Topic: Complaint
At CarHistory.us.org, we believe that each and every customer complaint should be handled as quickly and fairly as possible. We also believe that because a complaint comes from a real person, it should be handled by an actual person in return.
This is why have to salute the way Mini handled a complaint recently. One of their customers bought a Mini Cooper JCW that was supposed to come with paddle shifters mounted behind the steering wheel.
When the customer picked up the car, he noticed that the shifters had not been installed and sent a complaint off to Mini.
The company then responded to the complaint by saying, "Your MINI was so revved up to make an appearance that it motored right past the John Cooper Works steering wheel department. It forgot to tell us that it never picked up its shifter paddles, and left without saying goodbye. We were shocked to receive a postcard from it letting us know that it crossed the Atlantic and landed on U.S. soil."
Their complaint response got even better than that – not only did they offer to have the shifters installed for free at any Mini dealership, but they also had a little fun, saying that they were sure similar problems would not occur again because “the last cycle of the Mayan calendar has passed along with predictions of concomitant cataclysmic events.”
Now, that's how you handle a complaint! If more companies dealt with customer complaints this way, there would be a lot more happy consumers. It goes to show that while you can't avoid getting complaints from customers – mistakes happen in any business – the way you handle a complaint can go a long way toward boosting your reputation.
At CarHistory.us.org, we've never had to cite the Mayan calendar when responding to a customer complaint - but should Cthulhu ever cause a problem with our reports, we'll let people know.
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