Week 2A: Communication Between Business  & Consumer

Background

    The advent and proliferation of social media has changed the nature of communication between businesses and consumers.  Social media has elevated public accountability to the point where it has changed everything. 

    In the beginning, people learned about businesses via word of mouth, typically from neighbors, friends, and relatives.  Then, as now, unhappy people had louder voices than happy ones.  But the average person probably didn’t even know 100 people to whom they could complain to. They used to say it took fifty positive reviews to erase one negative one.  These are insignificant numbers in today’s world. 

    For the most part, disgruntled consumers had no where to go but directly to representatives of the business . . . if they could find any.  The business may or may not have had a customer service department, but like Amazon currently, having such a department means nothing.  It’s what gets done for the consumer that counts.  It was usually nothing.  Sometimes a manufacturer would send you something free or you’d receive an insincere letter of apology.  It was the rare company that made you whole, so-to-speak. 

    As print media became more widespread and specialized, as trade groups and publications were set up, and as government watchdog agencies were created for various industries, clients and customers had far more recourse available to them.  But for the most part, it was still easy for the customer to get lost in the wash and for the general public to be unaware of any problems or issues with a particular company or business.

But bring in social media and it’s a whole different world. It has become absurdly easy to find out a whole lot of information about anything including specific businesses and individual people.  And each person has an impressively amplified voice, their own megaphone so-to-speak.  The average human now routinely communicates with 500 to 1000 people daily on social media.  Social media is a mecca for unhappy people; they finally have a voice . . . and boy, do they use it!  

A company that treats consumers poorly does so at their own peril.  Not only will it be communicated to the multitudes but it will happen instantaneously.  There’s no time to sweep it under the rug OR make amends.  The complaint is out there.  The immediacy of social media is powerful and people like to wield power.  Social media is the ideal marketing tool in so many ways.

          Savvy businesses have social media presence on multiple platforms and they keep close track of their interactions with customers, current and prospective.  They would also do well to keep up with complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and regulatory agencies relating to their field of endeavor.  Trade associations and organizations may also track complaints or even expose malodorous companies.

 A Review of Reviews

          In the last year, I’ve had to use the services of a mechanic several times.  For some things like replacing a battery, Costco or Walmart both have low cost batteries with free installation.  Smog testing facilities provide coupons all the time so it is a matter of who has the best deal at the time, all other things equal. In other cases, it might be a matter of who can get you in and out quickly, all other things being equal. Discount Tires is my vendor of choice for tires. But for problems requiring diagnoses and possibly expensive repairs, people often turn to Yelp or Google or other reviews to determine where to take their vehicle. 

          I looked at the reviews for two places that I considered for smogging my vehicle and two other mechanics that I used within the past year.  The potential smogging shops are both family-run garages on Tyler Street in Carlsbad and in fact reside side-by-side.  They’ve both been around for over 35 years.  

          The neighboring shops both have overall ratings on Yelp of 4.5 although strangely enough, Carlsbad Auto Service has over four times as many reviews.  They also responded to every single review, positive or negative, with unfailingly polite remarks.  A-1 Auto Service replied to some negative reviews offering free service.  Perhaps people are more likely to review a company when they see that the reviews garner replies.  On the other hand, until the consumer goes to a review site to leave a review, they won’t be aware of this unless they checked ratings before getting work done.

          Google started having reviews much later than Yelp but they both have more Google reviews than Yelp ones.  The Carlsbad shop rating was 4.7 while A-1 was rated 4.9 with only one negative review.  Once again, although both shops have been around the same length of time in the same area, Carlsbad Auto Service has almost three times as many reviews.  Like with Yelp, they very politely replied to every review.

          Golden Wrench Automotive in Vista has worked on my car a few times in the last couple of years.  Their Yelp rating is 4.5 for 137 reviews while their Google rating is 5.0 for 159 reviews.  There were responses to some of the Yelp reviews, more recent ones, although they were not always unfailingly polite like with Carlsbad Automotive Service.  However, there were no bad reviews on Google and every review garnered a thank you reply.  Some of the Yelp reviews were ten and fourteen years old so it may be that the management at Golden Wrench became savvier with how to utilize social media to their benefit over time.  My experience with rating systems is that no one ever gets a 5.0 unless there are only a few ratings, so I think this speaks well of Golden Wrench.

          Firestone Complete Auto Care in Carlsbad did not fare so well with reviews.  They only got a 2.5 Yelp rating with 157 reviews and a 3.3 Google rating with 150 reviews.  It was hit or miss as to whether they replied or not.  Someone going strictly by ratings would not go to this shop.

My Experience

I had my car smogged at Carlsbad Automotive Service because they had a good coupon and could see me right away.  Unfortunately, my car failed the smog test because of an idiosyncrasy related to the Engine Control Unit (ECU).  I had just gotten a new battery and when you do that, or even just disconnect your battery, the ECU clears the emission monitor data and with nothing there, the test fails.  I was forced to drive to San Clemente and back slowly in order to build up enough data to pass the test.  Then I had to pay for another test with no coupon being applied to the fee, adding insult to indignity. 

My review of this shop was only four stars because I blamed them for the initial test failure.  I got the impression from the mechanics in the shop that the battery disconnection issue was a commonly known problem with smog tests, so I thought that they should ask anyone about to get a smog test if they had disconnected their battery for any reason recently.  They discussed nothing with me before the test.  At other shops in the past, I was asked if I had driven the car at least twenty minutes before bringing it in for testing.

 Perhaps this was actually something that most drivers know about and I am just the last person on the planet to learn about this.  Either way, I thought that they should have demonstrated good customer service by at least applying my coupon to both smog tests.  Not doing so reeked of nickel and diming me at a time when I could ill afford paying twice.

The shop responded to my review defending themselves.  I was not mollified because my opinion stands that it was their fault this happened and their choice not to apply the coupon to my second test.   However,  I was impressed that they were paying attention, although not enough so that I would use their services again.  Part of the reason is because in the meantime, I was reacquainted with a really great garage in Vista, Golden Wrench Automotive.

          I had occasion to go to Golden Wrench this past May, although the situation that precipitated this visit actually began in August of 2020. I was about to start a new job and the training was in L.A.  I was driving up Monday morning and I realized Sunday afternoon that  I had two bad tires and it would not be good to drive far and fast on them.  Unfortunately, Discount Tire is not open on Sundays, so I went to Firestone because they were very close to my house. I can attest to that being a horrible reason to pick a place to work on your car.

It was a big mistake for two reasons.  One is that they were far more expensive.  The second reason did not become apparent until about eight months later.  My car started rattling loudly in the neighborhood of the front passenger side wheel.  Since Firestone had put the tires on the front of the car and since they are very close to my house, I figured I would go there and they could fix the problem.

That was a big fat NOT.  They wouldn’t even look at the car until I paid them $20 and this would have been the case had I come back with the problem two days after the tire installation.  They apparently do not consider themselves responsible for work done on your vehicle once you drive it off their lot.

I paid the $20 and left the car.  When I came back for the car later, they had this big quote for over $550 written up.  They said that I needed wheel bearings and all sorts of related labor.  I could not afford that so I left muttering something about seeing if I could borrow the money.  Strangely enough, the rattle was mostly diminished and disappeared some of the time on the way home.  This was most odd!

I didn’t know what to do and then a friend reminded me about Golden Wrench Automotive in Vista.  I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten about them. Golden Wrench is great.  They are completely honest, generous, and explain what they are going to do before they do it.  They describe the repairs thoroughly in plain English and in a non-condescending manner.  So many mechanics talk down to women or just try to oversell them.  Mike, the owner, also supports local kids’ sports.  They have a shuttle service too. 

I took the car in to them the next morning.  They looked over the front end and came across one little piece of metal that wasn’t properly attached.  They think that Firestone took the car apart to diagnose the problem and when they put it back together, they mostly tightened the metal piece which is why there was less noise.  Golden Wrench tightened it the rest of the way and gave me my car back without charging me a thing.  A far cry from what I experienced with Firestone.

A side note on Firestone . . . I should have reported them to the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) immediately.  These are the people that regulate automobile repair establishments and they frown on mechanics making up unnecessary repairs and duping unwitting motorists.  They have the ability to fine and/or close repair shops that break the law.  I’m in the process of looking for my receipts from both places, one showing what Firestone said was wrong with my vehicle and one from Golden Wrench showing that there was nothing wrong with the parts Firestone singled out and that the problem was something completely different.  I just hope there isn’t a statue of limitations.  I was so mad back then that I didn’t write any reviews about Firestone because I would not have been civil.  I did write a good review for Golden Wrench, though.

My Reviewing Habits

          I am not as consistent as I should be about leaving reviews.  If there is some sort of reward involved, I’ll always leave a review.  If I’ve taken pictures of the food at a restaurant, I’ll leave a Google review.  I’ve written enough reviews with photos that I am a Local Guide, level 7.  I’ve done 142 Google reviews, 88 ratings, and posted 84 photos with almost 600,000 views of those photos. 

          I post positive and negative reviews.  Sometimes, like with Firestone, I put off posting a negative review until I am no longer furious.  But every once in a while, I don’t wait.  I can really let loose some scathing, derisive, sardonic remarks but I try not to unless it is really warranted.  These are often written directly to customer service departments or representatives or expressed verbally over the phone.  I could not find an example in my Google reviews.  All of them, even the one- and two-star ratings were polite.  For example, the text accompanying my one-star review of Little Caesar’s pizza said “Pizza tastes like cardboard with cheese on it.”  Direct, yet polite.

          Some of my reviews can be pretty long.  When I leave a one- or two-star review, I often go into great detail about whatever my issues were with the company or business.  Over the years, I have had very few replies made to any of my Google reviews.  Since I’m always logged into my Google account, it is easier to leave Google reviews than Yelp reviews so I haven’t done much on Yelp recently.  From what I can tell, I’ve been leaving Google reviews for six years.

          I decided to check out my stats on Yelp and signed in.  Apparently, I’ve posted seven reviews and four pictures.  So I wonder why it says that eight of my reviews were voted useful.  Only six were voted cool.  It says I have 59 new friend requests.  I will not be looking at them!  It looks like I’ve been yelping (their term, not mine) since January of 2015. Only one of my reviews is not positive.

          If I had a business which could be listed to receive reviews, I would follow the example set by Carlsbad Automotive Service.  I would thank everyone who was kind enough to leave me a good review.  I would try to get more info on negative reviews and see if there was a way to make the customer or client happy. 

          I suppose I am now inspired to leave some reviews for some businesses which I like but that I have neglected.  Believe it or not, when I started this blog, I was going to cover just a couple of garages and then a few restaurants since I’m a big foodie.  But the repair shops just sort of took over. 

I’ve been to a few restaurants lately as things have opened up some.  I think I will leave a good review for Texas de Brazil in the Carlsbad mall.  If you are in the mood for meat, they are probably the best place in town to go.  Brazilian-style wait staff wander around the dining room with skewers of all different sorts of meat and you can choose which ones you want and which you don’t.  They also have a small gourmet buffet from where you obtain your sides.  They are all delicious.  They have a rating of 4 on Yelp and 4.5 on Google, so I will leave my 5-star review on Yelp.  I’m guessing the lower ratings are partially due to the fact that it’s the most expensive restaurant in town after Paon in the Village.  Well, there could be other ones but no one has offered to take me so I wouldn’t know.

          I’ve also been to the Village Pie Shoppe and Bobby’s Hideaway Café at their new location.  They are both wildly popular but I wasn’t impressed by either.  But it’s hard to review a restaurant and complain that the food isn’t good enough when you’re only paying diner prices.  Maybe I won’t review them.  

So I thought I would review the condo place we moved into last fall and maybe some restaurants that I like better than the two I mentioned above.  But I already reviewed every single one.  Maybe I am more consistent than I thought.  I know what I’ll review . . .  one of my Meetup groups met at a new-to-me place yesterday.  It was fun so maybe I will give them a review.