My wife is shopping for a new car.  On Friday, a local dealer let her test drive a car and said she could keep it over the weekend if she liked it…or return it Saturday, at her convenience.

Liking the car very much but not willing to commit yet to a purchase, my wife returned the car yesterday.  She walked into the dealership with the keys.  Salesmen were standing around inside and outside the building.  Some smoking.  Some picking their teeth.  None offering to help her.

Rather than simply leave the keys with the receptionist, my wife asked to speak with someone so she could make sure they knew she was returning the car.  She also had a couple of questions about the car. 

She looked up at the list of sales personnel to see if there was any woman on the roster.  There wasn’t.  (Kind of amazing, since women are responsible for the decision-making in 90+% of  automobile purchases.)  She approached one of the salesmen and had to cajole him into walking out to the car and trying to address her questions.

Not only did the dealership practice lousy customer service, but they demonstrated incredibly insensitivity to the way women make purchasing decisions – typically a thoughtful, deliberate process, as opposed to the men’s more transactional sensibility.

Result: a slam-dunk sale for that dealership is now unlikely to occur.  And my wife will be looking elsewhere tomorrow. 

One would think that with all our economy has gone through…and with all the automotive industry has gone through…dealerships would have new attitudes, new practices, and truly master customer service.

It was stunning to me to see such basics so overlooked.  Sometimes we focus too much on “the next new thing,” instead of remembering the basics – and being darn sure we’re following them.