Handling a customer beef is never an easy task.  The fact is, regardless of how well a company is run, there will always be customers with complaints, many of which are legitimate.  We all have heard the stats that tell us a dissatisfied customer will gladly tell dozens of his friends how bad his experience was; or worse yet, turns it into a legal matter.  So, how are these beefs best handled?  Better yet, how can we manage them to resolution in a timely manner?  How can you create a long term loyal customer from a bad customer experience?  But where do you start?

Step 1:  Identify.  You must start by understanding the four P’s of customer beef management – people, product, process, and price.  99.9% of all customer complaints fall into one of these four categories.

People-oriented complaints:  These need to be taken seriously and acted upon quickly because of how they directly reflect back on the “character” of the dealership.  You may also see trends of people-oriented complaints.  Unfortunately, if one employee sees another employee treating a customer poorly, they may think they have the green light to do the same.

Product-oriented complaints:  These, although sometimes serious, can more easily be overcome.   In the majority of cases, the customer does not hold us personally responsible for imperfections in the vehicles we sell them as long as we put a satisfactory process in place to listen to their issues and respond accordingly.

Process-oriented complaints:  These complaints are typically harder to identify and many times get overlooked.  Often, customers will think they have a “people problem” when in fact it is a dealership process that is broken or not well-defined.  When identifying process problems, you will quickly find that most of the problems are a direct result from the lack of processes in the store.

Price-oriented complaints:  All too often, we hear about price as an issue.  “That is more than you quoted me.”  “That is not the price I was told.”  “That is too much money.”  Unfortunately, these are not always legitimate price complaints.  Rather, they are the customer telling us that they are not willing to pay us that much because they felt shortchanged in one of the other areas – people, product, or process.  Let’s face it: we are willing to pay more if we are buying from a great person, with a solid product, through a great process.

Step 2:  Document with the customer.  Come along side the customer.  Let them know you want to accurately document their concern.  Be cautious of using the word “problem.”  Rather, use softer words like “concern” or “issue.”  If you are taking the customer complaint over the phone, inform the customer that you are writing everything down or typing everything out.  They will gladly invest the time if they feel they are getting somewhere.  Anything is better in their eyes vs. “I will have to have ‘Mr. Manager’ call you back.”

Step 3: Establish the next step.  It is critical that you let the customer know what the next step is and the timeframe in which it will happen.  In most cases, this should always be within 24 hours after the appropriate people can review the concern and circumstances in order to create the “win-win.”

Step 4: Assignment.  Who is going to review the issue and resolve the customer’s concern?  In most cases, these will be assigned based on department as well as the type of concern.

Step 5: Completion steps.  Document everything that you did to solve this customer’s issues.  If it develops into a legal matter later, your attorneys will thank you for the concise records.  Keep in mind that every step should be documented regardless of how small it may seem at the time.

Step 6: Communicate.  Overcommunicate with the customer during every step of the solution process.  Remember, in most cases, the biggest beefs have to do with the lack of communication.  Therefore, do not let a small issue grow large through silence.  Also, every solution may not be exactly what the customer wanted or was expecting, but because they received steady communication, the actual problem will be minimized.

Step 7: Reporting.  Be sure you document every beef in your dealership either using software such as the Client Problem Resolution module (CPR) software in Autobase, or a simple spreadsheet.  At the end of the day, week, or month, you should clearly be able to identify open and closed issues by department and by one of the four P’s.  Of course, over age problems can become larger than life if they become legal matters, so I highly recommend the discipline to come to a resolution set time limits on every open issue, regardless of how small it may seem to you. 

Summary:  In many cases you should develop three to four qualified people in your dealership who handle customer complaints either in person or over the phone.  Document your processes so everyone knows how to handle an unhappy customer.  Also, look for trends that may involve certain people or broken processes.  Before long, you may be giving away a silk purse with every new car purchase.