EMBRACE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS. THEY COULD BE GOOD FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Virtually every dealership encounters customer complaints from time to time.
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the complaints and lose track of how many satisfied customers say nothing at all.
What’s worse is forgetting how valuable a customer complaint can be to your dealership.
Contrary to how it may feel to receive a complaint, it’s a wonderful opportunity if embraced with care, commitment and integrity. You can turn customer complaints into valuable assets.
When customers feel dissatisfied with products and services, they have two options: they can say something or they can walk away.
Most dealerships may feel surveying customers or gathering customer complaint information is a waste of time because they think they’re so close to their customers that they have an innate sense of what they want.
But the truth is that, generally, assumptions are not a substitute for hard facts. You really want to talk to your customers to find out what their complaints are and what they’re happy about so you know what direction to take.
However, no matter how you interact with unhappy customers, the point is not to brush them off. Make sure you learn from it.
Don’t just pretend to listen and then go on doing business as usual. Take the feedback as constructive criticism that can help you determine your dealership’s future. How you handle your failures could make or break you.
Managing customer complaints is vital for internal process, influencing customer perceptions and the attitude of staff.
At Brimell we have an established customer complaint resolution and escalation process that simply means that when our employee hears of any complaint or concerns, there’s a Client Communication Form in place where they can fill and forward the information to me to review and resolve as soon as possible.
After satisfactory resolution, I share the outcome with our customer satisfaction team for training, coaching and quality assurance. This invaluable data also supports our human resources/training, and sales and service marketing department.
The feedback we receive from our customers support us to identify areas where employee training is most needed. We believe training creates competence, confidence, and commitment to customer’s satisfaction.
We are dedicated to support Toyota as part of our continual efforts to ensure product brand quality and customer satisfaction. When we get new product technical complaints from our customers we first fix it and then send an urgent FPR (Flash Product Report) to alert the Toyota quality assurance department to investigate, rectify and resolve at the manufacturing/vendor level.
Such coordination between Brimell and Toyota help to improve brand quality, reduce recalls and enhance customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty.
If we have any complaining customers, we are constantly following up with them. We also vigilantly monitor and manage customer complaints during our monthly CSI meeting based on customers concerns, internal surveys, Toyota Customer Survey and Vista Programs. We track trends and take appropriate preventive measures to avoid recurrence.
Recently, a distressed customer came back with the Engine Check Light illuminated on the dash and claimed it happened after repairing a rear bumper at the dealership. I investigated the situation and then explained it was in no relation with the body work. Moreover, insurance can’t approve claim for such unrelated repairs. The customer got upset and blamed us for poor work.
This situation has given us a learning opportunity. Now we are taking an image of dashboard warning lights, if any, during every initial appraisal process for our backup record. This helps us confirm with the customer and we can use it when needed to justify and resolve customer concerns.
Most dealers spend thousands of dollars to hire a consultant to review their business practices and suggest improvements. But dealers do not realize that they have experts in-house called customers.
Customers who do complain are actually your free consultants and valued patronage. They give you the information you need to improve satisfaction.
This is an opportunity to reward the customer for taking the time to contact you and to learn how you can make internal improvements. If you can fix the problem for one complaining customer it may help many other customers —including the ones who never contacted you.
The ones who often do contact you are your loyal customers who care about your business.
Loyal customers believe that you want to know what went wrong, and trust you to make it right. They give you a chance to fix the issue.
If there are other disappointed customers who do not call, you can bet that those customers have already given up on you.
Customers who are disappointed and do not complain are already lost, but you have a chance to save the ones who are loyal enough to give you the opportunity to respond.
Based on my dealings with difficult customers, many complaints from customers not only bring into spotlight a basic weakness, but also they provide a clue as to how the situation can be rectified.
A dealership must develop a culture that welcomes feedback from customers. Their concerns can be much useful at no cost as long we listen with positive mind to care, collect and consider the complaints and use for coaching and correction to learn and earn customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty.
