Customer Satisfaction Surveys

wannadeal · July 2005

Dear God. Please rid the world of rednecks(Yes bobst , you). Thank you, Wannadeal.

bobst · July 2005

Your prayers will not be answered, Wannadeal. We red types are taking over the country. You will soon be one of us. Resistance is futile, sayeth the Borg.

rroyce10 · July 2005

.. **Resistance is futile, sayeth the Borg** .......l..o..l........

Terry.

wtd44 · August 2005

Is that a Borg Warner, or am I getting a little too shifty?

frescagod · October 2005

i took it for a test drive and it was fine, except the leather on the steering wheel was coming off in one place. i asked the salesman what the deal was, and he said he would replace it before i drove off the lot with it that day. i asked how long it would take, and he said "oh, not long, they just pop it off and put a new one on." i then asked if they had to do an alignment or other work and he definitely said "no, no, it's a quick job, 30-40 minutes."

ummm, right. first off, after i get the financial details out of the way, i'm told that they have to order the wheel and that it won't be in for at least 5 days. okay, some things happen, i can live with that. i came in when the wheel finally arrived 2 days later than they said, and was told it's about a 2-3 hour job, minimum, because they have to do an alignment, etc. are you KIDDING ME?

i leave and come back, and i'm hoping everything is okay. as soon as i drive off the lot, i realize that the steering wheel is about 15 degree off to the right. i immediately call the guy who worked on my car and told him, and he gave me a "gee, aww, shucks" line. he told me i couldn't bring it back because they were busy, but try for later in the week.

so, i bought a car under false pretenses. i NEVER would have bought the car, had i been told the truth at the outset. i would have bought another one without this particular problem (but i was getting a "deal," whatever the hell that is). needless to say, i would have held out for another car. the salesman lied, or maybe honestly didn't know, but should have found someone who did indeed know. in any case, i'm now stuck with what i deem to be a seriously "used" car since it will have been in the shop three times and for longer than i've even owned the 2 week old car. this PISSES me off to no end. i buy new because i want to stay out of the garage for at least a year.

i HATE BUYING CARS AND I HATE ACURA.

bobst · October 2005

Hey, Fresca, did you learn anything from your experience?

For example, did you learn to never believe anything a sales person tells you?

Or did you learn to only deal with quality sales people who have been recommended?

Or did you learn to not buy a car until EVERYTHING is just like you want it - proper alignment and good steering wheel?

danf1 · October 2005

First of all, this isn't an Acura problem, it is a dealer problem. Any manufacturer can have defects in a car. The dealer is the one who needs to make it right for you.

It sounds like your salesperson's intentions were good, but his knowledge was lacking. Maybe he had gotten some bad information from the service department on the amount of time or labor required to rectify this situation. Maybe he just lied to get a sale. We will never know. What is apparent here is that the service department is not very cooperative. You might want to find out if there is another dealer who can service your car around you.

frescagod · October 2005

you're right. the salesperson had decent intentions, BUT he also just wanted to close the deal on the sale.

honda called me yesterday to ask how my purchase had gone, and i was frank with the rep. i guess whatever i told him will be relayed to the dealer, but like they care now? i've already bought the car from them; they couldn't care less about me now.

the driver's side seat wasn't fully covered by plastic and all the mechanics' dirt from their pants rubbed off on my seat. wonderful.

i got the car back and now the alignment is off the other direction. hahahahaha it keeps getting better and better.

bobst · October 2005

Fresca, it seems to me that you do a lot of things wrong.

You said, "i got the car back and now the alignment is off"

Why did you accept the car? You should have left it at the dealer until they got it aligned properly.

sbell4 · October 2005

I have said it before but I mean it: I agree with just about everything you say. I just have not decided if that is a good thing or not yet.

audia8q · July 2006

I love giving good grades, but I'm not likely to give perfect 10/10 in all categories. I may give most 10s, some 9s and some 8s

Under the current scoring model with many manufacturers your going to fail the salesperson no matter what....I realize that isn't your intention but based on your statement that will be the result.

Some mfg. don't score their surveys with the same weight with each question. Some questions can take away as much as 20+ points if its not a "10". Had survey come in this week. The guy gave us one 8 and one 7 and the reat 10's....on a 2 page survey. We ended up with a 47% score...which is a huge failure...I called the guy and asked him if he was unhappy and he said it was by far the best car purchase he ever had and it wasn't his intention to fail us. It seems our big mistake was not managing the survey, which we don't normally do...but the deck is so loaded it may forces us to.

british_rover · July 2006

We kind of suspect that Rover might nudge the surveys in their favor a little bit to hold back some bonus money.

Our other salesguide bought one of the last couple of 2005 LR3s for his wife. He didn't get a sales survey but when he first brought the car in for the 7500 mile service he got s survey.

Filled it out and gave perfect across the board.

Now a week or so later when the survey scores get recorded into the system the service manager notices that our saleguide's survey was not a 100.

It was like 94 percent.

He was confused and a little upset so he starts reading the actually survey.

The questions that marked the survey down from a 100 was this one.

convenience of service hours. It was marked as only satisfactory instead of perfect.

Ok now that is obviously Land Rover messing with the survey. The guy works here and so is at the dealership about 45-50 hours a week.

We are still fighting them on it.

dino001 · July 2006

That basically proves my point - grade inflation. If good (6-7) or even very good (8-9) is unacceptable, it misses the whole point of taking survey, unless of course it is used as a good excuse of depriving dealers/salesmen of their bonuses.

british_rover · July 2006

unless of course it is used as a good excuse of depriving dealers/salesmen of their bonuses.

DIng ding ding we have a winner.

dino001 · July 2006

Using every "non-perfect" answer as a weapon against the dealers or sealepeople simply skewes that process to the point that I may not respond to another CSI, ever.

That's some twisted self-delusioned game of fiction played by the manufacturers/dealers. It's like all they want to hear is that everything was so great that nothing can be changed. And we know that's almost never the case.

If you asked me: "was the process so spotless that nothing can be changed", I say no, if you ask me - "was the guy/gal good enough to get their bonus on your sales?" I may say yes, depending of course on the experience. In current state of affairs, it seems, I cannot get those two at the same time.

audia8q · July 2006

If the scoring system was fair and made sense I would love the system...It would be helpful to address areas of concern...But the mfg set up a system that was designed to fail the dealerbody if they get anything but a perfect score. This is looking for ways to penalize not ways to improve.....

The mfg is doing exactly what your suggesting the dealer shouldn't do to the salesperson....use the survey as a weapon.

roundtrip · July 2006

I got a survey call from Honda (at least that's what they said.) Do you think it was the dealership feeling me out, or was it really Honda? I haven't gotten anything in the mail, and it's been about 3 1/2 weeks. Does anyone know about this possible tactic?

sandman46 · July 2006

Got mine this week in the mail. Just wait a bit longer...it'll come!

The Sandman

sandman46 · July 2006

I gave my Honda guys all 10's on the surveys I got this week. I did mention though that the service department wasn't quite honest with us about the alignment check. I left the car there when I bought it on Saturday afternoon, on my sales guy's recommendation, so they could check the slight pull to the right on Monday morning. They only swapped the front tires instead of doing the alignment check as they said they did. Two days later I'm back in the service line at 6:45 A M to get the original aligment checked.
Felt that was a bit dishonest and wrote about it on the survey. The service department screwed up eventhough the sales side was great. What will happen with my survey??? A shame that the service guys weren't honest from the get go...I just couldn't forget about it, as I had to drive 40 miles roundtrip so they could fix their "screw up".

The Sandman

nj2pa2nc · August 2006

I also got a survey call from Honda and never received it in the mail. My car is now 18 months old. I also got a call from the dealer but they told me who they were when they called.

qbrozen · August 2006

i'm assuming so, as i also got the phone survey, but never received one in the mail. The questions they asked on the phone were very similar to those I have answered on paper in the past.

roundtrip · August 2006

I did finally get a survey by mail(4 weeks after buying.) I still wonder, though, if I got it only b/c I gave good ratings over the phone. I'm going to give him top scores. I may want another Honda one day. (If he's around then.)

astegman · August 2006

Has anyone recently purchased a Mazda, and if so, did you get a survey? I only got my new CX-7 two weeks ago, and I thought I'd be handed something on the spot, but obviously not! Just curious. Also, are these surveys something every single car dealer does, 100% of the time? I've only leased cars (3 in the past 10 years)- this is my first purchase (are surveys done for a lease? I have no recollection of ever seeing one with my past leases).

bobw3 · November 2006

Do they really do anything with those surveys? I've always been honest with them, but sometimes they're confusing. For example, I drove to the dealer when they told me that a part came in, but after the car spent a day at the dealer, they call me and tell me that they received the wrong part. So after the second visit the correct part came and everything was fine, but on the survey I couldn't honestly give them the highest points because of my wasted trip to the dealer. Even though it wasn't the dealer's fault, I still needed to identify that there was a mistake and the survey was the only way to identify it. I explained this on the survey, but I wonder if someone actually reads the survey or just pulls off the ratings?

On another subject, what is it with salespeople who don't know much about the cars. I know there is dead time for salepeople, and they should use that time knowing the cars inside and out. I was looking for a Versa SL but the sales person said that he has a load Versa S with cruise. I told him that the Versa S doesn't come with cruise and it's not an option. Finally he admitted that he was sure, but it's a new model. That's just one example, but I guess they're more interested at knowing some facts to sell the vehicle versus knowing facts about the vehicle. Or that the Versa "doesn't really need ABS" even though the Consumer Reports test shows a big difference in stopping distance between the Versa with and without ABS. Anyway, just my impression.

madmanmoo · November 2006

Most folks in the business think it's a joke. We have to "coach" the folks taking it so that we can get a good survey. Typically the only time that you will get a bad survey is when someone just plain hates you.

I don't even coach anymore. I ask people to take some time to answer the phone survey because I get paid that way. That's it. I always have great CSI. That's partly because everyone knows that their salesman gets paid that way and less than perfect is bad.

As far as car salesmen not knowing their product....... This is a tricky question. There are a number of factors involved in this answer.

-New to the product line. There are ALOT of things to learn on every vehicle.

-Doesn't care. Alot of salespeople know that the guy who knows everything about every car is typically the guy who sells an average or below average amount of cars every month. Point being, product knowledge doesn't sell cars.

-Lazy. You may have a bad salesperson.

I think that the car salesmen should know their product. Keep in mind though, when you come into a dealership, you've just done all your research on ONE specific car and have it all fresh in your mind. There's really no excuse though. Your salesman should know what the crap he is talking about or let you know he doesn't know.

Any other salesguys care to comment?

-Moo

bobw3 · November 2006

So you get paid based on the survey? You mean if you sell a car to someone just because you don't get a perfect you don't get paid, even though there was a profit for selling the car, financing, trade-in, accessories, etc...? At least you made the sale. It seems like that would be more important than the survey Plus don't you get any regular salary? Yes, I'm ignorant!

For the service dept, I can see how the survey can important, because they want people coming back on a regular basis, but people don't buy new cars that often.

thenebean · November 2006

every dealership pays their salespeople differently. most are commission only - they don't sell a car, they don't get paid. some have base salaries, but not many. some companies give additional bonuses or affect their commission percentage based on their CSI scores (CSI is the survey). you get bad scores, you don't get as much money. simple as that...

with regards to knowledgeable salespeople, many don't care to learn the information because they don't feel they get paid enough to make the extra effort. when i sold cars, i sold nissans, which i personally love anyways - so i was always the product knowledge expert at my dealership.

-thene

madmanmoo · November 2006

Yes, I do get paid regular commission, but I can also be docked pay for having a CSI score that is less than average. At times, it can be a rather healthy punishment as well. It depends on which pay plan the dealership has.

-Moo

madmanmoo · November 2006

I should not have to worry about how my responses impact them. That's not my problem; those business issues should be transparent to me and other customers.

This is an excellent comment. I agree 100%. There should be no reason why we (the salespeople) should have to educate people on their surveys. It really should be 'transparent'.

The stystem is messed up, but we have to play by those rules until they are changed. This is why I don't take too much account for surveys.

Look at J.D. Power's surveys. They have some of the strangest ways of interpreting data for new vehicles. Malibu's with great ratings..... :sick:

-Moo

mazda6iguy · November 2006

I think that the car salesmen should know their product. Keep in mind though, when you come into a dealership, you've just done all your research on ONE specific car and have it all fresh in your mind. There's really no excuse though. Your salesman should know what the crap he is talking about or let you know he doesn't know.

Don't the mfg.'s hold any seminars on new cars? Or are you lucky to get a brochure on the sales points of the car and a maybe a few minutes to read it before you sell it? I had a friend that used to sell new cars back maybe 10 years ago mention that his dealership was sending him to Detroit for a seminar on that years lineup of cars.

benzoservceguy · November 2006

Alrightey!

The survey's are a freaking JOKE.. it all depends on how well we COACH our clients.

One VERY GOOD instead of EXCELLENT will KILL the whole survey and "ding us"

I'm on the service side (like duh, if you couldn't guess by my handle/screename)
and I have AT A MINIMUM of 30% of my BONUS at risk for survey's.

It used to be worse, we used to be on a 3 month rolling average, which meant that ONE (1) bad survey could "ding" us for upto 3 months

Now, it's by the month. If we are above market/region/nation we get the highest %
Make 2 "gates" ABOVE, get a smaller %
make 1 "gate" ABOVE, an even smaller %
Be AT or below GET NADA, NOTHING ZILCH! :mad:

It's all a dog & pony show.

I just wish clients would understand this:

MY PAYCHECK DEPENDS ON YOU GIVING ME A PERFECT SCORE!!

YOU DON'T SCORE ME PERFECT/EXCELLENT, MY KIDS DON'T EAT!

PLAIN & SIMPLE

GOT IT??

GOOD

I can do my job perfectly, you love me, but my porter doesn't wash your car and you ding me on the survey.

Is that MY fault .. NO
Do I have any control over it .. NO
Do you as a client have control ... YES
Is it fair .. NO

But this is the way "the game is played"
It all depends on the COACH.

Capiche?

driveright · November 2006

If I bring my car in for service, the service department is working for me. Having a CSI makes sense, although docking the service department for less than perfect scores makes no sense. As you say, it's a "freaking JOKE".

If I buy a car from a dealer, the dealership is not working for me per se. There is to some degree an adversarial relationship in negotiation. The CSI is an ABUSE by manufacturers & dealers of the salesperson. It is worse than a joke.

benzoservceguy · November 2006

Yes, we do work for YOU .. the client!

But, we DO get docked for less than perfect survey's.

There are 6 to 8 questions that I have DIRECT control over. The other 20 to 25 questions ... NO control

Things such as:

Process to make appt
Cleanliness of store
Cashier handling of paperwork
Was the car clean upon pickup?

Do these have to do with me? ... NOT!

I am held accountable for everybody INCLUDING myself.

So, like I said .. IF I do everything in MY capacity/control but somebody else drops the ball, I PAY FOR IT .. actually, I DON"T GET PAID !! (NOT lol)

Like we all have said & will continue to say (those of us who CHOOSE to be in the biz) until this whole survey nonsense goes away .. it's NOT fair but we ALL have to deal with it and work it to our advantage. We can't cry over spilt milk.

It is what it is. :shades:

Like my dad used to say: " If they give you lemons ... make lemonade" Remember, the glass is always half full ... NOT half empty.

madmanmoo · November 2006

Yes, they do at times. Salesmen aren't always the best learners though.

dreasdad · November 2006

right now for the last 3 months we have had a program where they will give us $10 per car for every car sold for the last 3 months if our Sales Person Index was green for the rolling 90 day results. I have reveived 100's from every single person up till this month when I recieved the survey form some folks I sold an order car to. There was none like it in the region and they wanted it just so, so we ordered it and it took 5 months for them to build it and ship it. As well as they would do more than 200 over invoice.
They filled out the survey average all the way down which gave me a 50 for that survey and I have only gotten 6 other survey in the last 3 months putting me at 92.85, The rolling green was set at 93 so I am out about $500 bonus for .15 of the total score

Surveys suck

british_rover · November 2006

I feel your pain. Similar thing happend to me a couple of months ago.

cxl1 · November 2006

Hey guys...all this talk of bonus money being tied to survey results is all just stupid....the whole purpose for a customer satisfaction/buying experience survey should be to provide feedback to improve customer satisfaction/service, not provide compensation bonus money to service and sales people. Even the best salesperson is not perfect, there's always room for improvement.

With regard to a survey, you can't improve something if you don't know what went wrong and can't use the things you do very well to focus on the areas where you need to make improvement.

So my suggestion if to complain to your car manufacturers...they are the ones screwing with your pay/bonuses, not the customers you serve. If you have to resort to bribery to get a good enough result to get paid, then either the product (auto) you're selling has a problem, your car manufacturers are totally unrealistic with the scores they require, or your not doing a good enough job and probably need the real survey results to help you improve.

As a customer, I want to deal with an honest dealer. The very fact that a dealer attempts to bribe me just for a survey score will automatically make me think of where else are they not being honest with me...in my book, a very bad move...

thenebean · November 2006

do you think that they haven't tried complaining? the fact of the matter is this is the survey that they have to deal with, and manufacturers base inventory allotment and other bonuses, etc on that stupid survey. the only thing dealers/salespeople can do is to coach/bribe because the system is flawed. a dealer who is honest through the sales process needs to do this too, because if you don't know how the system works, you can essentially screw the dealer even though your experience was great. it sucks, everyone hates it, but it doesn't seem like its going to change anytime soon...

my two cents...

-thene

mustangfan23 · November 2006

Surveys do suck. At my dealership they DO matter quite a bit. All the other dealerships in our region are ranked by customer satisfaction and the winner at the end of the fiscal year gets bragging rights. So the owners really take these to heart. I've had customers that plain and simply do not understand that so they don't read it and fill out "average" all the way down. Then there's others that don't appreciate that you spent 3 weeks talking to them about the damn car, and give you a bad survey. What can you do as a salesperson though??? You can educate them, but they may feel you are bribing them. So, I guess you really have to make sure you "click" with the customer and follow-up with them sincerely. Do all the things right and hope that they give you a good survey...

hyundai_slsmn · December 2006

with Hyundai we get spins on every new car ranging from $20-$150 per car. If you sell more than 21 new units per 3 mo and have a CSI score over 95 you get $150. One bad survey and by bad I mean a 90 score can drop you from $150 to $20. Considering that 90% of new car sales are mini's $50-$100 a car our spins are like tips to a waitress or bartender. Generally the worst surveys are given by the people you give the best deals to. The guy that comes in and pays sticker plus loves you wants you to marry his daughter and gives you all 10's on the survey. So do the math 21 cars at $20/car = $240 or $150 at 21 cars = $3150 thats abig difference over a 3 mo period...and it is the one thing you can do for a salesperson or service advisor that costs you nothing and helps them earn a living.

I love it when I hear someone say well I just cant ethically give you 100% if soemthing happened that I wasn;t happy with. Yet these are the same people who will squeeze every penny out of a dealer and commit to buying the car just to take their purchase order to the dealer down the street (after agreeing to the deal with their word a handshake, signature and deposit) and say X dealer up the street gave me this deal can you beat it?

isellhondas · December 2006

The miserable customers that grind us down to the last penny are always the ones that give the bad surveys.

And, I think that is how these people go through life.

Sad...

hyundai_slsmn · December 2006

miserable people are just miserable people. they think youre screwing them on a net deal and youre making $5k on them. they pretty much get mad at you when you try to hold some profit margin too, like youre not entitled to "try" to make a profit

it's not even the people that grind you down that are the miserable people most often they dont even buy the car after you gave them everything they wanted. someone in svc gives them a hard time or the F&I guy pisses them or theres a mechanical problem they throw you down on the survey...the one guy who actually nothing to do with causing the problem and no way of fixing it

smittynyc · December 2006

I just bought a new car, and the buying experience was very pleasurable. It was fast, it was convenient, it was a good deal, and the dealer delivered on everything he promised without any stress whatsoever.

I know from the last time that I purchased this make, the survey is going to include the question, "Were you introduced to the service manager?" For some reason -- I think the dealership had a bunch of deliveries the same morning -- I was not. I don't really care that I wasn't.

What should I do for the survey? I don't want this oversight to reflect poorly on the dealer, but I don't want to lie on the survey, either.

british_rover · December 2006

Just say yes you were introduced and then in the comment section say that introduction was very quick and could have been better.

Did you happen to buy a Land Rover? Because that is one of the most missed questions on the Land Rover Surveys?

smittynyc · December 2006

Nope, a Subaru. If I'd purchased a Rover, you would have known about it from my bouncing about a million questions off you.

british_rover · December 2006

Heheh

I guess that is just a common question then.

jipster · December 2006

Just say yes...

smitty said he didn't want to lie.

I would suggest marking "no", then in the comment section write excellent service...100% satisfied. Let them do with it what they will.

thenebean · December 2006

i would not recommend checking no. unfortunately, even though the question has nothing to do with sales, it can and will affect the scoring on the salesperson's CSI. the system is very flawed and seriously needs to be fixed. i understand not wanting to lie, but i would check yes, then put a comment in the comments section. that way, the GM at the dealership (or whoever reads them) will know that it wasnt done properly, but you wont affect the salesperson in a very negative manner for such a minute detail.

just my opinion though...

-thene

british_rover · December 2006

No, you got it backwards the manufacutrer only really cares about the scored portion of the survey not the comments part. If that question is a yes or no question then a no is a ZERO and that ZERO PERCENT score will destroy the CSI score for that salesperson potentialy costing him/her thousands of dollars in bonus money.

Depnding on how the bonus system is set up it might take the salesperson a couple of months to recover from that ZERO score and get back in the money. That assumes all of the following surveys are 100% scores.

1racefan · December 2006

"If that question is a yes or no question then a no is a ZERO and that ZERO PERCENT score will destroy the CSI score for that salesperson potentialy costing him/her thousands of dollars in bonus money."

Right, but the question is asking if a task was completed - In this case, was he introduced to the service manager. In this case ZERO PERCENT (no) of that task was completed. Had the salesperson completed said task, then he could reward them with a (yes) 100% completion score. Again, going with the assumption he wants to answer honestly. If it is the salesman's responsibility to introduce the customer to the service guy, and he didn't, then that's the salesman's fault. I'm not here to bash a salesman, but most people get graded for different aspects of their job, and if someone neglects to adequately complete a certain task, they aren't neccessarily given a free pass, because they are a "nice guy".

Out of curiosity, what would happen if he did not answer the question - just totally skipped it? Not saying that is the "honest" thing to do either, but I'm just curious in general.

By the way...If I felt that strongly about honesty, and did like the salesman, I would call him, and tell him that I think he forgot to introduce me to the service manager. If the dealership was close to me, I would ask him if he could do so if I swung by at a convenient time for both of us (then give him the "YES" check).

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