arranged to go back at 2pm.

I was shocked on the drive home that I’d brought a car and would be picking it up the same day, talk about being prepared for the sale!  So it was a case of going home to empty my car of all the personal belongings and get the paperwork ready to take back.

I was still in shock a little, and given the previous experience, I was totally overwhelmed with the professionalism of everyone I dealt with.

I went back to the garage at 2pm as agreed and the car was there ready for me.  It was spotless, the paperwork was ready to fill in and there was someone there to go through things with me.  What was even better for me was that they told me to call them if I wasn’t sure how something worked and wanted them to talk me through it.  If there was a problem with the car, or there were any niggles, all I had to do was phone them.

The experiences between the two garages were chalk and cheese but it doesn’t have to be.

Giving a great customer buying experience, followed by aftercare and a good customer service should be the priority for every business – regardless of size!

Lessons learned

  • Do what you say you’re going to do – they phoned me as promised
  • Try to over deliver if possible – the car was ready for sale and I picked it up the same day.  This was amazing to me!
  • Great aftercare service for when things go wrong – I had a warning light come on and its already booked in and will be fixed
  • They made it so easy to deal with them – everyone was really friendly and professional

So, take a look at your business and see what you can do to give your customers a great buying experience.  I’d love to hear what you’re doing, share in the comments below.

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