New Purchase Ford/Dealer Survey

[LorenzoValla]

TLDR: Does anyone know how the dealership and sales people are affected by surveys after the sale?

I assume everyone who bought their Raptor new from a dealer received a survey about their sales experience. I have done these for the last few cars we bought so I'm familiar with the notion that the dealer wants high marks so they can get some kind of bonus, and I usually go along with it.

Negotiating is usually unpleasant but just one of those things, so I don't hold some of the crap they do against them. My recent Raptor purchase wasn't significantly worse than other experiences, but I was annoyed that the first 2 trucks we made a 'deal' on fell thru because they became unavailable the next day (we were doing this online b/c of the apocalypse). The other major annoyance I had was that they had promotions online that were expired. Yes, the small print said that, but in one case the expiration date was 5 or 6 weeks past due and days later after they 'learned' from me of their error, the ads were still online.

So, I bought the truck, am happy with the deal, love the truck, and I'm willing to forget about the shenanigans because that's just what they do. However, I did give what I thought was a fair and honest response in my survey. I don't see the point giving high marks when there really is room for improvement, and I don't know why I should be expected to pretend the experience was something it wasn't.

Naturally, I get a call today from the sales manager asking me to reconsider my response. Despite many of the survey questions explicitly being about the dealership, he says this will only hurt the sales guy.

It's possible he's being honest and looking out for his guy, or it's very possible that the dealer will get hurt and he's trying to make me feel bad for the sales guy in order to help the dealer (and himself).

Does anyone have details of how this actually works? If it is truly only going to hurt the sales guy, I might give in. Perhaps just having to deal with negative feedback has helped. Dunno. But, if the sales manager is lying and this really him trying to protect the dealership, then I'm really going to be pissed off.

 

[Kashoggio]

Yes typically these surveys hurt your sales person or service advisor. The manufacturer ties dealerships back end money to having good surveys from customers. The pay plans of the employees are tied to a month end bonus they get. That’s why they always ask you for the highest scores. If the sales person who was helping you was great, leave them a good score because it does hurt them if you don’t. Don’t bash them on the survey because of something that was out of their control. Unless they sucked and at the very end they put on the front of being your pal to get a good score

 

[LorenzoValla]

Yes typically these surveys hurt your sales person of service advisor. The manufacturer ties dealerships back end money to having good surveys from customers. The pay plans of the employees are tied to a month end bonus they get. That’s why they always ask you for the highest scores. If the sales person who was helping you was great, leave them a good score because it does hurt them if you don’t. Don’t bash them on the survey because of something that was out of their control. Unless they sucked and at the very end they put on the front of being your pal to get a good score

I don't doubt that the sales guy has skin in the game. Do you know what affect it has on the dealer?

 

[911 Crazy]

If your sales guy was at fault for your unacceptable experience, then roast him. If it was the Finance or GM, roast them. You can do this also on Yelp and many other review platforms. Roast who needs to be roasted. If not your sales guy's fault, let him off the hook and throw him back. I'm reading a fishing book with by 10 year old. Cheers

 

[D11gnccer]

I’ve always been under the impression the survey affects the sales persons holdback. I have always left decent reviews for that reason.

So far, I’ve had decent “sales people”. Everything goes south once they push the sales person out of the way. I always do homework and know exactly what I want to buy before I go to the lot. I didn’t see my Raptor before negotiating. It was in an overflow lot and the sales team didn’t even know they had it yet. Easily my worst purchase experience though. I caught them in several sketchy tactics. Finally said “dude, I’m 32 without a college degree and buying a Raptor. I didn’t get this far by being an idiot. Finalize before I walk.”

My mustang? Complete 5 star experience. Tried to buy off the same guy and he moved to Florida to take care of his mom. He processed the entire deal and asked for permission to at least add some tire shine himself after I told him I didn’t want anyone to “detail” it.

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I’d stick with the review you gave. It’s like giving a kid a better grade because mom called and complained. If you want an A, do the work!

 

[MDJAK]

Surveys definitely affect the sales person. They also affect the dealership. Surveys have become so ubiquitous, I can’t leave my bank without getting one asking me how the teller performed. They are a major pain in the ass at this point and a huge consumer of my valuable time. Often times I hit delete when I get them.

Couple years ago I filled one out after a lousy experience buying a Porsche. I was honest in the survey.The sales guy wound up stalking me.

He knew my email address which is the same as my screen name on the Porsche forum and her. And I rated him in a thread about rating your sales person. I had bought the car out of state, but nearby, and so had dealer plates for the first month while waiting for mine to come in. When my plates came in, he delivered them to my mailbox. I left the dealer plates in my mailbox for him to pick up. He also included a couple of pages that he printed from the forum where I gave him a lousy review. I called the dealership manager and told him I was registering a complaint with Porsche of North America.He begged me to reconsider, saying my survey had already deprived the salesman of his bonus that month. I decided to go no further.

It was after that, that I started hitting the delete button on surveys.

 

[smurfslayer]

Negotiating is usually unpleasant but just one of those things, so I don't hold some of the crap they do against them. My recent Raptor purchase wasn't significantly worse than other experiences, but I was annoyed that the first 2 trucks we made a 'deal' on fell thru because they became unavailable the next day (we were doing this online b/c of the apocalypse). The other major annoyance I had was that they had promotions online that were expired. Yes, the small print said that, but in one case the expiration date was 5 or 6 weeks past due and days later after they 'learned' from me of their error, the ads were still online.

So, I bought the truck, am happy with the deal, love the truck, and I'm willing to forget about the shenanigans because that's just what they do. However, I did give what I thought was a fair and honest response in my survey. I don't see the point giving high marks when there really is room for improvement, and I don't know why I should be expected to pretend the experience was something it wasn't.

Naturally, I get a call today from the sales manager asking me to reconsider my response. Despite many of the survey questions explicitly being about the dealership, he says this will only hurt the sales guy.

Stealerships that have already abandoned pretense of customer treatment don’t bother with the surveys. Stealerships that send the surveys fall into 2 categories. About 85% of the stealerships send the surveys out to achieve a ‘rating’ or score from a certification warehouse whose business is to make consumers feel good about going somewhere. The remaining 15% are usually family owned businesses who actually care what people think.

Surveys most directly impact the “owner” of the event - sale, vehicle service, finance - what have you. That said, not everything is or can be held against the sales guy. For example, if you flag the follow up visit to correct deficiencies, that’s applied against the service department.

Surveys are a chance for customers or consumers to sound off on bad behavior, or reward good behavior. Sometimes the sales guy/gal will ask you to fill out the survey, or fill it out honestly, or give them 5 stars. All but the latter “push” are ok for the sales / service staff to do, but asking for 5 stars, even conditionally is unethical, and shows either poor training or poor customer service. Worse, however, is any manager asking you to change your responses. Some businesses tie bonus money to survey metrics in the aggregate, and these business units work to the metric, not to the customer service.

Like you, I am honest on my surveys. if someone screws up, and knows it, apologizes, i’ll hold my fire - no response is better in that case than me submarining them. If however “there’s nothing we can do” is the answer and I get a survey, or if I have the impression they are not even trying, I let them have it.

If they go over and above, I ask for their manager’s contact info so I can do a personal follow up, expressing my gratitude.

I’ve had to follow up on bad surveys, some where my team did right, some where a collateral team torpedoed us, and some where my team plainly missed the mark. I -never- ask for a reevaluation. Honest, accurate, thoughtful feedback is how you measure your actions. If the team didn’t do it right, management should be looking for ways to ensure it doesn’t happen again, not pad their metrics.

Metric padding is a bad business practice. You show me a bad business practice or team underperforming or doing it wrong, and I’ll show you a leader who’s not doing his or her job.

If I were contacted like this I’d find the owner, and thank him/her for the things that went right and then, I’d tell him or her I won’t tolerate another call asking me to change my rating to meet metrics. Tough cookies if it only affects the sales bot. I’ll bet they’ll be motivated to do it right the next time and ensure they aren’t punished for things that went badly that weren’t their doing.

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I wish you could send a survey when the sales department did such a bad job that you bought a different vehicle from a different dealership. That’s the survey I really want to do!

 

[Kicker56]

Being in sales the only person you hurt is the salesman. It gives the dealership/company a negative remark but you are hurting the salmesmans bonus and possibly getting him on a written notice. The comments don’t even matter what you put in, the only thing that matters is what you put in your overall experience. If it’s graded from 1-5 anything less than 5 is a fail, if it’s 1-10 anything less 9 it’s a fail. If you have a complaint with anyone other than your salesman send an email.