A quality program

Commitment to quality and customer satisfaction is more than a goal at McCluskey Chevrolet--it's a corporate culture. From the receptionist who transfers your phone call "with pleasure" the cashier who invites you bark with a smile, everyone in the company is dedicated to making customers feel comfortable.

That philosophy recently earned national recognition for McCluskey Chevrolet. USA Today and the Rochester Institute of Technology named the company a finalist in the Small Business category for the 1997 National Quality Cup Competition.

Small Business News asked McClusky Chevrolet President Keith McCluskey about his vision for quality. Here's how he and "Team McCluskey" make qualify a priority at McCluskey Chevrolet.

What does quality and customer service mean to you in your business?

Quality and customer satisfaction are two of the barometers or measurements we use to quantify our ability to take a customer, or guest as we call them, and turn them into a customer for life. Here at McCluskey Chevrolet, we attempt to take people that do business with us and continue to earn their business on all of their transportation dollars--be that in the service department, the body shop, the parts department, the used vehicle department or the new vehicle department.

We are not chasing quality or customer-satisfaction rankings just for the sake of those rankings. We feel that it's an important barometer for us to keep trying to figure out small ways that we can improve in quality or customer-satisfaction rankings, with the end result being happier guests who refer more friends here, and do more and more business with us. That's what quality and customer satisfaction means to Team McCluskey--that's what we call ourselves internally. We're one big team that tries to in every regard help people who are here feel like they're dealing with a place that really cares about their total satisfaction. [For example,] "my pleasure" is the way we transfer calls from the switchboard to whoever they're asking for, which is something The Ritz-Carlton, Nordstrom and Disneyworld do also. We're always looking for little ways like that to enhance our guests' experience with our dealership.

What's your favorite customer-satisfaction story from McCluskey Chevrolet?

We had one case where a guest had work done on her trunk and the new...