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A few years ago I was invited to do some consultancy work with a flash London marketing agency; you know the kind – bean bags in the meeting rooms, picnic tables in the cafeteria, folding bikes in the foyer. They’d just won a contract to work with a prestige car maker and had decided that as part of their brain storming process it might be a good idea to talk to someone that had worked in a car dealership before they came up with some creative solutions for consideration by their client.

There brief was pretty simple, the client wanted to improve customer satisfaction levels amongst service customers. They’d already done the usual stuff, a suite of new 1-day courses for service advisers, some eLearning modules, a new operations manual and an unhealthy dose of mystery shops that had successfully managed to demotivate 90% of their front line staff. With the usual methods now exhausted they had liberated a six figure sum from the marketing budget and commissioned a high flying agency to help out.

Hence I found myself in a large white room in central London sat around a large glass table with a selection of ‘power juices’ and fresh fruit for the assembled audience to consume in the effort to trigger some original thought.

The meeting started with an energiser, two facts from each of the dozen or so people in the room, one true and one false, the more outrageous the better. It turned out that most of the room had at least one piercing and several had multiple tattoos. It appeared that all the things that made these people feel individual, had in actual fact made them more alike. I remain the only person in the room to have played flat green bowls for ten years.

Energiser complete, next came a brain storming session. We were told there is ‘no such thing as a bad idea’ (of course there is) and that we should ‘kick around’ new concepts ‘broaden the focus’ and ‘helicopter the traditional dealership structure’.

The brainstorm was to focus on the central question ‘what do customers want when they are waiting for their car to be serviced?’ To ensure that none of us forgot this vital question it was written in large letters on a ‘mood board’ which was wheeled into the meeting room by a mildly tattooed and heavily pierced young lady called Sophie.

To help with the creative process we were told to stick rigidly to ‘free thinking techniques’ (isn’t that an oxymoron?) and to try using ‘idea waterfalls’ as they may be helpful. I had, and still have, no idea what an idea waterfall is.

After about 40 minutes an earnest looking chap called Mikey stepped forward and declared himself to be the ‘ideas shepherd’. His job was to take some key learning points from the creative process. To me it looked like Mikey was just drawing red lines through people’s ideas on the flip chart and throwing their post-it notes into the bin, but then I am not a creative and nor do I have piercings or a tattoo, so I am ultimately underqualified. Either way, after about 15 minutes everyone else seemed very happy.

Mikey summarised. The client needed to radically rethink the way it looked after its customers whilst they were in for service work. Their customers were busy people, most were in senior roles and therefore time waiting for a car to be serviced or repaired was ‘down-time’. The dealerships needed to provide those customers with an environment where they could continue to be productive. They should provide desks, printers, good internet access. There should be a room where they could conduct meetings and a PA on hand who could organise everything from hotel bookings to fresh flower. It wasn’t going to be cheap to make it happen, but it would differentiate the brand from its competitors.

Everyone in the room seemed very pleased, everyone except me. I had a question. A question about a question actually and so, in the spirit of ‘free thinking’ I thought I should ask it. ‘It all sounds very good’ I said ‘I am sure some customers will find it very useful. But has anyone asked the customers whether they would rather not have to visit the dealership altogether? That way they can go to work and be even more productive?’

The room remained silent, several eyes turned towards Mikey. Mikey cleared his throat, twice. ‘Well, um, it’s not really about what customers do at work, it’s about what they do when they are with us’.

‘Yes’, I said ‘but surely we are asking the wrong question? Shouldn’t we ask whether or not they want to visit a dealership at all? If they don’t want to come in then really whatever we do is still not as good as them not having to come in, isn’t it?’

Mikey cleared his throat again, I realised I may have over cooked it. ‘Well it’s an interesting point, but not really one for today’ said Mikey ‘ and look it’s nearly 11.30am so let’s take an early lunch eh?’

Apple Macs were closed, iPhones checked and the group drifted off to enjoy their mung bean and couscous salads.

I never was invited back. I don’t even know if their client knew I had attended the meeting. My invoice was settled and I put it down to being all part of life’s rich tapestry.

But the experience has stuck with me. To me, asking the right question is the crucial first part of trying to change anything for the better. All too often we ask the wrong questions and then act on what is by definition a fatally flawed response. It’s time we focused on getting the question right in the first place, then the answers will be worth listening too and acting on.

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