I recently observed some human behavior in the repair shop that exemplified what can go wrong when we get in a hurry. A customer brought their vehicle in for service and had chosen to wait while the service was performed. The waiting room was positioned in front of the service counter where the advisor was very aware of the waiting customer. The technician finished the work in an appropriate amount of time and took the vehicle on a test drive. The advisor by this point was starting to feel pressured because of the waiting customer (although the customer themselves showed no signs of anxiety about waiting). When the technician returned, he had something that needed to be told the service advisor about the vehicle performance. Before the technician had an opportunity to say anything to the advisor, the advisor hurried to the technician, took the keys from his hand, hustled back to the write up area and handed the keys to the customer telling him he was all set. What’s wrong with this?

One person’s anxiety over something that didn’t exist (the customer’s anxiety over waiting) created a lack of communication that then resulted in a customer having to return at another date (best case) or driving away with something seriously wrong with the vehicle (worst).

The thing that got me…the quality control process was working well, and doing what it should…right up until someone was in a hurry. Don’t be in a hurry. An extra 2 minutes won’t make or break the deal and it just may save you some pain.