Webtool

My experience with 3 years with a BMW 740 was that the service attitude was only marginally better than you get at GM, in other words weak.
Upon answering the service survey with poor ratings nothing is done to correct the issues which caused the problems. So whats the point of the survey really? Its maybe supposed to raise the level of service the next guy gets?
Its just a shame that service people never seem to work with the passion for excellence that the engineers and product planners have.
In my perfect world service and engineering would have much closer ties rather than have the service dept. a divison of sales.
I expect Porsche to better if only because of the lower volumes the dealer sees.
Bye-the-way, I discovered today why winter tires go on this time of year, thank-you PSM! saved my novice butt.

amfp

One quick story, I had a argument with the service manager about the work unnecessary done to my Porsche. I got the bill, but they never attached the satisfaction survey. I later spoke with the GM and got my issues resolved, but again never got the survey. It is unfortunately we are a measurements society and much is subjective, imo. That is why I never pay much attention to surveys, and not believer of ones like in some publications.

Gery NJ

all of the dealerships ask you politely only to give best ratings. Had this with BMW, Lexus and Porsche.

01 C4 Cab NYC

I took my car in for the 15k service and have the damn key reset so that the seat would not move to the 'Midget' setting the previous owner had it on (I've read the manual, and the posts on the board, none of it works). They didn't set the key fob. So a day or two later when someone called about a survey I was honest, everything was great, but they didn't do everything I asked. I pretty much gave them 9-10's all around but when it came to was service satisfactory, I gave them a 7 or so...
Never heard a word from the dealer, and if I had I'd have called and ripped the GM a new one, and then in the future, tell them where they could shove their survey.
Good to know that the dealer hears about the survey, bad that they know who filled it out...

Random Alias

Just 'took' a survey recently about my last visit.

Conducted by J.D. Powers for Porsche. They used a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best.

These surveys are pointless as far as I'm concerned for a few reasons.

1. Lack of anonymity. From reading threads like this, I know the service department might hold it against you if you don't rate excellent across the board, so I'm only going to rate them less than excellent if they were really and truly horrible.

2. 10s are apprently the only acceptable answer to Porsche. Scoring good (like 8 or 9 out of 10) should not be considered bad.

3. Sometimes an 11 is needed. Since 10s are expected, there's no way to indicate when your dealer went above and beyond your expectations. There were a couple items where I thought this was the case, but as I was handing out 10s across the board, nobody will ever know.

Truth be told, my visit deserved straight 10s, except for 2 issues, which I would have given them a 9 on.

The first issue was parts availability. The part wasn't in stock and they had it shipped which took a few days. Didn't bother me in the least, as that doesn't seem unreasonable, but common sense says a '10' should have been reserved for those occasions when the part is in stock.

The second issue was the loaner car. It was a rental, which I'm okay with, but only full size cars were available whereas I'd rather have had a mid-size or compact. That particular topic wasn't part of the survey though.


If Porsche really cares about its customers and their opinions they need to anonymize the process and not hold good scores like 9s against the dealers. The current system isn't fair to either of us.

ben in lj

i'm giving em whatever they deserve. if they treat me right, they'll see it. if they don't, i'm more than happy to tell the truth about it. if we pussyfoot around and lie about the crap service we receive on these premium vehicles, we have no one else to blame but ourselves when things don't change. just leave your personal information off the card and tell the truth.

i had the most horrendous new p-car experience once (absolutely FULL of lies the whole way through it), and i told the surveyor all about it including dates, specifics, etc. service dept told me all about it. turns out they (service) get screwed even if the sales guys get a crap rating. too bad. fix the system if they don't like it. how the heck are you supposed to motivate people with these things if you are going to punish those not responsible for the activity (the service dept in this instance)? what a crock this whole thing is. i'll only send anonymous surveys back in and they WILL always be 100% reflective of the experience - good or bad.

1AS

I once had a BMW 850 dropped off the lift during service causing $18,000 in damage. After that rift was repaired ( by a full repurchase of my 850i and $20,000 off a new 850 CSI) the shop was nasty at my next visit. I asked my attorney to write a letter to BMW NA. The service manager lost his job within a month. Needless to say, I agree with Palting- don't give the scores unless they're earned. Also, you might hold the reply until you're sure all your issues are satisfied. By the way, my Porsche service dept. , Lynch, has earned 10's. AS

BRUCE

I agree with many of the sentiments expressed so far. We have all spent a great deal of money on our cars and we should receive good service. These surveys you all speak of are quite a challenge. As it was stated, they really don't reflect an experience, nor are they regarded by most dealers as a tool for improvement. These failures are a result of the bizarre system of scoring and the enormous consequences of failure.
The results of these surveys are tabulated and scores are based on the percent of responses that are perfect, IE. excellent or completely satisfied. Any other response; 9 out of 10, good, or satisfied, is scored as a zero. So if the dealer receives 10 returned surveys in a month and 7 are perfect and 3 have any other mark, the dealer receives a 70% customer satisfaction rating. This score is bad. This is why the dealership employees are forced to explain the scoring to their customers. Imagine in school if we used a system where if you did not get an "A", you failed. I , like most of you, don't usually regard anything as excellent unless it is extraordinary. But does a good job deserve a zero?
Furthermore, the manufacturers tie all kinds of programs, incentives and even the awarding of future franchises to these scores, among other criteria. At my dealership about $200k a year +. This places a huge amount of pressure on the employees to achieve good scores and hence the backlash when they are informed about the customers who have criticized them.
This whole system is harmful on many levels. The surveys should be weighted differently and the scores not so crucial. Then maybe the dealership staff would spend more time trying to figure out how to genuinely improve rather than how to get people to give a good score.
A customer should never be punished for his honesty. I do try to prevent this at my store. Hopefully this information shines further light on the topic.

DJF1

Surveys if they are used right they are a very usefull tool. I'm an executive in the Hospitality Industry and we use the surveys very much to gauge the reaction to our product and the guest experience. The problem is that in order to be usefull the management has to be in the right frame of mind to use the surveys as a way to improve performance learning from mistakes, not necessarily punishing behaviors. To the point of keeping anonymous the survey it would be pointless because then you do not know the case and why the bad scores were given. As i said used constructively you can also see cases where the customer had unreasonable demands or was expecting to get 'service' shouting his/her way through the staff and other ugly stories that are every day occurences in this day and age.
Again management and how these surveys are handled its the key. If one of my managers or employees had a vindictive behavior i would certainly like to know about it immediately and in person. The same would be if someone is soliciting good comments, I would like to know immediately... Training is key as well as company's culture to treat these cases productively and in a constructive way. If the only way of managing bad comments is holding the yard stick and cutting peoples salaries then it leads to solicitors and vindictive behaviours... Of course if you have these kind of employees and you treat them right in the first place its completely unacceptable but in my organization I have almost never encountered vindictive behaviours... In any event senior management needs to know, they also need to know the good stuff as well. In the 'service' industry we tend to only hear the bad and the ugly, however it is very powerfull to hear the good stories as well. Finally putting a good comment for someone does not cost anything, if nothing else you reward the positive behaviour and that person is more likely to treat you even better the next time you visit. You would be surprised how many people are rude to the employees from the get go...A professional will treat this customer as per policy, nothing more nothing less. The notion that screaming your way to get stuff done i can tell you its long gone... Rewarding the good behavior will take you a long way...

teflon_jones

you guys are talking about filling out surveys, but all of my surveys have been by phone. somebody calls me up a week or two after my service and asks me a bunch of questions. does anybody else here get their surveys that way?

i used to own a vw passat and vw gave the surveys the same way.

LanceK

I agree with DJ that having a name attached to a survey helps to remember that particular situation and therefore facilitate improvement. If the survey is anonymous how would you use it to actually do something?

That said, I certainly sympathize with everyone who feels a little "pressure" when taking these surveys. Although I am as honest as possible, I feel the same way.

chris walrod

In 2000, my wife and I bought a new Jetta. During the whole buying process, they all kept reminding us of the survey, post sale. Drove the car home and noted a squeak in the cosole area that was supposed to be fixed prior to taking delivery, but was still there. Not sure if they even attempted to fix it?

Anyhow had a handshake deal (I know, get it on the due bill) about getting a smokin' deal on tinting the windows. Survey called a week later (before tinting) and I gave them all 10's (since the service was great) except on the question about if the car was 100%. That is where I explained the small issue. A few days later I called the dealer to schedule the tinting appt. and was told, "no deal", since I scored them down on that one area. Of coarse the conversation became heated, to say the least.

Another funny thing is a year or so later, we lemon lawed the car, got ALL of our money refunded and to this day, we still get long term customer satisfaction surveys.....HMMMM I think their right hand needs to talk to their left hand.....

teflon_jones

that's funny, i still get satisfaction calls and mail from vw about my passat all the time and i sold it two and a half years ago!

speedyB

My first service experience went really well, except the car was a little late (I was waiting). The folks doing the car wash were shortstaffed, and the service manager actually went back and helped work on the car to hurry things up.

I got the call, and answered all nines and tens except for one. Had I known about the way these surveys are used in awarding bonuses, I would have been happy to mark up the scores. I'd really regret causing them [Porsche of Nashua (NH)] any problems because of a very harsh grading curve.

redcab

I like one local Acura dealer's approach.
In the service area, there is a huge sign by the advisor's desk:

IF ANYTHING WE ARE DOING TODAY WOULD NOT RATE "EXCELLENT" PLEASE LET US KNOW IMMEDIATELY"

They get 2 messages across: (1) the survey is important to them and (2) they want to earn the mark.

Seems a lot more effective to me than the bullying tactics described in this thread.