My wife and I are heading to the dealership to pick up Mini Bee, a LY/B MC, our second MC, which we have to travel about 200 miles to the closest dealer. My question is should I give our Sales Advisor the five stars in service even though I really don't think he deserves it? The reason why is because he's making me feel like I owe him, unlike the first SA at a different MINI Cooper dealership where we bought Little Pez, a PW/W MC, our first.
But I'm torn about giving him five stars because as I have read in other NAM posts you become "flagged" and treated bad as a MINI customer if you don't give the five stars. So what should I do? Give him the five stars, or give him what I truly feel he deserves but take the chance of being branded as a trouble customer?

 

I have been treat somewhat indifferently at the same dealership, but as you say, why get flagged? Where else are you going to go for warranty work?

ps: if you aren't already a member, check out www.nmmini.org
(if you are, my apologies; I'm new to the club)

 

You're kidding, I would never give anyone a higher score than they deserved for anything.
Don't be intimidated by anyone.

Score the MA, (or SA), with a score you think they have earned. Sometimes you get decent service and sometimes you don't. Faking the scores ain't gonna help.

 

No way should you give good scores if they don't deserve it. What's the point of doing something like that? If you get less than stellar service anyway, how is that going to improve things for you?

 

If they are going to flagged you and treat you bad in service since you giving their MA less than 5 rating.. you should do the same thing about their service. You don't need to be afraid of giving either their MA or SA less than 5 rating. Also you have a choice of going to another dealer for service. This rating system is intend to monitoring dealership performance not to threatern customer, so MA should worried about customer not giving them 5 rating but not customer worried about that.

 

My thoughts are that they earn a rating. If he didn't earn a 5 star rating well shame on your MA. If it was me I'd tell the MA what I had problems with. If there was a problem he could fix I'd expect him to do it. If it's because of a poor attitude on his part, well that's harder to fix. Your call, but I would rate honestly.

Chuck

 

what do you have to lose? One bad experience to which you promptly call MINIUSA and stress your concerns about being treated poorly.

Cause what they have to lose is their jobs.

So dont worry about getting flagged. Cause if they show any hint of service like that you know the number to call.

 

Be fair in your scoring. If your MA prepared the car well and the delivery went smoothly and you are happy with the treatment, then give him/her the highest score because they deserve it.

Some people seem to have an "ax to grind" with dealership personnel just for the heck of it, and seem to enjoy the pleasure of screwing their MA or SA in the evaluation even if those folks gave them good and fair service. Shame on people that seem to harbor unreasonable distrust and even hatred to hard working folks in car dealerships, whether is a MINI store, BMW or Ford. Those folks put up with long hours and many times stressful situations to get the job done. Let's recognize and praise those MA's and SA's who do the job right!

If my MA and SA go out of their way to solve my issues and make me happy with my purchase, I give them the highest possible score, If they don't, well they don't.

Last week I gave my SA a straight "5" evaluation because he simply went out of his way (Which is his usual way of doing business with his customers) to solve some minor warranty issues with my wife's '02 MC. He got me in and out of the service dept in about 1 and a half hours and everything was done to perfection.

Give credit where credit is due.

 

Exactly, give credit where it is due and if its not due be honest about it and rate it as you see fit the experience. The MAs job is the entire sales process, from the beginning through the end and if you feel their knowledge and treatment was the best or less then that rate it accordingly. I do not think you will be 'flagged' over in service and if they ask you about it you can explain your answers. If they pressure you simply ask if they want you to lie about it or if they really cared about the level of customer service..

You can try to use it to your advantage as well and tell them where things were lacking in advance and give them the chance to make it up to you prior to the survey and hopefully improve on those things - thing is they may not care and just not have you called for the survey.

Edit: I wonder why MAs and SAs don't tell you about the survey at the beginning and say something to the effect of 'if you are unhappy with xyz and/or feel there is anything we could improve on to merit the 5 rating please let us know" beforehand instead of the 'rate us all 5s' posted on the desks, put on the paperwork, etc.

 

If the MA did everything he said he would and handled any issues that came in a professional way then why not give him the "5's"? I read the same on the BMW boards about this same issue. Unless you have actually been Client Advisor you really don't know how these surveys effect your livelyhood. Keep in mind several of the questions don't even have to do with the MA, they have to do with finance, how they were treated even before they met the MA for the first time etc.

If the MA handled the process in a professional manner and the finance dept pissed you off then don't take it out on the MA. Remember there are alot of different people who are involved in this process but the survey ONLY effects the MA.

 

I wouldn't give 5 stars based on fear that you may get flagged and not get good service from the dealer. I had a MA that deserved 5 stars and that is what I gave him. Yet, the service still sucks. They are not going to give you bad service for bad numbers. Some just give you bad service regardless.

 

i think u guys missed the point that he has to drive 200 miles to this place. unlike me in LA who I can go to 10 different dealers, I dont think he has the same deal goin for him

 

Nope, didn't miss that

 

Why would anyone worry about giving a non-5 rating & getting flagged (whatever that is). I would give your MA the fair score he or she deserves. If they don't like it & try to take it out on you later when you need servicing (which I seriously doubt would ever happen) then give the service department the ratings they deserve also.

I was never given any paperwork to rate my MA after my purchase but I have been to 2 different dealerships for servicing & they both sucked (flag or no flag )

 

Okay, maybe not really a horror story, but at the time it felt like it and I will NOT give my original MA 5 stars, what do you think? After waiting 10 weeks for Lambchop to come in, my MA called me at 8:15 A.M. on the morning I was supposed to pick her up and said she wouldn't be ready that afternoon and I'd have to return on Sat. because my dealer installed options wouldn't be done. (The car had arrived at the dealer on a Wed. A.M., bright and early and I was to pick it up on Fri. afternoon). We had gone up the night before just for the heck of it and spent the night; I had taken the day off work on Fri. The only options had were bonnet stripes and iPod adaptor. She caught me off guard so I just said okay but the more I thought about it, that was not acceptable so I called back. I could go into more detail here but it would take a while...bottom line is the only reason she didn't want me to take the car was that she wasn't going to be in and didn't want another MA to deliver it to me because she wouldn't get all the commission, so she lied and told me it wouldn't be ready. The manager took care of things and gave me another MA who was very helpful and did the job, although he did state that he didn't like "cleaning up" someone else's mess; seems like this may not be the first time this has happened. Actually, during the whole process of waiting for my car I was always a step ahead of her about where the car was in production, etc. because of this site; she never once called me. Now, granted she may have actually been sick (although I'm suspiciously thinking she may have been hung over), but like my friend said who went with me "if I was picking up a commission for it, I would have got my butt out of bed for a couple of hours and delivered". The car was ready by 2:00. So, my second MA will get a glowing report, and if there's anywhere to document what happened (I don't know what the survey will have on it) I'll certainly do that. Am I being too bitchy?

 

No

 

This issue has been discussed here a couple of times I think. One problem is that it sounds like the scale isn't explained clearly regarding what is a "5" and what is a "3" for example. Everyone is going to use their own judgement. Some people reserve a "5" for only truly exception, gold-plated, went way above and beyond type service. While for other folks a "5" is a fully met my expectations type of service.

Having said that...my new MINI is supposed to be delivered some time around the end of March. I am in the process of selling my current car and will likely be without wheels for several weeks. Do you think it's too much to expect my dealer to pick me up to deliver my car to me? It's about 20-25 miles or so I think from the dealership to my house. I can always bum a ride from a friend but I feel like if the dealership is really on the ball they won't have a problem taking care of me.

 

Any survey where you are strongly pressured to provide a particular rating, isn't designed or intended to gather valid or useful information. Put any rating you want. They obviously don't want to know what you really think anyway.

 

It is perfectly reasonable to expect them to pick you up (just be sure they are aware of that in advance). Our MA at South Bay Mini picked us up at the Burbank airport in a 7 series even though I'm sure he had to start out early to do it. I also know someone who was picked up in SF by Honda in Marin to take delivery of their car. Any smart dealership will do everything they can to help you pick up the car you are buying - now can you wait that long?

 

That's what I figured. I will definitely let them know well in advance and will inquire about all of the lighting/locking setting options in advance as well.

To answer your question, no, I can't wait that long! Luckily I don't drive much so being car-less for a few weeks won't be a huge hardship. And Zipcar has a MINI parked right across the street from my building for when I do need a car for quick errands.

 

If you have to drive 200 miles to a dealership make them earn the five. If you are not happy with the service ask to speak to a manager. Expain that this is not your first MINI. That you past dealership received 5s and what they could do to improve you scoring of their dealership. If they can not turn things around send a note to MINIUSA. MINIUSA can not be expected to put pressure on a bad dealership if they do not get good feed back.

I understand the process MINIUSA is using is flawed. I do not like how the rating system works. I do not care for the questions asked. However that is another subject. The Toyota dealership I go to (a good one) has no customer input at all so at least MINIUSA is doing something and I thank them for that.
John