About a year ago, I submitted a survey (Mini of Freeport, NY) which greatly complimented one SA I dealt with and criticized the other, who was horrendous. I actually received a call from one of the service managers (who left a message and never returned my call) and a “talk” in person from another who basically told me not to criticize this SA to anyone, even though all I have said is “I do not deal with her” when I bring my car in for service. I would rather not go into what happened here, but honestly I have no idea how she still has a job based on her performance at this dealership, and her yelp reviews from a previous dealership, where she is
repeatedly mentioned by name.
To get to the point, in the few times I have visited since, I have NEVER received another survey. It’s obvious that I have been blocked. Anyone else have this experience? Should I contact MINI USA?
Thanks,
Joseph

 

What I was told both at the Mini dealership where I bought my JCW Coupe in 2014, and the Kia dealership where we bought my wife's Sorento last month is that unless you give them 10/10 across the board they don't get any Brownie Points at all. Which I think is pretty weird. I was real happy with both the SA's I dealt with and would have given them great marks but to tell me that ahead of time was weird. And I still haven't gotten a survey from the Kia dealership and we bought a $41k car there.

 

One of my (other) dealers would offer me free gas fill-ups, free washes, and so on, for a 10/10 survey rating.

I am not proud. I can be bought.

 

Consider yourself lucky, I'd opt out of all surveys from all companies if it were possible, seems like I get one for almost everything I buy or do. But to answer your question, you probably were taken off whatever list they have for sending out surveys. I've had similar experiences in the past with dealers, whenever the visit/service doesn't go well I never receive an email for a survey. Having worked at a dealer in the past I know that the surveys directly affect their job so avoiding all customers that had issues betters their chances of getting a better rating.

 

The first time I got the "only a perfect rating is acceptable" talk at a dealership was in 1997. I've heard many versions since. This evaluation system is seriously flawed in multiple ways, not least the shameless solicitations (and even bribery) for perfect scores.

 

sometimes they change your contact info so someone from the dealership gets the survey to fill out. Had it happen to me once.

 

When I deal with surveys from any business or person that helps me like in a dealership, I always give a 9 instead of a 10 as the highest score.

The reason I gave this rating which is also a question in the survey is " no one is perfect " .

Even if the survey was about myself, I would have to expect a 9 even if I did my very best; as no one is perfect, not even me.

Don't feel bad when you fill out the survey truthfully. If the person deserves a 1 that's what they get; sorry the truth hurts sometimes.

 

I get those talks when I go on a tour or there's any sort of guide. It's a terrible system, especially for someone like me who is... I'd say understated. Companies should try to get honest feedback instead of just trying to pump up their numbers. I feel bad, but rarely are do people give perfect service. I often get surveys from stores and it'll have a question like "how close did we come to an ideal shopping experience". I want to say "I can imagine a lot!".

 

The companies that only reward all 10s destroy the value of the survey as a tool to improve their business. I seldom complete a survey when an otherwise “good” sales person tells me how to fill it out.

I was told last month by a good sales person that I also needed to rate the finance guy a 10 or it would impact him. He then apologized for the finance guy who was new and his supervisor left early and could not help him. This was before I met the finance guy.

If if you receive great or terrible service use another method to share your opinion.

 

Whomever came up these types of all or nothing surveys for customer satisfaction pulled one of the best scams in recent memory. They are a terrible judgement of customer satisfaction.

I hate them as a customer and I hated them as an employee.

 

Lucky you. I have asked to stop receiving surveys a couple times already...

 

When companies force their employees to talk with clients to give them 10s, it makes the survey a trash piece of data. Coming from a dealership, everyone was not encouraged, but forced under the threat of reprimand or loss of pay, to make sure people were only giving 10s.
Honest survey answers are more valuable to improving a business. I don't see why artificially boosting ratings is helpful when everything is taken into account. I can see the short term, the SA getting their bonus, and not having to worry about being reprimanded, but a store's rating should be a true reflection. I'd rather see a company say "please answer truthfully" then "Please only give 10s or we'll remove your email from the account so you don't get a survey". If they didn't punish their employees for not getting a 100%, they would be more useful. I mean, if you get like, under a 60% on a survey response, that's different, but getting a 95% on a survey, and having negative consequences, when that 5% loss might not have even been your actions, but "how they liked the facility" that's absolutely ridiculous.

If employees didn't fear reprimand, there would be a lot more opportunities to guide people to success than fear of 1 point off a survey.

 

You are pretty much bullying your employees into artificially manipulating a survey that could be very useful but now isn't...in the name of corporate bonus structure. It is absolute garbage.

 

Agreed. Trash.

 

I recently gave a bad review to service department at MINI. That didn't go well for them or me.

 

Sounds like there's more to be shared here?

 

The system is, indeed, very broken and dealer groups are in constant conversation with BMW/MINI leadership regarding this issue. Lawsuits have been filed over the way surveys can impact payments to dealers.

When a customer inadvertently stumbles into the middle of the dealer's money tree, things can indeed get weird.

It has always been my policy to give all 10s if I can, and, if for any reason I can't, to always give the dealer/service department an opportunity to fix my problem so I can give that 10.

Amazing leverage. I'm not proud, but I have come to accept the fact that I didn't write this rule book -- but I will use it to my advantage, within reason -- never asking for what isn't fair, but always insisting that I receive what any reasonable person would consider a 10 experience. Pretty simple, really.

I also always mention during negotiations on a car deal or when getting a service write up that I am looking forward to giving all top ratings on the survey if this transaction goes as smoothly as I know we all want it to. And I'm true to my word because those 10s impact people's wallets hard, and I'm a real grinder so, if I get most of what I want, I'm happy to spread good karma.

Sometimes this seems unfair -- to give 10s when someone at a dealership has not delivered a 10 experience -- but I can let management know my issue, then, when they've addressed it to my satisfaction, let them know I'm going to give 10s because the entire operation shouldn't suffer due to one bad actor. My goal is to get what I want and to move past the less-than-10 people one encounters in this world. After all, they are their own punishment!!

This approach paid unexpected dividends once when a General Manager loaded me up with a bunch of really nice swag as he thanked me for the "courteous and professional way" I let him know about what had happened during a bad experience I had at his dealership.

Keep the Good Karma flowing, even in a very broken system.

 

What happened?

 

Unfortunately your info is not kept private from the dealer when MINI reports the scores to the dealer. So dealers if they find a customer that blast them on every survey they find a way to change your contact info so you don't get the survey and can't hurt them. I've seen it happen first hand, and know it still happens.

I agree with you on part that no one is perfect. But after working at a dealer and knowing people in other industries that get surveys on how these tie directly to individual paychecks I can't do that. As there are also many people that always fill out surveys with low scores or just the middle number. So now I find that when I'm given a survey if I got what was expected and they did the job they were suppose to I go ahead and give them the top rating to offset the ones that don't as it's so much not in their control even if they do their job. But I do always fill out the comments and note things honestly.

This is so true as there is so much money tied to the bonus going to the dealers for sales and service giving that 10 score can give you some leverage or just get you that little better treatment when you are there as they look at you as a "good" customer. But for sure if you do have an issue it needs to be brought to the attention, and when it does it will help if you say I gave you 10s cause I know how important it is, but at the same time your issue is important and needs taken care of.