How Quality-Control and Communication Can Cure H.A. Syndrome

You experienced the symptoms the last time you bought a new vehicle.

Before then, you hardly ever saw one on the road, but now it seems like almost everyone is driving a car like yours.

Or maybe it happened after the appliance repair person came to fix your ice maker. You never heard that noise before, but suddenly the flow of water filling your ice tray sounds like a rushing river inside your refrigerator.

That’s right; you’ve got “Heightened Awareness”.

Imagine then what happens when a customer brings there vehicle in for service. They’ve had symptoms like service lights, unusual noises or performance issues. So after diagnosing the concern and completing the repair, you close the RO and expect the customer to believe that everything is going to be okay.

Have you forgotten about H.A. Syndrome?

As the customer pulls away, they notice things they may not have noticed before like that rattling noise, the sound of the electronic transmission hunting for the perfect gear, and even the stain on the seat that the dog made 6 months ago. And in some cases, they believe your service department had something to do with it.

So here are a few important questions for you:

What process do you have in place for quality control other than the technician who performed the service? Are you familiar with repairs that have a history of changing performance, affecting other components or raising customer concerns and then communicating those potential issues to your customers? Do you have responses in place for addressing heightened awareness issues?