06 January 2019

Until now I have always shopped around for tyres based entirely on price. Lots of experience attending tyre tests and demonstrations over the years means I am very particular about the tyres on my car. This means I choose the exact make and model of tyre I want, then get a price from my local franchised retailer because I usually stick the OEM tyre and then shop around online. For reference, every so often franchised retailers do beat the online price.

This time I went with Blackcircles and with the ‘on driveway fitting’ option. However, I made a mistake. One mis-typed digit on the width of the tyre meant the wrong tyres had arrived. Fearing I’d be out for the price of four tyres not just the two I needed, I phoned Blackcircles to see if they could switch me to the correct tyres.

When I phoned and briefly outlined the issue, the first question I was asked (after the initial ‘Hello, Blackcircles, how can I help’) was: “Yes sir, what size of tyre do you need?” This surprised me a little. I wasn’t asked for my name or an order reference or even an address. I even asked if they needed a reference number, and was very politely informed that because the phone number was linked to my account they had all the information they needed in front of them. Now that’s a first class CRM system. And one that means I’ll probably always use them in future. Needless to say, Blackcircles also sorted out the correct tyres at minimal additional cost to me (the correct tyres were fractionally larger and £10 more expensive) and by the time you read this they should have been fitted to the car.

The question for all retailers then is; can your CRM system do that?

Tristan Young

Editorial director

Auto Retail Network

Tags: Blackcircles, customer service, tyres