A complaint or some help?

As we began the process of rolling out the Code last year I knew we would be facing the usual round of claims against the sector early in 2009. Regular as clockwork Consumer Direct release their 'complaint' statistics. CD report that they received 16,176 complaints regarding servicing and repairs from independent garages, this represents a 6% increase on the 2007 figure of 15,253.


http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/news/press_releases/national/2009/toptencomplaints2008

From September to year end 2008 our Code Consumer Advice Line received 1,116 calls regarding service and repair, from this we escalated 32 calls to the Fast Track Service and resolved the consumers concern via a quick call to the subscribing garage - no real problems here just communication issues or misunderstandings, the important fact is we helped 32 consumers to resolve what they felt was an issue amicably.

Additionally we escalated 10 calls to full conciliation, this is where a clear breach of the Code had been identified that required formal redress via the services we have in place, in line with the Office of Fair Trading requirements.

Nine out of the ten conciliation cases were resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer and subscribing garage, again making a positive out of a potential negative.

This means we report the following:

Consumer enquiries received 1,116 (helping people)
Fast Track assistance 32 (helping people)
Conciliation cases 10 (complaints)

0.9% of all calls to the Advisory and Conciliation Service were qualified complaints
99.1% of calls were enquiries from consumers that required some advice or assistance

It is early days for the Code, but we aim to report the figures that reflect the correct nature of calls.

It is important that when we are helping people to understand the nature of their individual situation that we reflect this - to me this provision of help, advice and assistance is as important as reporting correctly on complaints statistics and using the detail as a means by which we can benchmark and improve.

This industry wide initiative has a long term goal that really is about the interests of the sector and its customers, enabling our subscribers to prove that they are 'one of the good guys', enabling them to distance their operation from disreputable garage operators from an evidence based position.

All the best
Chris

Signs, stickers and banners

Following our subscriber poll in November, you told us you wanted us to produce signs, window clings, banners and vehicle stickers.

Here you go!

Low cost for you, only available to subscribing garages through the Code Shop in the subscriber area of the website - so log on and get ordering, we want to see the signs proudly displayed across the nation!

Take a pic after you've got your order and got them in place and we'll carry on putting the best ones on the blog - it'll also come in handy when we're promoting the Code - clearly the best use will make me proudest and guarantee your publicity!


Internal/external sign - differing sizes




Window clings - differing sizes

Banner - one size

Vehicle sticker - one size

Nice huh? Doing a busy trade already so follow the link below to the website, log on and get ordering!

www.motorindustrycodes.co.uk


All the best
Chris

Alec Murray - chairman of ICAP

I'm really very pleased to be able to announce Alec Murray as our chair of the Independent Compliance Assessment Panel for 2009.

ICAP is the panel that assesses Code operations and subscriber performance and applies any compliance sanctions required for poor performing garages, as required by the Office of Fair Trading.

It's a really important role requiring a combination of industry knowledge, respect and authority that only someone with Alec's industry credentials brings.

For further detail, please see press release

http://service.motorindustrycodes.co.uk/images/stories/documents/0209%20-%20icap%20chairman%20announcement.pdf

All the best

Chris

We won it!

Congratulations to us!

As I said at the time, it was nice for all our hard work to be acknowledged with a nomination in the annual CAT magazine awards. Even better to return to the new year and discover that we'd won it!

It's been difficult keeping it under my hat for the last few days, but following a trip to the Aftermarket Show at the NEC yesterday where the awards ceremony was held, it's time to tell all that our collective efforts in introducing the service and repair code have been acknowledged.



For me, this award is about what all the people involved in the code have achieved, the 5,000 or so garages that are subscribing to it and the team that has created and now operates it.

For me it's a significant moment as it is an initial confirmation of what I have suspected for a long time - we can do this. Self regulation is about a sector acting as a community and demonstrating that we are able and willing to get involved and 'do the right thing'.

Seems like a large number of CAT magazine readers support me in that and voted - so well done and thank you.

If you want to continue the promotion of our achievement, you can download the press release via the link below and send it far and wide! We are currently doing so, not only within the usual media circles but also to government, the consumer lobby, advisory services etc - it's all excellent promotion of what we are achieving with the code. Your local papers may be interested, give it a go!

http://service.motorindustrycodes.co.uk/images/stories/uploads/industry%20recognition%20for%20motor%20codes%20director,%20chris%20mason,%20cat%20award%2009.01.08.pdf

A couple more pictures? oh, alright then!






Well done all - an excellent way to begin 2009!

All the best
Chris

BERR press release

05 Jan 2009 14:35

Clean up your garage

Consumer Minister Gareth Thomas today launched a new drive to raise standards of car servicing and repairs. He wants garages to sign up to a Code of Practice. He today wrote to MPs asking them to contact garages in their constituencies and urge them to sign up to the Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair. He has also asked them to bring this Code to the attention of consumers in their area.

http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-wlabel-dti.nsf/wfArticle?ReadForm&unid=EB19D94ABFD720088025753500506B93

All the best
Chris

2009 - a reminder

Since the Aftermarket magazine article (see post below) I've been asked by several people to put a brief reminder on the blog about why we have created the service and repair code.

Sounds like a good idea, but very difficult to do it justice in a few paragraphs - so for now here's a whistle stop summary and I'll write some more detailed papers and put them up over the coming weeks.

So....

In 2005 the National Consumer Council (now called Consumer Focus) threatened the automotive service and repair sector with a 'super complaint' to the Office of Fair Trading if it didn't introduce a new customer complaints handling process for the entire sector via a new code of practice that would require approval by the OFT.

The outcome of a submitted super complaint regarding the garage sector is generally thought to be the introduction of an enforced licensing regime via a legislative approach, and while that would clearly make some steps at addressing the situation both Government and the industry feel that self regulation is the best approach. Only via self regulation are the people who work within the sector and have the best appreciation of how it works allowed to regulate, whilst being monitored by the OFT.

These days self regulation is proving to be a very effective and efficient method by which minimum standards of operation can be set. Enabling a trade sector to develop its own 'rules' which are then agreed with the regulators, who in turn allow the sector to look after their own affairs whilst keeping a watching brief. This in turn delivers a consistency in customer service while providing consumers with easily accessible dispute resolution services should a problem occur.

Told you it wasn't easy to explain this 'briefly'....

So, 3 years later and we launched the Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair at the end of August 2008. We now have 5,000 subscribing garages and are well progressed through the OFT approval process, securing stage 1 before we even launched.

Now we need to keep adding to the number of subscribers and operating the code to the satisfaction of the OFT and prove to all that the service and repair sector has listened to the warning and reacted to it by taking the challenge and demonstrating that they are responsible business operators by subscribing to the code.

Here's the rub for some garage owners. They take a look at the code, think 'we already do that' so think it doesn't apply to them. An easy and incorrect assumption to make - if you run a garage carrying out servicing and mechanical repairs, this applies to you. You may already carry out your daily business in compliance to the code, if you're a responsible business that's what we intended when we were developing it- so therefore you just need to sign up and carry on doing what you do.

No hidden agenda, no hidden costs, no nothing apart from a low cost code that is already well supported through the industry, government, consumer lobby and the regulators. It's really a very effective way of confirming that you're as good as the best and better than the rest - in essence if you're one of the good guys, this is confirmation of that fact and a great marketing tool.
By way of demonstration here's a couple of links to garages that have already taken the leap of faith, signed up and began applying their marketing heads it's use - and are reporting very positive returns!

http://www.kingshurst.net/

http://www.sewardautocentre.com/

http://www.gkgroup.co.uk/sitecore/content/GkGroup/Aftersales/Code-of-Practice.aspx

We still have much work to do, but following an excellent start the sector is becoming more aware of the reason why this code is so important. It really is the last chance garages have of continuing to operate as they do today, and as we continue to grow we will succeed in proving that not all, or any where near all, garages are unscrupulous business operators and are in fact quite the opposite.

Don't risk a rip off - look for the sign!

All the best

Chris