Fiat Chrysler Australia Pledges To Improve Customer Complaint Process

Reacting to criticism from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia, which manages the Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands, has today announced it will overhaul the way it handles customer enquiries and complaints.

In an unusually frank and honest press release issued today, FCA Australia President Pat Dougherty (who has been in the role for less than a year) acknowledged that the company's performance in dealing with customer feedback has been poor to date.

According Dougherty, FCA Australia's poor customer performance largely occured under previous management. Following the ACCC's investigation into the company's customer complaints process, Dougherty assured that his regime will do better.

“We have implemented extensive changes across the business to improve the customer experience holistically, including the complaints resolution process," he said.

“The ACCC’s investigation highlighted shortcomings in how we’ve responded to customer concerns, an area that we were already taking measures to address.

"The ACCC’s involvement has provided additional impetus and introduced greater urgency to our own efforts, and will lead to FCA Australia providing a far higher level of service to both its existing and future customers."

FCA Australia will begin reviewing specific customer complaints, namely those made between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014 that did not result in a satisfactory resolution.

Those customers will be contacted by FCA Australia in writing within 60 days.

In addition, FCA Australia will also roll out further improvements to the way it does business to help improve customer satisfaction.

These measures include doubling the number of district parts managers and service managers, doubling its locally-based spare parts inventory, expediting parts shipping procedures and improved training for national dealership service staff.

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