Consumer reactions vary from opportunism to cynicism. Some newer materials bring new requirements for production and maintenance. Customers often are not aware of this up front and this leads to many complaints well after purchase. Some industries have strong unions that emphasize the importance of customer service and relations to their members while others do not. Most trade associations do not emphasize customer relations in their research and training support.
Subcontractors pose special problems for several industries.
Apologies are very important in defusing emotions and restoring customer satisfaction with a business. Many businesses want to analyze the narrow complaint issue, rather than analyze how the customer was treated during the buying cycle. The results were analyzed to help determine the root causes or triggering mechanisms for many severe complaints in the respective industries. These issues affected different industries differently. It appears that the automobile industry is still struggling with a spotty reputation for its selling techniques.