The price is too high! It took too long! Dealing with common auto repair complaints.

You’ve heard the complaints before. In fact, they’re not uncommon to most businesses, but seem to be even more so when it comes to providing highly technical services, like automotive repair. It’s frustrating, especially when you’re working hard to gain the trust and loyalty of your customers. So, let’s discuss Dealing with Common Auto Repair Complaints.

One word can be used to describe how to handle the top consumer gripes about automotive repair – “communication.” Using the top 3 reasons cited by car owners, here are some examples that show the importance of good communication:

• If during pick-up, your customer is complaining about the price being too high, you didn’t do your job up front to properly communicate the work being done.
• If your customer believes the problem wasn’t fixed, the how and why of what you did on their vehicle wasn’t properly communicated before the work was done.
• If you hear complaints about the work taking longer than expected, there was either an error in calculating the amount of time it would take or you didn’t explain the extensive nature of the job.

In trying to minimize the necessity of dealing with common auto repair complaints, here’s what you can do:

1. Never deal with price objections at the time of vehicle pick-up. The proposed work should be explained when an estimate is given and then re-confirmed when the vehicle is dropped off. Don’t be afraid to have discussions about price. You’ll help educate your customer and uncover any hidden objections.
2. Don’t ever charge more than your estimate. The only time this doesn’t apply is when you run into a problem while doing the work. In that situation, you need to reach out to your customer right away to discuss your findings.
3. There may be times when there are several solutions to a problem and in an attempt to help save your customer money, you try the one that is least expensive. Explain this when the estimate is given. If the situation changes while you are working on the vehicle, pick up the phone right away and discuss the problem with your customer.
4. If you know a vehicle isn’t going to be ready when it was promised, call right away and provide a solution to your customer. Give them a loaner car, offer to make arrangements for pick-up and drop-off. Do whatever it takes to minimize the inconveniece to your customer.
5. Boldly advertise your warranty and honor it at all costs. Shops that offer longer warranties gain more trust from customers than those that don’t.
6. Communicate to your staff the importance of treating others with kindness and respect.
7. Don’t talk in “shop language” to your customers and never talk down to a customer because he or she asks a question.

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