What Frustrates Customers?

Picture: Markus Spiske via pexels.com

The automotive customer service process is one that involves many steps and many people. This process begins long before the customer evern steps inside the automotive business; while they are still deciding what to do about the problem or need that they have with their car, motorcycle, or other automobile.

Overall, the goal of effective automotive customer service should be to make the customer journey through this entire process as smooth and as painless as possible. For that to happen effectively, the automotive customer service professional needs to be aware of the ‘pain points’, or the steps along the way that could cause frustration to the customers.

This matters because if there are too many pain points and customers face too much frustration when seeking products and services from your automotive business, it could discourage them from ever coming back again, and encourage them to spend their money with your competitors.

Here are some common pain points that automotive customers will experience. By being aware of them, you will be able to take steps to ensure your own customers will hopefully not get too frustrated.

Being passed between multiple people

Sometimes, walking into an automotive business like a workshop can be confusing, especially for first time customers who do not know who to approach for help. Even worse than that is when they are passed from one employee to another before someone finally decides to help the customer with their problem or needs.

Ideally, there should be designated automotive customer service professionals working for your business. These should be trained people who will interact with the customer from the start to the end of the process, so that the customer only has to deal with one contact person throughout their journey.

Having to call multiple times

Some automotive customers prefer calling ahead, or even engaging the automotive business through their live chat function if it is available. This is meant to help them get the necessary information and to make a decision, which means that they need quick and simple information to do so, preferably within the first conversation.

This part of the process can be annoying if the people representing the automotive business are not properly trained to have conversations with customers. It can be frustrating if the customer is told to ‘call back later’ or if the customer service professional says something along the lines of ‘let me check with my boss first’.

A good way to avoid this is to ensure that the automotive customer service professional has the necessary product knowledge relevant to the business. This will allow them to  consult and advise the customer well enough to encourage them to actually come to the business with their vehicle.

Being kept on hold for too long

Sometimes, being kept on hold can be more annoying than being given incomplete or inaccurate information. This is especially true in this day and age when people are used to getting the information they need quickly and completely, so that they may make well-informed decisions.

Reducing waiting times is typically done by ensuring that the number of automotive customer service staff is sufficient to serve the number of customers a business may have at any one time. This could be in-person customers at the automotive business, and can also be customers on the phone or currently waiting on live-chat.

The management of the automotive business should be able to forecast their needs based on historical information and plan staffing accordingly.

Impolite automotive customer service professional

Last but not least, the one thing that truly frustrates customers is having t o deal with impolite customer service professionals. Do not forget: these people are the frontliners, they are what separate the automotive business from its customers.

If the automotive customer service is impolite or rude, it reflects terribly on the automotive business itself; if the customer service staff is rude, people will perceive the entire business as being rude.

Preventing this is done by ensuring that customer service staff are well-trained and capable of managing their emotions.