Customer surveys

The only thing I know about these surveys, is just before I left in my new Prius my salesman took me aside and practically begged me to mark everything excellent and if I couldn't for some reason to tell him now so he could take care of anything I had a problem with now. I told him to relax and I would mark everything excellent for him. He really did seem very nervous about it.

 

Reminds me of a military evaluation I did back in the 60's. I remember marking a couple of questions a little less than perfect. A superior officer called me in and asked "do you really want to ruin this soldier's career?"
Well, no I didn't, I was just trying to honestly evaluate him. He ended up convincing me to change every thing to "perfect". Sighhh

These types of surveys are meaningless.

 

My salesman did the same thing. He said that they get marked down if the customer did not mark everything excellent. The whole sales staff at this dealership really did do an excellent job throughout the entire buying and receiving process. They even had a "electronic specialist" that spent about an hour and 15 minutes going over everything about the car, including the Nav and pairing my wife and my cell phones.

So, I assured him that I would mark the survey as excellent, which I did.

 

He may be a "fine salesman" but he's also a jerk. I would tell your referral customer of this (if the deal hasn't already been finalized) and have he or she deal with someone else. And, finally, I would take my future (Toyota) business elsewhere. You're still the customer and while he has the right to explain his displeasure to you, he did it to an inappropriate extreme.

As far as I'm concerned a dealership will not get "all excellents" unless that's the way I see it. If I want to spare them some grief I won't send in the survey.

 

The guy sounds like a jerk to me also. If 100% excellent responses are that important, he should have said something. All you did was provide an honest evaluation. My salesman also said nothing to me, and I indicated some minor problems when I completed the survey. I've contacted the salesman since then, and he was as pleasant as ever. If there was any impact on him, he certainly never indicated it.

When I have my Ranger pickup serviced at the Ford dealership, I always get a post card a day or so later that says something like: "We want you to be happy. If there's a problem please let us know first so we can fix it before you respond to the Ford survey." Not saying something similar was the salesman fault, not yours.

I'd be inclined to contact the dealership management to let them know what happened. Their response would determine my future business relationship, if any, with them.

 

I agree with the others that this is the salesman's issue and not yours. If he did not let you know that he needed the excellent marks from the survey AND be sure to take care of any of your issues so that you could honestly give him the excellent marks, his issue and not yours. In my case, the salespeople earned their marks.

I also agree that this seems to be a lot of pressure on the salespeople from Toyota to achieve excellent marks. I rarely give excellent marks on a survey unless they have exceeded my expectations. At the same time, though, maybe Toyota is trying to raise the bar on their sales force.

 

What a joke. He doesn't want to do business with you?

Does he consider it a privilege to give him your money? Personally, I would contact the dealership owner and let him know how you--a long time customer--were treated.

Find another dealer. Tell your friend to go elsewhere.

These CSI survey, while well-intentioned, have gone too far. It like a binary rating. If a sales person or service department doesn't get all perfect ratings, it significantly dings them (and their income).

The most extreme example I've experienced was a few years ago when I purchased a car. They couldn't detail the car the day I bought it, so I took delivery (to ensure they wouldn't sell it out from under me--it was a Mercedes E55 AMG and had just been released and was in high demand) and made an appointment to come back for the detail. They gave me a loaner car, my friend and I had a nice lunch, and I intentionally arrived an hour later than they said it would be ready. The car looked like it had been detailed by a 10 year old. Most of the car still had residual glue from the protective wrapping used for shipping. When I got the sales guy involved, all he cared about was his rating. He repeatedly said it wasn't his fault (even though I told him to personally inspect the car after it was detailed) and kept pleading with me to give him a perfect CSI review. I finally told him that if he mentioned the survey one more time, I would give him all zeros.

 

I never respond to the survey. I know I have never treated fairly when negotiating any new car purchase at a dealership. Getting back to him at the survey means nothing to me. I know any thing less than excellent will give him a bad mark but all salesmen are out to get a living either with or without moral, so why ruin his living.

 

x2...i would definitely notify the owner.

 

Have you considered that if salesmen knew every customer was rating them, they would act more professionally?

 

I would report him. I think that kind of behaviour is very unprofessional.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't believe this story for a second. If your satisfaction was worth $2000-$6000 to him he should have done a better job of kissing your butt before the sale or offered a grand for your "excellent" survey. Find the "complaint dept" at the dealer's head office & let them know what you think of this guy.

Toyota will send another survey. Remember this episode & what the dealer is doing about it when you complete that one.

Although the auto industry has gone down the toilet & employees outnumber customers it obviously hasn't shrunk enough.

 

My salesman also asked me to rate everything on the survey as "excellent." This seems to be consistent across the country, so I wonder if there is some monetary incentive for each salesman to receive "excellent" ratings for themselves and the dealership involving the sale and delivery of each car.

I have also received online surveys for the original sale and for use of the service department. However, there has been no request or suggestion that I rate the service as "excellent."

 

I don't know the specifics of Toyota sales and service personnel compensation, but I do know for other manufacturers (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes) the CSI surveys do impact comp, and in some cases, the allocation of new and high demand models. And it seems like it's a binary thing--they need all 5s, even one 4 or lower rating really dings them. With BMW, for example, half the holdback is impacted by CSI scores.

Regarding service, the BMW dealer I used for years attached a sheet to the top of the service invoice when you picked up the car, that essentially said if there were any issues that will prevent you from giving them all excellent ratings, you should call the service/parts directly to discuss.

 

Can we get some of the Toyota dealers or salesmen to comment on the importance of getting excellent ratings on the CSI? Maybe this will help future buyers and help them get the assistance that they need in order to be able to honestly give the excellent assessments.

 

If that happened to me I would contact the owner of the dealership, face to face or by phone, and explain exactly what happened. I would also contact Toyota customer service and let them know. That salesman owes you an apology, if I were a car dealer I would not want people like that working for me.

 

Yes, these things are a problem. I don't know what kind of numbers are involved, but I understand the need to give incentives to improve service. My dealership was so keen on excellent ratings that they filled out the survey for me, and simply informed me of the fact. I seldom rate anything 'Excellent!', and certainly not with the exuberant enthusiasm they seemed to be expecting. If I like something, I'll buy it, and if I get good service, I'll refer my friends there. A dealership asking you not to come back, just because you didn't jump up and salute the 'Excellent! flag with all the gusto you could muster, is going way too far. Sorry, Toyota, this is something else that needs fixing.