CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

After the start of sales of a new car, the automaker begins to monitor the reaction of customer. This is done through surveys, telephone calls to real buyers, or online surveys.

The modern customer is very demanding of comfort, convenience and clarity of control, reliability and other properties of the car. And even if he likes the car as a whole, there are still nuances that can cause negative emotions or simply annoy.

It is about such cases that manufacturers learn during the analysis of surveys. This is very valuable information for the manufacturer. In the development of the next models, these complaints will be taken into account and engineers will try to eliminate the factors that caused them.

Complaints are usually measured in PPH (Pretension Per Hundred cars sold). This scaling is quite appropriate given the large sales volumes.

The complaints collected are sorted by Level 3 property experts.

At the beginning of the development, a goal is set for the allowable number of claims. It is usually about 150...170 PPH. Considering that there are 130 consumer properties on the level 3, it turns out that no more than 1-2 complaints per property are allowed. This is a very ambitious goal and it is not always fulfilled.

One of the main tasks of experts on customer performances in automotive engineering is to correctly forecast the level of complaints about the car being developed. This forecast is made by each expert along his own property perimeter based on:

• feedback received from real consumers of cars on sale and in operation
• an analysis of changes in the level of consumer properties of the designed car
• an analysis of how much this change will reduce or increase (it also happens) the number of complaints about a new car

The forecast of the complaint level is issued in PPH. This forecast is one of the key factors in making a controversial decision to change the design of a projected car. At the same time, the forecast of cost changes, the forecast of possible changes in the start-up time of production and the forecast for the achievable quality level of the car are being considered. Such decisions are often made at a very high level - the chief engineer of the car and above.