The end of a lease can bring a lot of questions; fortunately, the Lease Maturity Center (LMC) is staffed with lease end specialists ready to guide customers through the process and back to their dealer for a new Honda. Averaging more than 60,000 incoming calls per month, the LMC has honed its practices to help ensure that customers have a positive experience, so much so that they want to lease again.
In all those interactions, the customer is the focus, says Jennifer Spiko, LMC assistant manager. “We want to answer calls in a timely manner so they’re not holding for long. When we’re on the call, it’s all about showing understanding, getting to the root cause of their issues so that we can guide them in the right direction.”
This customer-centric focus is not only good business for American Honda Finance Corporation (AHFC), it helps guide customers back to a Honda dealer when they are ready to lease again.
By all measures, the LMC is providing its customers with excellent service. According to Concentrix, the vendor that conducts phone surveys on behalf of AHFC, AHFC consistently ranks best in class among other financial institutions. A big part of that ranking is the LMC: It consistently rates over 90% in overall quality; customers rank their experience as a 10 out of 10 more than 70% of the time; and its net promoter score—the likelihood of a customer to recommend HFS to a friend or family member—is consistently north of 70%.
To calculate these ratings, Concentrix tabulates the results of telephone surveys. The company asks LMC customers questions about how knowledgeable their lease end specialist was, how well the specialist understood their questions and how they would rate the specialist on their desire to resolve questions. “There’s one question around the overall quality of service,” Sipko says. “We want to get 9s and 10s on that particular question—that’s our goal.” And they do. The LMC has maintained a score of over 90% in overall quality for five years running.
The LMC maintains its high scores thanks to a regimen of preparation and training that includes coaching, setting goals and calibrating the entire team so the level of service is consistent.
“We have an amazing team of supervisors and team leads who are dedicated to coaching and training,” Sipko says. “Each specialist receives at least one coaching session per month; our less-tenured associates receive multiple coaching sessions per month. We also have team calibration sessions where the team listens to calls and discusses them. It’s turned out to be really beneficial.”
All the LMC’s work ultimately translates into customer loyalty. On one level, it tries to drive the customer back to the dealership. “We ask them, ‘Have you gone to visit your dealer yet? Do you need us to help you get in touch with the dealer to go look for your new vehicle?’” Sipko says.
On another level, the LMC’s superior service promotes brand loyalty with every call. “Just treating a customer with respect and providing them with excellent service means they’re going to want to come back to the brand,” Sipko says. “How the customer was treated and how they feel at the end of that call will impact what they want to do for their next vehicle.”
