Farhad Ghafarzade has a ‘killer instinct’ when it comes to providing exceptional service. As the CEO & Founder of Green Drop Garage, Farhad has built a business synonymous with doing right by customers and the environment, yet he maintains that it’s ‘the human factor’ that has made the biggest difference to his repair shop’s success.
His approach is as refreshing as it is radical…
.jpg)
Does your brand have a healthy appetite?
Farhad believes that Green Drop Garage customers “Actually look forward to their car repairs, and in part that comes down to the repair shops mantra of doing right by two key pillars; the customer and the environment...” Online reviews and a list of environmental and sustainability certifications say Green Drop is doing a good job there, but Farhad talked to us recently at Frontline Magic Local in Auckland about the importance of a third pillar: “That pillar is your team, because it’s the human factor makes the biggest difference to customer experience.”
Farhad points to Peter Drucker’s well known quote, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" to emphasise the importance of human connection, because
“No matter how well planned a strategy is, if the team isn't willing to execute the plan with a smile, then customers won’t buy it.”
“Green Drop Garage has morphed over the years, but always with an underlying current of killer customer service. Culture isn't about comfy chairs and casual Fridays, more importantly - it’s how the team responds to critical situations...true character shines through when times are tough, not when things are all good.”
The trip of a lifetime...
Which brings us to THAT story about a customer complaint; a cross-country flight; an amateur photographer on a road trip and a case of mistaken identity when it came to an oil change…
That might sound like the plot for a great mystery, but no, it’s a real-life Green Drop Garage customer experience story!
When a customer’s car broke down hundreds of miles away from the workshop, she understandably wasn’t happy. The team at Green Drop Garage pride themselves on innovative ways to resolve issues and use their killer customer service philosophy - and so, they came up with a plan…
Most garage’s would have stopped at flying the customer home from where she was stranded, but not Green Drop Garage. A mechanic was promptly dispatched to fix her car (a simple ‘out of oil’ issue) and drive it cross-country back home. But what she didn’t expect was for that same mechanic to take beautiful photographs of the road trip she would have taken and present them to her in a fancy album.
The story took a sinister twist when the same customer realised it was her boyfriend who changed the car’s oil and didn’t do a proper job. Green Drop Garage’s response? “No problem!” Needless to say - they succeeded in earning a customer for life.
If you missed the presentations and debate at our Frontline Magic Local event in Auckland, New Zealand you can read the round-up here.
