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Before you drive your new car off the lot of any other Dallas auto dealer, the sales person will give you your keys and a quick run-through behind the wheel. They may point out the owner’s manual and the calendar for periodic tuneups, and then send you on your merry way.

At Friendly Chevrolet, you get Chris Malone.

Malone, a diminutive, attractive mother of two with dark brown eyes, fashionably-spiky frosted hair, a smile as big as the city’s skyline and an oh-so-soft Texas drawl, has a special title at the Dallas Chevrolet dealership – delivery coordinator. She’s not the one who sold you the car; she’s the one who officially introduces you to your new purchase.

Before the owner of a new or pre-owned car drives it off the Friendly lot, Malone provides them with a full orientation: everything from warranty and service contact information, to registering for a license plate (which Friendly slaps on for you), to working the OnStar service and programming the radio. Malone does all this in an easy-to-understand, non-intimidating manner, so by the time Malone has finished, she has developed a special bond with the customer – one that extends beyond that day.

“A lot of times they’ll bring me back Starbucks coffee or bring me lunch, or I’ve had a lot of offers to use their box seats for the football game,” Malone says with a laugh. “By the end of delivery they feel comfortable enough to talk to me and explain to me their concerns or, you know, most of them are just so excited or happy that there was someone to guide them through all of it.”

Malone’s job description is just one reason why Friendly Chevrolet has not just survived the heated Dallas car dealer wars, but thrived over the 53 years that Mark Eddins’ family has been involved in the auto sales business. A focus on customer service has drawn the attention of decades’ worth of  shoppers looking for a Dallas Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, Suburban or Silverado – and sparked admiration and interest from the Detroit automaker that provides Friendly with the cars it sells.

Eddins, a student of companies that have made customer service a hallmark – such as Disney and its legendary emphasis on positive customer experiences at its famous theme parks – decided that going the extra mile with those who walk through his Dallas Chevrolet dealership’s doors for whatever reason was the way to separate from the competition.

“My father taught me many, many, many years ago that it’s very simple – treating a customer the right way is really born in the Golden Rule. We want to treat people like we want to be treated,” Eddins said. “I believe that we sincerely care about our customers and we are different from the other dealers in the marketplace in that we believe we really go beyond what the customer’s initial expectations are of anything – whether it’s service, whether it’s a sale, whether it’s buying parts, whether it’s in our collision and repair center,” Eddins said.

It was Eddins’ father Roy who started the family in the auto business with a Dodge dealership in 1957. He would buy out a nearby dealer using the Friendly name in 1970, and Mark Eddins took over the business in 1984. Eddins ended up moving the dealership to its present location off of busy Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, in a building that is itself a competitive advantage: it’s one of the few four-story dealerships in the country, providing centralized access to the sales, auto parts, auto repair and delivery departments. It also includes the Corvette Cafe, a buffet-style eatery that Eddins says offers food good enough to attract nearby office workers who aren’t necessarily in the market for a new Dallas Chevrolet.

Friendly also makes sure that those who have to get their cars serviced don’t endure lengthy waits for their wheels. Customers can use the internet to check in their cars for service and check the web for updates on repair status. Brand-new loaner cars are given to customers if their car has to stay in the service bays overnight. Friendly also offers express pickup and delivery, and easy access to Dallas Chevrolet parts.

“When they come to pick up their car, we know they’re coming,” says service director Louis LaBarbera. “The car is brought up waiting for them, it’s already washed, everything is ready to go. The customers come in and they’re like, ‘You can do all this here? You all do all that here? The other dealers I’ve been to don’t do that.’”

It’s that kind of attention to customer service detail – along with a successful track record of sales – that occasionally draws the interest of Chevrolet brand owner General Motors. “They have had people down here several times asking about how we do business, looking into different parts of our organization, how we actually execute things, our culture that we have here, the actual facilities – we’ve had them take our floor plans of our facility and use it in some of their design specs,” Eddins said. “So we’re pretty proud to be a part of that network and evidently General Motors feels like we’re doing okay.” The Dallas Chevrolet dealership was also featured in a recent cable network’s documentary on GM’s business turnaround.

For more information on Friendly Chevrolet, go to http://www.friendlychevy.com