How to Handle Customer Issues and Improve Your Online Reputation

Dealing with the occasional negative customer review can be a daunting experience for dealers.

Customers who are not entirely satisfied with a vehicle or service are inclined to vent their frustrations on social media channels and reviews sites, creating a bad impression about the dealership. To avoid this and manage your online reputation, it is important to handle customer issues proactively.

Here’s how.

1. Stay Calm & Listen

When a customer posts a negative review, then it is important to stay calm.

Never ever lose your cool when confronted by a disgruntled customer. Instead, listen to their issues, outline a speedy solution, and take the conversation offline.

2. Apologize & Empathize

The first step in resolving a customer issue is to apologize to your customer for the inconvenience and empathize with their situation.

This act in itself will instantly create a bond with your customers.

3. Understand the Facts

Once you have listened to your customer’s issues, you need to get to the root cause of the problem.

This is important not only to resolve the issue, but also to optimize your operations and services.

4. Ask the Right Questions

Ask the right questions to your customers, in order to get a clear perspective of their issues and help them in resolving issues quickly and efficiently.

5. Respond Quickly

No customer would like to wait for long. Respond and resolve customer concerns as quickly as possible.

It is also important to set realistic expectations in your customer communication.

6. Own an Omnichannel Communication System

Always provide customers with multiple channels to reach you. This way, customers are likely to talk to you first, before they vent their issues online or on social channels.

An Omni channel communications system coordinated by the dealer CRM can help you with efficient customer communication.

7. Track and Analyze Customer Issues

Track and analyze customer issues for common trends. This in turn will help the dealership implement system-wide changes to reduce customer resistance.  

8. Follow Up

Follow-up with your customers to understand if they are happy with the solution. If not, explain the issues involved and steps taken.