phattey

Man...I was blasted by the Service Manager and one of his writers over the past week.

Seems my score on a survey, put them in a bad spot, even to the point bonuses were'nt paid. Ouch..!!

Interestingly enough the surveyer asked only about my "last" visit with the dealer which was ummm...not good. She didn't seem to care about the previous 10 visits which were stellar good service. The survey dosen't care that the probelms the dealer caused, which is why they got a bad score, were fixed quickly or not, it just recorded my score addressing the dealer did cause a problem...not very fair to the dealer.

The issue is that I have, is that these guys expected me to lie about the experience, opposed to telling the truth...I have a big problem with that. Surveys are to get metrics which are then used to better a process. It's too bad they are tied back to money for these guys...that's a real bummer.

Funny thing though, they blame me exclusively for the bad scoring, which seems odd. If 1 person can bring down the house, either no one else bothered to take it, or all the scores were bad and mine was the icing on the cake.

At any rate, I've scheduled time with the GM to express my complete surprise and disbelife that service professionals can act in that fashion. This all came about as I called to have a service done, which they usually get me in right away. They stated no appointments till December 15th..??!!??!! Of course I asked why...?? Then came the fireworks.

I hate to hang these guys out to dry, but talking to a good customer with a threating tone and litleraly yelling must be communicated to the GM...hopefully the GM will care.

I still love my car though...

Phattey..

Keyvan

When I bought my car in Boston at a BMW dealership my dealer pulled me to the side like a drug deal was about to take place and told me that if I don't answer 'excellent' to every question i was asked when they called me he would get into deep trouble. The options where poor, fair, good, & excellent. Even if you say 'good' that is considered a fail. These surveys should be a bit more granualar and not limited to a mulitple choice if they want them to be more effective.

Sloth

If this is the local Jax dealer, I can relate. The shop supposedly has a good reputation, but I have never had a good experience with them. My father on the other hand... he swears by them. The funny thing is that I always complain about my local dealership down here (mostly on price), but they have always managed to fix everything that the Jax dealer was supposed to fix.

Rob in WA

I think it's kind of weird that they find out who did the rating. I save my excellent ratings for only truely "excellent" service - good is still good. (Does that make sense?)

nova996

Absolutely. The survey system and the incentive structure behind them has become a joke.

Turbo Racer

I've had this too with BMW and now with a turbo I really am not looking forward to the experience with the same dealer. The service I received was poor, professionalism poor, and they didn't fix the problems as described. When I got the phone call I was honest. When I returned to have the car back they didn't bother even calling about my experience. They were also rude. I think this feedback stuff is all grossly inflated and geared at pointing fingers and punitive. All the focus is on the problem rather than the solution. As a customer, I am stuck with feeling like I have to cow down to these guys or get crappy service. My alternative is to take the car 45 minutes away to get serviced. I think the fact that many of us who've laid down $100k should get better service especially for the premium we pay. my 2cents.

geoff

peterC4C

I suppose these surveys mean alot to these guys, I know of a mercedez dealer in my area that PAYS for a "excellent" survey. The service manager offered a $100 gift certificate for their parts shop for me to bring the survey to them and let them fill it out and send it in.

Peter

A4EP

There was an article in Automotive News about a year and a half ago that detailed the importance of these surveys. The example manufacturer that they used was BMW.

In the past the manufacturers used a typical sales tool which was the year end growth incentive. If the dealer sold more cars than the previous year they would get x percent back from their yearly purchases. In the past 2 years the customer satisfaction trend has taken hold and is now the number 1 priority to the manufactueres so they have cut the growth incentive for selling more cars significantly, I think the figure I read was something like a 75% cut, and are now basing year end incentive payments on these surveys.

Now here is the kicker, the service department and the new car sales department are both seperate in these surveys, and both have seperate payments, I don't remember the service side numbers at all. As for the new car sales surveys the numbers are rediculous. If all exellents are received then the dealer gets somethnig like 12-15% of their yearly purchases back (please note these numbers are from memory so they might vary, I was just so shocked when I saw them that I remembered the approximate range). But if there is one rating that comes back as not excellent then their year end bonus gets cut down to 5-8% of yearly purchases. And if there are more than that there is a scale for decreasing monnies.

The number of non-exellent feedbacks might be more than 1 but it is a very very very small number considering. Either way if you look at it from a dealer standpoint 12-15% of your yearly spendig with that manufacturer is not a small number. So that is why these dealers are so forceful when it comes to these surveys. I remember when I bought my Audi back in 1998, I was also pulled aside and told the utmost importance of these surveys and how ONLY and excellent would be accepible and if my experience was not excellent then to tell them so they can make it that way.

So there you have it, from Automotive News that is why if you don't answer excellent on the surveys you will get treated horribly I wish I would have kept that article, it was really interesting.

A4EP

2002 C4S, SG/BLK

Toreador

I have not had any survey experiences with Porsche, but when I bought my wife's Honda Odyssey we were offered a gas fill-up and free oil change in exchange for the unfilled survey.

Torags

All I can say is wow. I've learned a lot here........ I had no idea.

LAJ_996

agree T-rag
this place is amazing
i feel i get so much info here, a much more informed customer

Poursha

When I bought my E55, I went to pick up the car after it had been detailed, at noon, since they said it would be done then (when they originally said it would be ready the day before). I got there and it wasn't ready yet--they need another hour. I'm not happy, but I go to lunch. Come back nearly 2 hours later, and when I inspect the car, there's tar, glue spots, etc.--a lot on the front bumper, and a bunch in several other places. So they take it back to the shop and the sales guy pulls me aside and says that this shouldn't count against him on the survey, blah, blah, blah. After hearing the word survey a half dozen times, I tell him to stop talking about the survey and make sure the car is detailed right. A half hour later it's back, and there's still stuff in areas I pointed out. At this point, I'm getting noticeably annoyed, and the sales guy pulls me aside again and goes into his survey pitch. I told him that if he mentioned the survey one more time I was going to give him all unsatisfactory ratings.

Palting

They must listen to you. On my survey, scoring was 1-10, 5 being average and 10 being excellent. I gave them all 10's except for twp items, where I gave nines. Well deserved scores in my opinion. Cheating in the form of "buying" excellent scores is abominable.

phattey

Poursha...nicely put...and I like the way you handled the situation.

That was with the sales guy..right? Or was it service..

phattey

Palting - If the survey had've been my previous visit...they guys would've scored 10's all the way around....but the survey "just happended" to fall on a visit where everything went wrong.

Mine was also 1- 10 scoring, where I never went below a 5 on any of it...plus a couple of 10's. Thus, I'm confused where they found the average of a 66, which made the shop puke..