Wow How I Have Changed Over Time by Doing “The Work”
Recently we received a call from a car business customer, they had totaled their vehicle that they were leasing through us. The first question we always ask is if they are ok. And honestly, the next is if they have spoken with their insurance company. As the payee, we handle the payoff, the title etc.
We asked this customer to call his insurance company which he assured us he had or would. Several days passed and we had not heard from his insurance company. When the customer called us a few days later he was soon not going to have a ride to work and was asking what we could do now. We are scaling out of the car business, so we no longer have vehicles available to sell to him or anyone else.
To help this customer, there was one option, something we had been playing with lately. While we have been in business, we have offered a courtesy car to our customers when their cars were in the shop getting needed repairs. This has helped ensure that our customers keep our/their vehicle in good running order and they can always get to their jobs.
This person has been a good solid customer (with a hiccup in payment here and there) for about 4 years, and I wanted to help him keep getting to his job. We made plans to sell him the courtesy car. When he came in to complete the lease paperwork for the courtesy car, I again asked him for the update on his insurance claim. Do you have a claim #? He did not have one. We got on the phone with his insurance agent who said on speaker “as I told you yesterday, there is no claim # because you do not have collision on the vehicle only liability.” What in the world? That is a non-negotiable part of our contract.
My immediate reaction was disbelief, then anger. The issues/concerns ran through my mind. We still have an outstanding balance with our finance company on his vehicle. The money from the insurance company was going towards the downpayment on the new vehicle so that he would not have to come up with the $500 required to lease a vehicle. There was no money coming to cover any of these things.
There were several “things” I was feeling inside of me:
First and foremost, it is someone in my office’s responsibility to make sure that all vehicles always have full coverage. For liability reasons and asset protection. This was not handled.
The final responsibility for #1 falls on my shoulders as the business owner.
The customer knows they are required to have full coverage. So, at one point they made a change, typically because full coverage insurance can be very expensive (depending on your driving record.) They knew they were doing something “wrong.”
This customer “lied” to us at least once during the last week or so.
As I mentioned, I was furious, in the past, I may have had words with the customer about how they knew better, they knew what they had done. I thought of telling him to get out and I was not selling him another vehicle. Before “the work” I would have been mad or upset for days. Telling friends what an @#$%^ this guy was and how he lied to us, repeatedly. How he was costing my business money.
Instead, I was angry, but I took a breathe, I could feel the anger rising inside of me, #1 through 4 above racing through my mind and my body. I asked him to give me a minute. He was ashamed, embarrassed and surely felt like he had let me down given all that we have done to help this customer over the time of his loan. (Letting him use the courtesy car any time his car was in the shop. And working with him to pay us for the repairs over time.) I needed a minute to feel my feelings, let the anger and disappointment be felt in my body.
He went outside knowing I was very upset. I walked to the back of the building and got the space I needed to let all these feelings rush through my whole body. The feelings that, in the past, I would have expressed outwardly but not ever worked through in the moment.
After about 3 minutes (even Tony Robbins gives himself a minute or so to be upset) I was back to being a businessperson. I had a choice, turn him away or figure this out so that he was taken care of, and I was able to recoup the money he owed me for past repairs, the loss I was taking on the vehicle that was wrecked and make money on the courtesy car. After all, he had been a good customer up to this point.
When I decided how I was going to handle the situation I called him back into the office. I did say “so at some point you got rid of collision coverage because the insurance payment was cheaper.” Stated as a fact. I could not have mentioned this and maybe that would have been the higher road. Time and growth have taught me that fewer words are better and that in many cases the words just do not matter.
I laid out the plan to put the outstanding repairs, the money I owed on his current car and the new car’s payment into one lease payment over 18 months. Made sure he had the proper insurance in place. He kept his head down the whole time we finished the paperwork; I did not really look at him. This was the best I had to offer, in the moment. What needed to be done was done.
He has a vehicle; I have sold the courtesy car which I now can take off of our insurance and not think about any longer. In the next 18 months of his loan, I will recoup my $ and a little extra. Not what I would have from his collision coverage.
I was able to move on from the event, not relive the anger in my body. Not tell everyone about it for days. This is the “work.” This is the “work.” This happens when we learn to feel our feelings, meditate to be less reactive and kind of “grow up.” The growth that can happen, how we get to live. All of this, if we choose to.
You can do this work by reading books that teach change, improvement or finding a life coach that resonates with you. (see my resources section.) This has all changed me and my life in ways I cannot even express in a short blog post! But you can see the changes!!!