When we compare communication to other service signals, the disconnect becomes obvious.
Negative mentions of professionalism stay low—between 1.3% and 4.1%. When customers actually reach someone, the interaction is rarely the problem.
The issue is what happens before that.
Most communication complaints aren’t about tone or attitude. They’re about silence: no call back, no update, no follow-through. That’s why the same language keeps appearing in reviews, repeated across brands and markets: “No one called me back.”
Management sentiment adds another layer. Between 21% and 28% of negative reviews in these groups also reference management. These misses aren’t isolated mistakes; they’re symptoms of processes that aren’t consistently owned or tracked.
Operationally, this pattern compounds quickly. The average service department misses roughly 158 appointment-related calls per month.
That’s how communication becomes the top negative theme at the group level. Not through a single breakdown, but through repeated, low-visibility misses that feel small in the moment and structural in hindsight.
What dealers need to focus on: missed call rate, call-back compliance, and time-to-response. When those aren’t measured, communication breakdowns don’t register as urgent. They only show up later, in reviews.
