IntroductionA recent visit to the service department of the local car dealership where I purchased a car two years ago forms the basis for this analysis. Since car dealerships rely on service departments for the majority of their revenue, I thought the experience would be a mix of pure efficiency and relationship building. Previous experiences with this dealership have shown that they are not as reliable as I had hoped they would be. One of the most critical aspects in customers' transition from being treated as members of a transaction to actually being fans is trust (Gronroos, 1994). Trust is such an important catalyst for ensuring customer experience success that technologies need to better measure and evaluate this critical component as broader CRM strategies (Mitussis et al, 2006). Going to the dealership to have a door problem fixed was the ideal opportunity to complete this analysis. Analysis of the Interaction Driving to the customer service counter and giving the technician my name and address started the process. He printed out a worksheet, walked out of the little building, and asked me what I needed to do. I explained that the door had not closed completely and the lock would "freeze" in one place and not let go. The conversation went to how the entire lock might need to be replaced per the WD-40 suggestion. In other words, both ends of the price spectrum were recommended, from the very expensive to the one that cost just the bottle of lube right out of the box. I asked if they could just take the lock off the door, check it and give me a free quote since the car was still under warranty. The technician discussed with me whether the mandate of the car… half of the paper… CRM involvement with relationship marketing. European Journal of Marketing 40, n. 5/6, (January 1): 572-589.Gronroos, Christian. 1994. From the marketing mix to relationship marketing: towards a paradigm shift in marketing. Management Decision 32, no. 2, (10 February): 4.Leyland F Pitt, Pierre R Berthon, Richard T Watson and George M Zinkhan. 2002. The Internet and the Rise of True Consumer Power. Business Horizons 45, n. 4, (July 1): 7-14.Lloyd C Harris and Emmanuel Ogbonna. 1999. Developing a market-oriented culture: A critical evaluation. The Journal of Management Studies 36, no. 2, (March 1): 177-196.Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml, Valarie A and Berry, Leonard L. 1994. Reassessing expectations as a standard of comparison in measuring service quality: Implications for further research. Marketing Journal 58, n. 1 (January 1): 111.