The email that arrives on Tuesday
A customer emails to say their taxi home from the station on Saturday took a strange route and cost far more than usual. Or they left a one-star review saying the driver charged the airport price for a local run. Or an account customer's travel booker forwards a complaint from a visitor about the driver's manner.
To answer fairly, the office needs the booking, the route actually driven, the fare on the meter or the fixed price agreed, the time taken and what the driver says happened. The booking is in dispatch. The route is in the GPS history, if it is still kept. The fare might be in the card payment records. The driver remembers a road closure, or does not remember the job at all.
It takes days to piece together. In the meantime, the customer assumes they are being ignored.
Why complaints are slow to settle
Complaints are rare enough that there is no routine for them, and common enough that they take a real share of the manager's week.
- Complaints arrive through email, phone, reviews, social media and account customers, and are not logged in one place.
- The journey data is spread across dispatch, GPS history and payment records.
- GPS history may only be kept for a limited period, so late complaints can find it gone.
- There is no standard way to record the driver's side of the story.
- Nobody can see whether the same issue keeps coming back for one driver or route.
A slow answer is expensive even when you are right
| Outcome | If the complaint is answered slowly | If it is answered quickly with facts |
|---|---|---|
| Customer was wrong | They stay angry and post a review | They see the diversion and the reason |
| Customer was right | Refund comes late, trust lost | Quick refund and apology, trust kept |
| Account customer complaint | Account relationship strained | Travel booker sees a clear answer |
| Repeat problem | Goes unnoticed | Spotted and dealt with |
Your licensing authority may also ask about complaints and how you handled them. Having a proper record helps, though what they need is theirs to decide.
A complaint record that gathers the journey for you
What we build is a complaint log connected to your dispatch and payment data.
- Complaints from every channel are logged in one place: forwarded emails, a website form, notes from phone calls, and reviews picked up from Google.
- Each complaint is linked to the journey by booking reference, phone number or pickup and time, and the office confirms the match.
- The journey summary is built automatically: booking details, the route driven drawn on a map beside the usual route, times, fare and how it was paid.
- The GPS track and fare details for any job under complaint are saved permanently with the complaint, so they are not lost when the dispatch system's history expires.
- The driver is asked for their account through a short form on their phone, with the map in front of them.
- The office records a decision, such as no fault, partial refund, full refund or driver conversation, and a reply is drafted for the customer from the facts, for a person to check and send.
- A monthly view shows complaints by type, driver, route and outcome.
Complaints answered with facts
Most complaints can be answered in a day, with a map and the facts, which is often all the customer wanted. Where the customer is right, they get a refund and an apology quickly, which usually settles things.
The manager stops spending hours per complaint. Patterns become visible, such as one driver who often takes the long way, or a pickup point where fixed and metered fares keep getting mixed up, and can be handled before they grow.
Is this how complaints go for you?
- Complaints arrive through many channels and are not logged together.
- Finding the route driven takes a long time.
- GPS history has gone by the time you look.
- Customers wait days for an answer.
- Nobody tracks repeat complaints about the same driver or route.