A huge bone of contention for many. And for a large majority, it is also part of the main reason for quitting this job altogether.
Since its inception the customer satisfaction survey, recently renamed the "Customer Experience Survey" or the "Customer Voice" depending on which manufacturer you are working for, has been a thorn in the side of all service managers and service advisors alike. Why?
For one reason, as a service advisor, usually, a huge part of your wage is directly linked to how well the survey is filled out. I have worked in some departments that take 2% right up to 50% of your commission away if your surveys are inadequate.
For anyone, this has a huge impact on your income. The more you sell, the more you lose as well. Imagine, showing up every day, on time, or early, working late, being a dedicated employee, and forging through negativity all around you, only to have someone use a survey that is to reflect how you did, to tell the manufacturer (who will never see it) how bad their experience was at another dealership altogether 8 months ago.
It is one thing to use the survey as a gauge to assess how advisors are doing and how we can improve our communication and handling of the customer. It is another altogether to use it as a marker for how you are going to remunerate someone for a job they are doing for 60 hours a week in some places.
Another reason is, that if the performance of the dealership is low, it can affect many incentives and perks given by the manufacturers that affect the level of service you provide to customers.
Thankfully now there are ways to remove surveys that clearly are not related to how you performed on the last visit. In some systems, there are even ways to rectify issues and have a follow-up survey given. In the old days that was not an option, so, we used to bribe customers with free oil changes to bring the paper surveys to us so we could fill them out and send them in ourselves.
It is a fact that bad surveys will happen. There is no way to avoid them Eventually, there is always some person that uses the survey to exact their own personal revenge on the dealership, an advisor, or the industry in general for whatever real or imagined slight or issue. When that happens, the system triggers a process of events that eats up the time of many individuals that could be doing something more productive.
But it is also a fact that 95% of the surveys you see returned are giving actual and genuine feedback that you should pay attention to. The fact that the customer took the time to give feedback says something. Most are too busy to bother. So when they choose to speak, we should be listening and ready to act.
Because of that fact, it is logical to react to surveys if there is an issue that is repeatedly being communicated to you by the customer on them. We should act to improve that process and actually address what the customer is saying. These are the people we service after all.
If there are several surveys that are terrible because the wait times on the oil change are too long in the customer's eyes, that is a dispatching issue that needs to be addressed.
If there is continual communication on the survey, stating "it takes too long to drop off the vehicle". Then, as the manager, you need to get out into the drive-thru and investigate those comments and bring a timer with you to see how long it is truly taking for the process each customer from time of arrival to get them out the door on a shuttle.
Are there too many people dropping off at one time? Are the appointments incomplete and require too much alteration at write-up?
it is amazing what you will see if you stand at the back of the drive-thru and just watch. Once I had multiple timers running and I clocked an average of 8-12 minutes before the customer was even greeted in one facility I was assessing. Is this acceptable? How can we improve this process?
If there are consistent issues with one advisor and how they are communicating, selling, or processing work orders, then you need to spend time with that advisor to help them be better. Everyone at some point will need coaching on something. But how can you know what that something is if you are not monitoring them daily?
When customers are communicating through the survey that their paperwork is never ready when they arrive or they had to spend too much time on the shuttle and on and on, these are cues that we need to fix, change or create new processes and solutions to do a better job for our customers.
As a manager, I would want to know what is going on in the service lane. I would use the survey as a window into that lane, as seen through the customer's eyes. Then I would use that information to keep a finger on the pulse of the drive-thru after changing processes to address the concerns voiced through the survey. After all, it is our job to mentor, coach, and guide our staff. To assess what they need, the survey can be a great tool alongside actively listening to how and what they are saying to the customer.
The survey can also be a useful tool to evaluate how each advisor's performance versus the survey may be correlated. Are they being pushy with sales? Are they empathetic to the customer?
I have very strong opinions on the survey. I feel that trying to manipulate people to fill it out, bribe people for good ones, or beg people to do them will not reflect my true level of service. I want my surveys to reflect actuality. Genuine praise or constructive criticism to improve oneself regularly is very important to keep you sharp.
For that reason, I will not spend much time worrying about them past the reason they exist in my opinion. I will spend my time focusing on making the customer as happy with my service as possible. If I get poor feedback, I will evaluate why I got that feedback and adjust my processes accordingly. This has been working for me since 2000 when I first started working at dealerships and since I was first exposed to "the survey". Since then this approach has kept me above zone and usually at the top of my group scores.
If your drive-thru staff need coaching and training that you are too busy to do on a regular basis, message me, I would love to help!
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