**Brake System Failure .............. PART 2... Talking with a manager.

[R1Tom]

Customers who are dissatisfied can turn into great customers. Customers who are assholes don't necessarily deserve to be enabled. A hopefully obvious example are paying customers who are abusive to your staff.

edit: and to be clear, I'm not at all suggesting OP behaved inappropriately. Just pushing back on the idea it's always ok to just skirt the first level of staff immediately.

This is somewhat my point....OP has a solid case to be heard by facility manager. But front line resisted as standard protocol. Not good in my book.

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[SeaGeo]

What I find is that it is often finding the right fit of team in our organization and customer. Sometimes one team would identify them as "abusive" but another simply recognizes them as "passionate". Fit is often our solution. That is where management comes in. Help figure out to assist that customer find a solution. Hear them out. Sometimes that is all it takes.

Again, there's not an excuse for customers abusing staff. Accepting that is demeaning to your staff and shows that you don't value them. Individuals threatening violence, intimidating staff, following them around in threatening ways, etc. are all customers that do not deserve to have their behavior enabled.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Your game is different than mine. All customers in my world are good, with exceptions that the ones that don't pay. My very best customers are the ones that were dissatisfied at some point, in some cases at the breaking point. That was were I came in, worked with them to reach a mutual solution, and in doing so, earned customers for life.

It sounds like you have fewer customers but repeat business. I'm assuming B2B type sales. It would make perfect sense to deal with people that way and my B2B business is handled that way.

I provide service to the general public. Each customer represents a much smaller part of my bottom line and the value they represent doesn't make it worth it to deal with someone who is a problem. Rivian is much the same way. Even if they make 10k per truck Rivian needs to sell in volume and that one customer isn't a big deal ESPECIALLY if said person is rude and nasty.

In fact there's even more incentive to dump them for someone like Rivian. Someone loud and nasty is going to trash your brand and its better to take that negative hit right away and let someone else take it next time than appease them and take it next time said customer overreacts to a broken car.

 

[kayabusa]

Yes

My plan is it stops at the facility manager. Then if management above that center receives an unnactable level of feedback, that center manager is notified and trained. If that center still has too high of a complaint level, the manager is let go. So no....can't keep asking for CEO. But for a service tech or a service writer level employee, to determine that this customer isn't worth it for the Rivian brand, I think you place too much faith in that level employee to make that determination.

I could not agree more with your statement, is exactly how my business works. We turn an unhappy customer to a lifetime customer showing how we are in the bad moments, when things doesnt work is when we hear, when we reach, when we are present and when we make them happy.

 

[SeaGeo]

This is somewhat my point....OP has a solid case to be heard by facility manager. But front line resisted as standard protocol. Not good in my book.

I don't disagree, but I also don't know how that interaction occurred. I suspect @kayabusa was reasonable in person, but who knows.

@kayabusa have you tried sharing that info with the SSOC?

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Customers who are dissatisfied can turn into great customers. Customers who are assholes don't necessarily deserve to be enabled. A hopefully obvious example are paying customers who are abusive to your staff.

edit: and to be clear, I'm not at all suggesting OP behaved inappropriately. Just pushing back on the idea it's always ok to just skirt the first level of staff immediately.

Again, there's not an excuse for customers abusing staff. Accepting that is demeaning to your staff and shows that you don't value them. Individuals threatening violence, intimidating staff, following them around in threatening ways, etc. are all customers that do not deserve to have their behavior enabled.

Well said.

 

[R1Tom]

Again, there's not an excuse for customers abusing staff. Accepting that is demeaning to your staff and shows that you don't value them. Individuals threatening violence, intimidating staff, following them around in threatening ways, etc. are all customers that do not deserve to have their behavior enabled.

I was writing in context of OP I guess. I agree a violent customer should not be taken to management.

 

[SeaGeo]

Well said.

I have had the pleasure of working in the service industry when I was younger, and also have listened to some examples of behavior of customers toward my spouse's employees over the last couple of years. There are plenty of people in the general public who have had their bad behavior enabled for far too long.

 

[kayabusa]

W

Customers who are dissatisfied can turn into great customers. Customers who are assholes don't necessarily deserve to be enabled. A hopefully obvious example are paying customers who are abusive to your staff.

edit: and to be clear, I'm not at all suggesting OP behaved inappropriately. Just pushing back on the idea it's always ok to just skirt the first level of staff immediately.

What about if you are a friendly customer, that you suddenly found that Rivian is not helping you, and when you reach to them amicable they procrastinate, 1, 2 , 3 times and your friendly client never do anything out of the place just keep waiting.........and again you keep doing it...... You transform your friendly customer in a potential law suit.... Why ? because not all employees are ready for a position like that and thats when a manager should be jump in and help..... my 2 cents.

 

[SeaGeo]

I was writing in context of OP I guess. I agree a violent customer should not be taken to management.

I had a feeling that's where we were crossing lines, and why I explicitly clarified with an example.

 

[SeaGeo]

W


What about if you are a friendly customer, that you suddenly found that Rivian is not helping you, and when you reach to them amicable they procrastinate, 1, 2 , 3 times and your friendly client never do anything out of the place just keep waiting.........and again you keep doing it...... You transform your friendly customer in a potential law suit.... Why ? because not all employees are ready for a position like that and thats when a manager should be jump in and help..... my 2 cents.

Yeah, I don't disagree with you there at all.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I suspect @kayabusa was reasonable in person, but who knows

Based on the deleted response he put in here to my attempt at explaining Rivian's structure to my knowledge, I completely disagree.

 

[R1Tom]

It sounds like you have fewer customers but repeat business. I'm assuming B2B type sales. It would make perfect sense to deal with people that way and my B2B business is handled that way.

I provide service to the general public. Each customer represents a much smaller part of my bottom line and the value they represent doesn't make it worth it to deal with someone who is a problem. Rivian is much the same way. Even if they make 10k per truck Rivian needs to sell in volume and that one customer isn't a big deal ESPECIALLY if said person is rude and nasty.

In fact there's even more incentive to dump them for someone like Rivian. Someone loud and nasty is going to trash your brand and its better to take that negative hit right away and let someone else take it next time than appease them and take it next time said customer overreacts to a broken car.

You correct....B2B. But I'm this case I don't think OP was the problem and the front line people should have passed him to management. Let them determine if complaints are warranted, not a front line person. Many of Rivian front line don't have nearly enough years behind them to make these decisions.

Additionally the internet changes the game. OP had a crappy experience. I think it actually is in Rivian best interest at this point in company, to do everything possible not to have negative posts...have a manager hear him out.

 

[kayabusa]

Yeah, I don't disagree with you there at all.

Why bring up the word "violent" client , or "abusive" client, nothing of that happened and here we are talking about that....... It is my best interest to have a good relationship with Rivian, if I fight with them, then who will fix my truck ?

Both of them, the guy and the lady that took your vehicle in for service, are so nice, that there is no way you can be mad at them... the best on the center.

But at some point of them not listening, I have to ask for manager and I was not denied, but I hear excuses why he was not able to meet me.

 

[SeaGeo]

Why bring up the word "violent" client , or "abusive" client, nothing of that happened and here we are talking about that....... It is my best interest to have a good relationship with Rivian, if I fight with them, then who will fix my truck ?

Both of them, the guy and the lady that took your vehicle in for service, are so nice, that there is no way you can be mad at them... the best on the center.

But at some point of them not listening, I have to ask for manager and I was not denied, but I hear excuses why he was not able to meet me.

Because the comment that approach shouldn't matter was rather... absolute. It definitely should. I used an extreme example to make a point.

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