For years, Elon Musk has been fueling the growth of his companies and launching fascinating new products. The strategy seems to be working well: Tesla’s market value is approaching $1 trillion, SpaceX is the leader in commercial aerospace, and he himself is the world’s richest man. As its businesses grow rapidly, customer dissatisfaction with customer service could stifle their growth.
In interviews with Insider, customers of Tesla’s car business, solar business and SpaceX’s Starlink internet access service said they were very dissatisfied with the pre-sales and after-sales services. Complaints, including opaque delivery times, difficult customer service calls and long wait times for repairs, can damage the image of Musk’s company among consumers, experts say.
Regulatory filings show that Tesla’s car sales are growing rapidly, more than doubling in 2021, but it has not simultaneously expanded its service network. This imbalance leads to customer complaints about long wait times for repairs and low customer service levels. This has to do with Tesla’s business model of operating its own repair centers. “It is clear that Tesla has decided to sacrifice service in order to fully push revenue growth,” said one expert.
In May of last year, 14 home solar product customers told Insider that they had been “ignored” by Tesla customer service representatives. Two former employees of Tesla’s energy business said that the company has employees who are dedicated to searching social media for complaints, which has led some customers to post directly on social media when they encounter product problems instead of complaining to Tesla.
In January of this year, SpaceX had more than 145,000 users in 25 countries and regions around the world, and in 2021 the two figures are 120,000 and 90,000 respectively.
Iliya Rybchin, a partner at consulting firm Elixrr, said that for innovative companies, customers have a certain tolerance, but if customer service problems are not solved for a long time, customer dissatisfaction will accumulate and ultimately affect the company’s growth.