I recently had a business owner, who is also a CPA, say to me, “When it’s low tide, you find out who is skinny dipping.”
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. In our conversation, we were talking about all the ways car dealerships have needed to prepare for times of crisis. Here are three examples.
Rainy day funds. If you’ve been blowing through cash, it’s going to show when you need it. During the Great Recession, I knew of stores that couldn’t survive two months of cash flow once interest payments on slow-moving inventory came due.
Employees quitting. If you have been doing it the right way, your employees stay engaged and loyal through times of high unemployment.
Customer experience. If you have been prioritizing the long game with customers–putting their experience over the short-term profit, for instance–customers just might stay with you when times are tight.
The last one is especially coming true in the car business right now. As many new cars are ordered instead of chosen off the lot … and ordered for sticker price … you could order from any where for the same price.
So is your customer experience worth returning to? Or should I just order my car from the nearest or most convenient place?
People in my profession have been saying for years that investing in employee experience leads to engaged employees who deliver good customer experience. That CX keeps customers for the long hall–not just as loyal customers but as advocates of your business.
Feel like you are behind on all of this? That it’s too late?
I’ll remind you of the proverb I’ve always heard attributed to China:
The best time to plant a tree is 100 years ago. The second-best time is today.