Recently, I have noticed my patience with my customers is becoming very short. Whose fault is that? Well, it’s obviously my DM, my GM, no it’s our three drivers, the night driver, the warehouse or anyone else I can blame! But, certainly it is not my fault; it is burn-out, too many hours, too much competition, too high prices, not enough inventory and not enough time. No, it is my home life, my favorite team just lost, my car transmission is going out. No, no, no — it is all life in general. How many more excuses or people, or entities can I blame for my bad attitude and shortcomings with my customers?
However, when can we just admit that our patience is our own to control? After all these years in the business, I find myself being impatient and not even realizing it until I have frustrated the customer. Whose fault is that?
One of my favorite quotes is, “You can only control one person and that is yourself.” With all that in mind our patience is our own to control.
In the parts business, we really only have one job and that is to sell parts but, our customers are often difficult and that tries the patience of those we are discussing. Therefore, we have to learn to deal with that issue on a minute-by-minute basis.
There are no real ways to divert the frustrations we face except to just laugh it off. It is very difficult at times; we are expected to be experts in so many areas. Customers think that we can diagnose their vehicles over the phone when skilled, trained and well-equipped mechanics cannot fix it. They want to beat us down about the price, warranty or speed of delivery, they do not understand what we really do or go through.
The truth is they do not care. They are only concerned about themselves and see us as servants to their needs at the current time.
But, do you ever stop to think of the good customers and the fun ones and make the best of those when they come in?
It is very hard to be optimistic, productive and fun when dealing with the customer. However, the parts business is just like life, when given lemons, make margaritas.
Patience is a virtue really, but my favorite quote on patience is this:
“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”
So it really does all go back to attitude, learning to be happy with what you have and not what you wish to have. You are the only person that you can control and the excuses can be bountiful, but there is no real reason to let someone else dictate our happiness.
Don’t worry, just be happy.
