d-rock

so i had my first unhappy customer today. my customer was worried about his clear coat so i didnt want to be too agressive on it. i used a wolfgang light cutting pad with hyper compound to removed siwlrs followed by blue propel pad with optimum polish. At the end there was still some mirco swirls left over. I guess my customer was expecting perfect finish and he also felt that i left some white spots on his paint but i couldnt really see it. i take pride in my work and this is the first time a customer was unhappy. im now unsure if i did a good job or the customer was expecting too much.

tumas

if youve been in business a long time and have never gotten complaints, hes probably too anal

exceldetail

Everybody gets one D. Too little, too much blah blah blah. Im sure you did a great job. Send him some before and after pics and show the transformation, works like a charm. He'll be back.

paradigm

those white spots were probably tiny rock chips that filled in with polish or something...and now that you made the rest of the surrounding paint beautiful they stand out more.

exceldetail is exactly right about the before/after pics. i have been trying to give pics of the work from beginning to end to show the customers just how much improvement there is. it also helps to show them the amount of work that actually goes into the process, rather than them just dropping the vehicle off at "the black box" and it magically getting done by the time they pick it up.

don't let it bother you...just learn from the experience.

RKA

Well, if they mentioned they were concerned about the clearcoat, odds are they had very high expectations walking in. I recently dropped off my 3 week old TL at a body shop to repaint two panels (got keyed). I talked to the owner and mentioned my concern about swirls in the clear coat. I specifically pointed out that the paint was pristine, and I had not yet washed it. He assured me it would look perfect when he was done (and proudly showed me the Bentley sitting in his shop). Low and behold, it was NOT perfect. After the glaze wore off, I could see the machine marks on the door, quarter panel, and up onto the roof. I wouldn't say it was a bad job, but not nearly up to the level of perfection I expected.

You get all kinds of customers...the vast majority are happy with something better than what they started with, but a few might be as demanding as your mother-in-law.

As for getting aggressive on the paint, have a look at the thread below. He measured the paint depth to quantify the effects of the polishing. So far the results are encouraging...polishing isn't nearly as hard on the paint as we might think. Granted, he's measuring the thickness of the paint + clear, and I have no idea how much of each contributes to the total number measured on the gauge.
http://forums.audiworld.com/detail/msgs/45448.phtml

joerockt

So what do you guys usually do with an unhappy customer? Refund? Free wash? It must be hard because you know there are people out there that will nitpick just to get something free out of it...

RKA

I'll answer that with my "unhappy customer hat".

There are two kinds of customers. The one's that just want what they paid for. for those types of customers, if you have the opportunity to discuss their dissatisfaction, you can take another stab at correcting the issues, or just flat out ask them..."What can I do to make this right?". You'd be surprised how well the later might work with an unhappy customer. It conveys to them that you're not going to make excuses, you're not going to skirt the issue, that you're willing to do what it takes to make sure they are happy.

Unfortunately, the second kind of customer makes it difficult to ask the previous question. That's the customer that nitpicks for the freebies. I've got friends that are like this. They have high expectations, and more often than not, they know that those expectations might not be met...and when that holds true, they don't just demand accountability, they demand repayment and restitution. Often times they make out very well...especially with large companies, whose individual employees don't feel the pain of making one customer happy.

All I can say is gauge the customer and how likely they are to come back to you. In either scenario above, if you keep them happy, odds are you will be rewarded with word of mouth advertising...and that's something you can't buy.

exceldetail

Well said. Customers can either work for you or against you. Its your decision on what you want to happen. Sometimes to have to take a loss to gain a benefit.

italian_spak

some ppl are so picky sometimes that they think everything can be so perfect but nothing is, if you know uve done everything u can to restore it just as it would be your own, then you did what you had to do, the next step is for him to get it repainted period