I had the MINI into the dealer yesterday for the v39 recall thing and, as is usual with BMW dealers, was told to expect a follow-up call from someone to guage my satisfaction.

First let me say the service was wonderful and i felt cherished from the moment I walked through the door.

My problem is that the poor service consultant is forced to hand me a letter and a cute MINI score card which says "Any mark less than a 10 results in a failing grade" for her. She was a charming helpful, pregnant young woman and I now feel responsible for the well being of her unborn child if I don't do the 10 thing.

If BMW truly wants customer feedback they should not attempt such blatant coercsion nor biase the way people answer. With a potential score of 1 to 10 there is lots of great scores which are not 10. If all they care about is 10 then the question should be binary i.e. Were you happy . . . YES/NO.

I am not going to respond to these 'surveys' anymore and would encourage anyone else who feels manipulated to do the same.

Here endith the rant KWKSLVR

 

I agree, Binary responses would be more appropriate than 9 fail and 1 pass.

 

We all benefit if the dealers get real feedback.

Ignore that emotional blackmail spin of the less than 10 is failure, sheesh. It skews the numbers and makes them look and feel good.

The only consumer benefit from their approach is that they try very hard to make it a good experience so extra points for that, the drawback is they won't see where the cracks are and some of us may fall in.

I found the air in most BMW showrooms rather rarified and the MINI showrooms I've been to upscale and boutiquey. These environments can undermine the consumers confidence... Most (not all) of the general public purchasing vehicles are not very knowledgeable and can be intimidated by the purchasing experience as it is, put them into these environments and the balance of power is at the wrong end.

I say fill them out and be as honest as possible.

 

All car dealers and manufs do this nowadays. I've received similar presses at Volvo, Nissan, and Chrysler dealers. For some reason, I've never been handed a survey by my MINI dealer...despite the fact that they're the only one out of the bunch that I'd even consider giving a "10" to.

Personally, I think such behavior is pathetic and shows a total misunderstanding of the process of assessment (a pet peeve, since this is what I do for a living). A properly constructed evaluation rubric should make it pretty near impossible to receive a perfect score. Consistent 10s - which is what these bozos seem to want - would show manipulation of data and nothing else...if of course any of this meant anything. Which it doesn't.

But btw, if you ever want a good laugh (or are despirate for attention), give one of these folks a significant low score on just one item. That usually results in a call from someone at the dealer who will plead with you to raise the score.

 

I work in a market research company, and our customer satisfaction guru did a very interesting study on customer satisfaction ratings.

Let's assume a 5 point scale.

He demonstrated in this study, that the people most likely to give you repeat business are the ones who rated you a 5. Surprisingly, the ones who rate you a 4 are much more less likely to give you repeat business.

This is why companies "strive for fives". It's because truly, anything less is not good enough.

 

Give them 1's. See how fast you get stuff done then. I've also been told that the techs get paid based partly on the scores.

 

Has anyone thought about reversing the manipulation. Tell service to do something extra or they will not get a 10. When I picked up my car I asked for a 5 year tire/wheel warrantee for nothing and "s" rubber mats. I got them and they got their good score.

Remember we have the power. The service department gets alot of benefits by achieving top scores.

 

I don't know about "alot". Remember also that there are very few MINI dealers and when it comes right down to it, the individual customer has virtually no choice as to where to take their car for warranty service. That's simply the reality of MINI nowadays...and this fact of life is not lost on the dealers or the company either. Right now, the competition for "10s" is mostly pro-forma and just the basic good business practice of trying to please the customer. When the day comes where one MINI dealer needs to actually compete with another, THEN the customer will have a real barganing chip.

 

:smile: I just wish they would use satisfaction surveys for insurance companies and doctors. Wouldn't that change things!

 

Sambusik's mention of market research makes an interesting connection. Actually, the little exercise car dealers put us through at service time is not about assessing anything. Rather, it's actually a marketing technique designed to encourage customers to think positively about their service experience. If you look at it this way, the obvious uselessness of the "data" now begins to make sense. In other words, the dealership in the big picture doesn't care about the accumulated data (still though, they may hold the service-writer accountable for successfully operating the scam). Their real task is to steamroll YOU into believing no matter what that you had a positive experience. Hummmm....

 

I was told the same thing when I had my several Hondas, i.e., that anything less than a 10 was really bad. As long as I don't have any real problems, I'll give them what they want, i.e., 10. They can use the data to determine which dealers are best. Those that are best, can get special treatment, i.e., greater allotment of special edition cars or something (or maybe more JCW kits or something!).

 

I recently had my Mini in for warranty service on the transmission. Since I was in a hurry and no money changed hands - I simply put the service receipt in the owners manual and thought nothing more of it. When I got the car home I noticed a big grease print in the headliner. Driving to work the next day the car simply died - no warning nothing - just went dead. On closer inspection the mechanic had neglected to tighten the battery connection and it worked loose.
That evening I received a phone call from BMW re the service. Although the overall rating was good I mentioned the grease print and the loose battery cable. Two days later I got a phone call from the dealer basically giving me HELL for not calling him first. Apparently they post a note on their service receipts that unless I could give them a perfect score I was to call this dealer rep. I was a little surprised by this reaction and apologized and later wondered why I was feeling guilty.

 

Remember, it is NOT your fault your dealership screwed up

 

Well, I think the idea from the car company's point of view originally started as a way to get valid feedback. However, they also realized they could make the dealers try harder and strive for excellence so they do base bonus and such on the scores so the dealer's beg for high marks. However, many dealers, instead of trying to give excellent service, just beg for good scores.


I had a service manager at a GMC dealer (which has since gone out of business ) tell me not to come back again after I had some issues (long term) with their service and gave them a truthful response on the survey, with comments to back it up. He actually told me "your survey took money out of my pocket" so they dohave some impact.

 

I've never been real happy about the service I've gotten from the local dealer, and never once got a survey...

But when I had a Saturn, I got a survey for every single visit to the dealer starting with the purchase and continuing for every little service visit. I always filled them out...