I want your guy's opinions on customer service.

And on csi scoring....., when i sold cars at hyundai 50 to 60% is in incentive money from hyundai (otherwise your trying to live on 100 a car not easy 200 to 300 a car is alot easier) however failing for us was below 9. like ddavidv said i handed out forms like that it said 10: great job i will come back 9:ill buy my next car here again 8: im never coming back 7: this place i terrible and im sueing you

note this is a form that my boss actually had us hand out even with that i had a few months where i didnt get my incentive money because someone would decide no one is worth a 10 and give me 7 and 8's even after me explaining to them the real scoring.... thing is ours werent anonimous (sp) we were told who gave the bad scores. when they would come back in for service(every first oilchange was free) id go back and thankthem for taking 2000(or whatever it was that month) out of my pocket since i sold them a car under invoice and did whatever else was needed (sometimes even driving thier old car that they didnt trade in back to thier house sometimes 70 to 80 miles and having my partner have to come and pick me up) but i was only worth a 7

I still don't understand why we need numbers 1-7 on the CSI form. Change it to a 0-5-10 score:

0 = "I had a terrible experience, I will not likely return. The Management Staff should reassess their sales and service methods."

5 = "I was neither impressed nor angered by this visit. The representative did not attempt to impress me and while I will likely return I would likely talk with another person when I do."

10 = "I was satisfied with my experience. I will likely work with the same people when I return."

I would reduce a lot of people "Sevening" out a response.

In reply to John Brown:

It's a psychology thing.

You can not physically process a 10 scale resolution accurately on all issues. If you are an expert on things you could but on most you can't. Your (nor anyone else's) brain operates like that. That is the point of the 7 scale it gives accurate and precise answer.

The problem isn't 10 vs 7 it is the 2,3,4 (1-10 scale), vs 2,3 (1-7) and 6,7,8,9(1-10 scale), vs 5,6 (1-7). See the problem in balance and resolution? Some try to fix it with a 0 in front of the 1-10 but then you have an 11 resolution which confounds more people. It just gets messy. 7ing out is the same as 10ing out.

That is why. Actually the only reason you feel uneasy about the 7 scale is the 5 and 10 scales have been used sooo much in studies and questionnaires that is what you are used to.

$40K in college debt buys you this information, or you can just be a member of the GRM forums. Then you go into $40K in car debt. So I take it as a break even

we have a 1-6 scale here (training, labeled very poor; poor; adequate; good; excellent; exceptional) and it doesn't matter the scale, some people either don't care, or are easygoing enough that they don't have anything that bothered them enough to gripe about it on the form, so we still get a good number of all 6s with no comments. those don't concern us much, its the ones where they put 2s and 3s and didn't put any comments that get our attention. that said, any course that averages 5 or better in the important areas is A-OK to us, below 5 is basically a sign that it needs improvement and below 4 is "totally bombed"

when i had my MS3, the service writers would tell you that you were going to get a survey call, and to let you know if for whatever reason you couldn't answer 10 or "very satisfied" to all of the questions. they never did say what they would do if you couldn't or wouldn't, though. i do know that some people got crappy service or didn't get the benefit of the doubt on warranty work the next time back if they didn't give 10's on their surveys.

Wierd, my ms3 service writers were the same way. Strange I always seemed to get free rental cars.......

I have always been curious whether the top brass in charge of enforcing surveys ever took them for their own customer service experiences. My guess is no, because the experience is about as exciting and rewarding as stirring oatmeal on the stove. Customers typically respond for two reasons: The service was not in their favor, or the service was so good, as in I got a free handy from the attractive girl at the front desk, good. But even then, the customer would rate the experience as a four out of five, "because the free handy really could have been better."

What is a good survey? Call a number. Get a human to answer. Have the customer explain their experiences, good or bad. Tell the customer thank you and that a coupon is on its way for the customer's time. The problem with this system, is that it doesn't attach completely arbitrary numbers to pit different locations against each other.

We started doing followup calls about a year or two ago. A few weeks after an order ships (I'm not sure of the exact timeframe), we call the customer to make sure everything's good. If it's not, we can take care of them and make an unhappy customer happy. If they ARE happy, then we hear about it. And in almost every case, it makes them happier and we get legitimate feedback. It's the best thing we've ever done for real customer satisfaction.

It is labor-intensive. But worth it.

Follow up calls: Oh yeah, the geniuses I work for came up with that one too. I'm supposed to make fwp calls to all my folks a week or so after I see them. Here's the problem with that...I don't have time to do it! It's one of the many additional things they've added to my job but taken nothing away. I literally DO NOT have enough time in the day to do everything they "require". So I confess, this thing I generally blow off. Irony: they don't have anyone that can do this as their job (fwp calls), but they have a full time person whose only task is to call our cell phones one or two times a month and make sure we answer them.

You should try seeing the CSI scores for the emergency room I work in.... One month is 30%, the next 90%, followed up with a 55%...... And most of the time, poor scores are either from the patient comes in too sick or hurt and dies, wants some Xanax, Perc's, Loritabs, or some other pain pill to snort and they aren't given any, or very little pt to doctor time, which we can't really do anything about as it's a contracted out service. But once you throw these outlier surveys out, the scores are the same month to month.

ddavidv wrote: Oh, and a last point about my rant above...the guy who achieves the highest score in my region has told me point blank he "buys" the score by giving people pretty much what they want. He's become so disgusted with how the company treats us in regards to this he's got no problem spending an extra $50,000 a year of the company's money to get his 2% raise. He believes that's what they want, so he gives it to them. I'm not quite that jaded, but I see his point. It's become a matter of survival. In this economy, they feel they can abuse you as much as they like because where you gonna go? I've shopped around, and pretty much every employer in this business is pulling the same crap.

It sounds like your coworker has it figured out. I don't think it's a matter of being jaded, but a strategy to play to win. I don't know if it's just because I only hear the negatives, but it sure sounds like companies in the States are awfully hostile against their employees, and prospective employees.

I always show my appreciation for good customer service by either tipping, or letting their manager/owner know how well they did, but it goes both ways.

MitchellC wrote: But even then, the customer would rate the experience as a four out of five, "because the free handy really could have been better."

Under those circumstances, 5-star service really warrants a BJ.

ddavidv wrote: Oh, and a last point about my rant above...the guy who achieves the highest score in my region has told me point blank he "buys" the score by giving people pretty much what they want. He's become so disgusted with how the company treats us in regards to this he's got no problem spending an extra $50,000 a year of the company's money to get his 2% raise. He believes that's what they want, so he gives it to them. I'm not quite that jaded, but I see his point. It's become a matter of survival. In this economy, they feel they can abuse you as much as they like because where you gonna go? I've shopped around, and pretty much every employer in this business is pulling the same crap.

I wish you had done the appraisal on my truck several years ago. I had an independent appraisor do it for the guy who backed into me. He basically ended up calling me a thief and told me I should be happy with what I got. I started to file a complaint against him with the state insurnace commission. I wish I could have filled out an evaluation on him.

Zomby woof wrote: I always show my appreciation for good customer service by either tipping, or letting their manager/owner know how well they did, but it goes both ways.

I was in a Cadillac dealership one day when a mechanic brought around and old, old caddy to hand back to the owner after repairs. The owner was an elderly gentleman. I mean old school. He whipped out his wallet and pulled out a 20 and handed to the mechanic. Now I bet that man got real good service. BTW, this was a long time ago when a 20 would buy something.

Zomby woof wrote: I don't know if it's just because I only hear the negatives, but it sure sounds like companies in the States are awfully hostile against their employees, and prospective employees.

I'm getting the same thing. I don't think I have ever had an employer legitimately make my life difficult just because. Maybe I've been lucky? I've only had one employer I would call bad, and that is because they treated their staff (Canadian Tire) like dirt.

Another thing I've noticed though, is a lot of the people are saying they are in a "service" industry, but more specifically, they are in THE service position at the place they work. Service is always a tough gig, I'm sure it's pretty hard for anyone remotely knowledgeable about cars to say "here are the spark plugs you asked for, they are $25 each" (my last convo at Subaru)

By the way, I now have the part that the powder coater misplaced. They were going to drop it off, but I got back to them before they had a chance to run it up here.

Free plug for our local shop: http://eastcoastornamentalwelding.com/ (And yes, while the specialize in custom stairs and stuff, they powder coat.)

spitfirebill wrote: I wish you had done the appraisal on my truck several years ago. I had an independent appraisor do it for the guy who backed into me. He basically ended up calling me a thief and told me I should be happy with what I got. I started to file a complaint against him with the state insurnace commission. I wish I could have filled out an evaluation on him.

I did several years as an independent. You'd think that would be a better gig, but it's not. Anyone who stays in that part of the business either owns the business or isn't good enough to be hired as a staff appraiser. They get paid by the car, so the estimates wind up being sloppy at best. They never pay supplements, unless they are six months late and the insurer is screaming as loud as the repair shop. For property damage and heavy equipment claims they bill like a lawyer, which means they pad the E36 M3 out of the bill so they make more. Benefits frequently aren't part of the package as they get hired as a 'contractor'. The first place I worked for I made about $12,000/yr after expenses, which is why there was no second year working for them.

I was about to vent my spleen with a vicious screed against the public at large, as I've done the CS thing via phone for a mail order company for about 12 years now. Before that I did restaurants for about 20 years.

I should probably just sit here quietly.

Suffice to say that one of my axioms is that you can measure your success by how far removed you are from dealing with the public directly. Your perspective might be different and that's okay.

I can totally vouch for being berkeleyed by a company. It sucks worse when they're really the only thing that pays more than minimum wage in the area that you can get without a 4 year degree so you have to go back after leaving for health (stress) reasons.

I did get some personal satisfaction this time and spoke my mind really loudly after they pulled my offer off the table on a technicality. I called them out on it and ended up getting the job. I start Monday and I expect to last about 2 weeks before they find a reason to get rid of me.

It's a call center job, doing tech support for an ISP (I won't say which because we're contractually obligated to never say which, but I will say that you should look over the horizon if you want proper service). The metrics used keep you from both helping customers and actually meeting your stats. Everyone fails in the end, and the customer gets E36 M3'd on.

I had a customer yesterday who totally confirmed my previous position. Half the reason Customer Service supposedly sucks is that we're not allowed to call true shiny happy people "worthless cxxxxxxxxxg morons who deserve to die in a bath of flaming gasoline" to their faces.

It is difficult to quantify customer service, therefore it gets overlooked.

If I get crappy service, I don't return to the company. Problem is, they don't know it, and attribute their falling sales to a "bad economy" or other such nonsense. I can name several companies that have lost tens of thousands of dollars of business from me without knowing it.

If I get really good service, I always return, and become fiercely loyal. But again, the company rarely knows why, and probably falsely attributes it to the sales department, or a "good year". One company I work with has earned about $10K in sales per month from me over the last 5 years.

The internet has contributed to the downfall. In an automated age, it is easy to overlook old fashioned face to face customer service. Automatic email responders and a great website are NO substitute. Consumers have come to expect E36 M3ty service because that's all machines can give.

It matters, but it can't be measured.

I have had people tell me to my face they will never give a '10' because there is no such thing as perfect service. Yet the corporate yahoos expect perfect '10's. [Jamie]'There's your problem.'[/Jamie]

I had a customer at the Toyota dealership who had some little part or other that was missing from her car, it had been ordered and was in. It took me approximately .02 seconds to snap the thing on, we laughed and joked the whole time. I showed her the survey, showed her the 10's, etc.

The survey came back with a 5. It turned out that a couple of days after our encounter she got a phone call from F&I concerning her interest rate (bad news) and she got the survey the same day. Guess who got dinged? Yup. The service manager and Toyota district rep tore me a new assh--e over it, I wasn't given a chance to tell my side of the thing, then we all were in the office while they called her on speakerphone so that I could apologize to her in front of them. You should have seen their faces when she said 'oh no Curmudgeon couldn't have been better but that F&I guy was an ass.'

I could go on in this vein for a while, but what's the point?

spitfirebill wrote:

Zomby woof wrote: I always show my appreciation for good customer service by either tipping, or letting their manager/owner know how well they did, but it goes both ways.

I was in a Cadillac dealership one day when a mechanic brought around and old, old caddy to hand back to the owner after repairs. The owner was an elderly gentleman. I mean old school. He whipped out his wallet and pulled out a 20 and handed to the mechanic. Now I bet that man got real good service. BTW, this was a long time ago when a 20 would buy something.

I always tip service people that do a great job. Tire changers, the alignment guy, the regular mechanic, the carpet cleaner; whoever. The only time I don't tip you is if you suck, or if you own the place.

I have been thinking about this thread and I can't think of a single example where a company with good customer service was beaten by one with bad. The trick is to remember customer service is more than just the face to the customer.
Price is service, having the part/product in stock is service, teaching me is a service and finally the one that we all default to ...being polite is a service. Nail them all and your invincible, get the ones your customers consider critical and you are a success.
As for the terribad corporate survey data, I feel your pain. The only real hope on that front is to keep the accountants in accounting and put the operators and sales folks in charge.
Accountants as CEO's are the death of all that is good and right in the world.

Curmudgeon wrote: I have had people tell me to my face they will never give a '10' because there is no such thing as perfect service. Yet the corporate yahoos expect perfect '10's. [Jamie]'There's your problem.'[/Jamie] I had a customer at the Toyota dealership who had some little part or other that was missing from her car, it had been ordered and was in. It took me approximately .02 seconds to snap the thing on, we laughed and joked the whole time. I showed her the survey, showed her the 10's, etc. The survey came back with a 5. It turned out that a couple of days after our encounter she got a phone call from F&I concerning her interest rate (bad news) and she got the survey the same day. Guess who got dinged? Yup. The service manager and Toyota district rep tore me a new assh--e over it, I wasn't given a chance to tell my side of the thing, then we all were in the office while they called her on speakerphone so that I could apologize to her in front of them. You should have seen their faces when she said 'oh no Curmudgeon couldn't have been better but that F&I guy was an ass.' I could go on in this vein for a while, but what's the point?

In my most offensive white guy Asian voice, You pay bill Low interest rate, You no pay bill High interest rate

I dont have much to add here other than GM has the same system as every one else and it blows. Dealing with it from the sales end it is so difficult to get the "completely satisified"

So I ponder...the local VW/Porsche/Audi franchise I once worked for sucks. I mean, really sucks. Unless you're buying a Porsche, they treat you like scum. The service dept is terrible; you have to wait forever for an appointment, the labor rate is astronomical, and there is no communication from advisor to tech. The parts department has no inventory control and never knows if something is on the shelf or not unless they go look for it, and it's usually not there even though the computer says they have 5. The body shop is ok but run by arrogant, grumpy people who believe their shop is the only one in the mid-state that can fix cars right. It was that way in 1975 when my folks bought their second 100LS there and it's no different today. And yet this place continues to make money.