Here in Dallas the name Sewell is synonymous with Customer Service. 

At the tender age of 28, Carl Sewell realized he wanted to create the best brand of car dealerships in the world and he started a transformative process to do just that.  Now, almost 40 years later, Mr. Sewell owns some 16 car dealerships around the Dallas area that are widely regarded as the best for service and post-sale support.  Mr. Sewell realized that selling a person one car was good, but selling them every car they would ever buy during their lives was much better!  His aim was to turn a onetime car buyer into a “Customer for Life”.

I purchased my car from a Sewell dealership several years ago due to their sterling reputation, and I recently took my car back in for some routine, but comprehensive, maintenance.

Since I run a company that provides customer service software, I’m always interested to watch how well (or, unfortunately, poorly in some cases) companies handle service. 

True to form, the service from Sewell was excellent.  As soon as I pulled up a “Service Advisor” was at my door and getting my information.  As he looked over the service history of the car, we chatted about what work needed to be done this time.  I ticked off several items, including some minor dent repairs, and he gave me a few other suggestions (yes, this was up selling, but he also talked me out of replacing all my tires and instead I just replaced one).  After about 10 minutes he walked me over to the loaner (not rental, loaner – No charge at all) counter and I picked up my pristine current model year loan car.

Total time from drop off to driving out with a loan car was about 20 minutes – And a lot of that was because the Service Advisor and I got chatting.

The Service Advisor promised to call with updates, and he did – Long story short, but the service turned out to take about 5 days (one part took a while to get in, and then the dent repair guy had an issue).  Every day I promptly got a phone call from my Service Advisor giving me an update and apologizing profusely for the delay.  Frankly, it didn’t bother me that the service was delayed since I had a loaner car (which was a brand new model from this year!) and constant communication from Sewell.

I have my car back now, and it looks (almost) as good as new.  A few minor issues were taken care of, and several small nicks and dents were cleaned up so well I can’t even remember where they were.  The communication and attention to detail I received from Sewell was true to their reputation, and I guarantee when I’m ready to purchase a new car it will be from Sewell again.

We can all learn something about how to treat our customers as we go through our daily lives, and my experience at the Sewell car dealership set a great example to follow!  Successful companies need to strive to create “customers for life” just as Mr. Sewell realized many years ago.