Dealerships that fail to resolve customer complaints internally are building a case against themselves, one unresolved grievance at a time. That is the core philosophy driving the compliance program at Autosaver Group, a 13-store automotive group operating across Vermont and New Hampshire, where Compliance Officer Kyle Sipples has spent nearly a decade turning complaint management into a regulatory shield.
Joining us on the latest episode of Compliance That Works, Sipples argues that most enforcement actions stem from unresolved complaints that accumulate over time, eventually forming patterns that draw the attention of state and federal regulators. More than half of all dealership audits by regulatory agencies trace back to consumer complaints, most of which, he believes, the dealership fails to address at the store level.
According to Sipples, he structures his compliance program around early intervention, personally taking ownership of any substantive complaint as soon as it reaches him. He maintains a complaint log, tracks each case through to resolution, and contacts affected customers immediately to acknowledge their concerns and signal the dealership’s commitment to a fair outcome. Customers are reminded throughout the process that any resolution offered will be reasonable, a framing that Sipples said helps set realistic expectations and accelerates settlement.
On social media, Sipples moves quickly to take conversations offline, favoring private, one-on-one communication over public back-and-forth. He trains staff to avoid canned responses to negative reviews, emphasizing that every public reply speaks not just to the dissatisfied customer but to every prospective buyer who reads it. When a complaint is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction, his team routinely asks whether the customer would consider removing the negative post.
"I am not afraid of a regulator seeing that I did everything possible for this customer and to make this customer satisfied."– Kyle Sipples
Sipples also advocates for dealerships to build proactive relationships with regulators before a complaint ever reaches their desks. Introducing himself to regulatory contacts, outlining the dealership group’s commitment to compliance, and making clear that the organization welcomes early outreach has consistently reduced friction when issues do arise.
Meanwhile, regulators, he notes, are primarily interested in patterns and institutional culture rather than isolated mistakes made by otherwise compliant operations.
When it comes to training and accountability, Sipples documents every complaint resolution, including any employee training that results from it. Accountability measures are applied on a case-by-case basis, with the primary goal of ensuring dealership staff understand that compliance expectations are enforced consistently and seriously.
After more than nine years with Autosaver Group, Sipples measures the program’s success in part by the declining volume of complaints his office receives, a trend he attributes to a dealership culture in which staff are invested in doing things correctly from the start.
