Industry: Fiat dealers warned
10 Feb 06 15:59
Fiat UK has issued its franchised dealers with a firm warning that they could lose their franchise if they do not improve their customer service.
Fiat's new aftersales director Rob Calver said that he was recruited six months ago to tackle customer complaints over poor service and warranty issues; he is said to have found a backlog of complaints from over 1,000 Fiat owners who had not been dealt with, and to have been concerned over how dealers were 'inflexible with the warranty'.
Calver told ITV Motoring that he was instigating extra training programmes for dealership staff and said: 'I'm more interested in how good the people are, rather than how many there are. We have some good dealers and perhaps we haven't managed them very well, but they've got to get a lot better - and yes, if they don't improve, we may have to terminate some dealers.'
Fiat has consistently scored poorly in surveys of reliability and customer satisfaction in recent years and improving the standard of service at dealership is crucial to the success of the new Grande Punto and upcoming new Stilo, due this autumn.
10 Feb 06 15:59
Fiat UK has issued its franchised dealers with a firm warning that they could lose their franchise if they do not improve their customer service.
Fiat's new aftersales director Rob Calver said that he was recruited six months ago to tackle customer complaints over poor service and warranty issues; he is said to have found a backlog of complaints from over 1,000 Fiat owners who had not been dealt with, and to have been concerned over how dealers were 'inflexible with the warranty'.
Calver told ITV Motoring that he was instigating extra training programmes for dealership staff and said: 'I'm more interested in how good the people are, rather than how many there are. We have some good dealers and perhaps we haven't managed them very well, but they've got to get a lot better - and yes, if they don't improve, we may have to terminate some dealers.'
Fiat has consistently scored poorly in surveys of reliability and customer satisfaction in recent years and improving the standard of service at dealership is crucial to the success of the new Grande Punto and upcoming new Stilo, due this autumn.