We hope you check out our Bad Reviews article this month, because our Comment-of-the-Month came from one of the reviews in it. A disappointed one-visit client who’s apparently read our Bad Reviews page closed his long, one-star Yelp review with this…
P.S. Tom Dwyer if you are reading this, don’t put this on your “Our BAD Reviews” page, I don’t want you swindling this into some publicity/transparency stunt, because from my perspective, it is a cheap trick to make you look better.
We obviously ignored his advice, but why? Why? WHY would any sane company draw attention to failure?
We handle a rough average of 150 vehicles each week and though we’re very good, we definitely make mistakes. Our Techs might make a wrong diagnosis, we might miss a broken part, or our Advisors might order the wrong part. We might schedule your vehicle on the wrong day, or we might miss a service you requested. A bad day in our Service Advisors’ outside lives might make them abrupt or distracted at the counter. A simple miscommunication could lead to heated words with a client. The list goes on… and on and on and on.
We aren’t perfect and no reasonable person expects us to be, so the question isn’t whether we make mistakes, but what kind of mistakes do we make and how do we deal with them? With that in mind there’s (at least!) two things to notice about our Bad Reviews.
- Even (most of) the people angry with us don’t think we lied to them. You’ll see anger about our older vehicle policy, high prices, politics, service recommendations, and more, but one thing you won’t see is complaints about dishonesty. Our Non-Commissioned Service Advisors have nothing to gain by lying and none of them love Tom enough to lie for free. No one can expect a flawless business but you have every right to demand one run with integrity. We think even our Bad Reviews show we deliver on that score.
- There’s very FEW Bad Reviews to show you. Again, that’s not because we don’t make mistakes or people don’t write reviews. It’s because when there’s a problem of any kind we try to solve it BEFORE it gets to a bad online review. Our 24/24 Warranty covers any mechanical mistakes, and our Service Advisors bend over backward to make sure any and all mistakes are recognized, corrected, and compensated to the clients’ satisfaction. Most of the Bad Reviews are from people who left our shop WITHOUT TELLING US they were upset, or using their Comment Cards, or emailing us, or calling us to talk. When we’re given a chance, we can almost always make things right.
Right now we have almost 400 reviews scattered on various review sites and we can’t pretend only the good ones represent us. Some of those bad ones are wastes of everyone’s time. But the vast majority are from normal, reasonable people with their own reasonable goals and priorities who we disappointed. They deserve professional, respectful responses to the substance of their concerns, and you deserve to know what we said. We think the “why dwell on bad reviews?” question is best answered in our response to that disgruntled reviewer…
“[Your] bad review and all others (with any replies) will definitely go on our “Bad Reviews” page because it’s not a “transparency stunt”, it’s ACTUAL TRANSPARENCY! Potential clients can learn from how we deal with the worst things said about us… are we “swindlers” using “cheap tricks” to “get publicity” for a “slimey business model”? Or are we responding as politely and fairly as possible to a confusing castigation and blatant attempt to sully our 36-year reputation of personal, honest, professional service? We’ll report… You’ll decide”.
We have a couple ongoing offers you might find valuable…
Carbon Neutral Program–
Our company’s commitment to the environment led us to partner with Bonneville Environmental Foundation to create our Carbon Neutral Program in 2007. Client members offset the carbon production of their vehicles for one year AND save 10% on Labor Charges here at the shop! It’s a win for you AND our environment and it’s been very successful… since we instituted the program our members have prevented over 1.9 MILLION POUNDS of carbon from being dumped into our air!
Referral Reward Program–
Year after year, referrals from our existing clients are our greatest source of new clients, so we’ve tried hard to think of some way to appropriately reward people for their referrals. Our solution is our Referral Reward Program, where we make donations to the non-profit group of your choice to say ‘thanks’ for your generous referrals. Here’s how it works…
Your reviews and referrals matter
We are constantly grateful for the supportive and loyal clients we have developed over the years. Your comments and appreciation keep us on the right road to providing the superior automotive service you deserve. Your reviews and referrals are not only the highest compliments we can receive, but they’re the lifeblood of our new business. If you like what you’ve found at Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, please tell a friend or take a minute to write a review on Yelp, Angieslist, Google, or the review site of your choice. Thank you!
Latest Automotive Recalls
Automobiles are just like any other product; occasional flaws in manufacture or design can cause problems once they leave the factory. When an issue is identified the manufacturers and government work hard to bring the vehicles back in for refit or repair, but not all recalls make the front pages. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a constantly updated list of recalls from every manufacturer. The last month’s recalls are below, but clicking the button at right will take you to the full list at the NHTSA website.
