automakers' social media presence re: defects and complaints

Autoblog: How social media is changing the way car defects and complaints are discovered
http://www.autoblog.com/2013/01/28/how-social-media-is-changing-the-way-car-defects-and-complaints/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

which has links to
Social media emerge as tool to find defects
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130122/OEM11/130129984/social-media-emerge-as-tool-to-find-vehicle-defects-complaints" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DETROIT -- Using the auto industry's newest tool to detect vehicle defects is as simple as logging on to Twitter, Facebook or other social media Web sites.

And federal regulators already are doing it, too.

National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration investigators use various forms of social media to do their jobs, an agency spokeswoman acknowledged last week.
...
Chrysler employs Twitter teams to analyze and respond to whining tweets, according to an article in The Economist. Nissan does Web text analytics through text analysis software.

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Hyundai Trolling Twitter for Negative Customer Experiences:
http://wardsauto.com/sales-amp-marketing/hyundai-trolling-twitter-negative-customer-experiences" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I came across this long ago...
Power Negotiating After the Warranty Expires:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443854204578059093585436564.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (if the link doesn't let you read the whole story, Google for the above title and then click thru from Google)

There this from the above:

Two years ago, General Motors Co. GM says it didn't systematically monitor social media and other websites for customer complaints. Now, the company has 25 to 30 people assigned to that duty full-time, says Alicia Boler-Davis, who earlier this year was appointed head of GM's global quality and customer-experience activities.

"We're engaging in over 8,800 unique interactions every month," she says. These range from congratulating new owners to explaining confusing technology or features, or responding to complaints about a defect or a breakdown. Ms. Boler-Davis says GM is giving customer-service personnel and dealers more latitude than in the past to use GM money to resolve complaints and subsidize repairs on the spot.

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I know that at Cruzetalk, there is a GM rep who chimes in regularly: http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/9-chevrolet-cruze-general-discussion-forum/4613-gm-social-media-customer-assistance-representative.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I believe the staff over there have vetted her as being official. I've seen her sometimes ask folks w/problems for their VIN and other details in PM.

Someone there found this from 2010:
GM hires social-media team to track complaints on Web:
http://www.heraldextra.com/business/article_035f1ca6-5857-5e30-916d-6dd493fb243e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Post other similar articles or discuss the presence of automakers (or lack of) in various forms of social media (forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) regarding complaints, problems and defects.

This is great, thanks for posting. I have certainly observed that this board has seen similar scrutiny. Particularly at the height of the Phoenix crisis last summer, but on other occasions as well. It's good to see that both the regulatory agencies and the industry as a whole are learning, and communication and response times are improving as a direct result.

I'm hoping that more automakers follow GM's model, at least to pick up on developing trends more quickly, esp. if dealers blow off certain issues w/o making any record of them or if some don't warrant a trip to the service department (esp. if it there's no fix for it, yet).

From what I can tell at Cruzetalk, the Cruze needed the presence of an active GM rep. About a year ago, it got the worst reliability for small cars (FAR below average) in Consumer Reports. From what I've seen on Cruzetalk (GM fanboys/anti-Consumer Reports people there, notwithstanding), it showed (e.g. leaking trunks on early builds, coolant smell, spiking speedometers, poor automatic transmission behavior, etc.) But I heard about all these problems WELL before CR published ANY Cruze reliability results.

It recently improved to average (well, CR considers 17% below average to be average) but the '11 model year still has a horrible reliability rating.

Note that dealers get paid to fix warranty problems, if they refuse it must be for a payment issue

there are plenty of webtools around and services that will gather and send to you or allow you to aggregate any mention of your company on the web.

it is clear that most large companies, and some smaller ones, spend money on these services, and share within their departments the links to what is being said.
mine does that daily.

This turns the traditional Manufacturer-->Dealer-->Service Dept pipeline on its head and that's a very good thing.

That structure unfortunately, encourages the point of contact to be skeptical of user complaints, or even stonewall them.

How many of you have taken a vehicle for an obvious and legitimate defect, only to be told "it's normal", or "we can't reproduce it", only to drive home with that very same problem? I see a lot of hands going up.

Meanwhile the manufacturer knows the importance of discovering and resolving defects, but were insulated by that same dysfunctional structure, which to be fair they create and perpetuate. The dealership model is long past its best-by date.

Herm said:

Note that dealers get paid to fix warranty problems, if they refuse it must be for a payment issue

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On this note, adric22 (I don't recall in which thread) posted an interview w/a Toyota mechanic at http://priuschat.com/threads/cars-in-for-warranty-work.95953/#post-1360035" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

As I said there:

adric22 posted this insightful interview w/a Toyota mechanic that covered some fundamental problems w/the reimbursement system vs. the actual time it might take to diagnose and fix a problem.

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I can't speak to whether Nissan's policies are the same/similar...

cwerdna said:

Herm said:

Note that dealers get paid to fix warranty problems, if they refuse it must be for a payment issue

Click to expand...

On this note, adric22 (I don't recall in which thread) posted an interview w/a Toyota mechanic at http://priuschat.com/threads/cars-in-for-warranty-work.95953/#post-1360035" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

As I said there:

adric22 posted this insightful interview w/a Toyota mechanic that covered some fundamental problems w/the reimbursement system vs. the actual time it might take to diagnose and fix a problem.

Click to expand...

I can't speak to whether Nissan's policies are the same/similar...

Click to expand...

in all service warranty jobs, the dealership does get paid by the manufacturer and yes, its much less money to the tech and service writer than one would normally see but there is also a survey attached to each warranty service visit and the results of that survey can greatly impact the paycheck of both employees involved.

there is a discussion going on Seattle FB site now about people being denied service due to comments made on these surveys.