I know it's frowned upon, but I tend to fill out surveys honestly, god forbid.
Whenever I get service at the dealer, they send out a survey afterwards. At check-out time, they mention this, and give a little "sample" survey that demonstrates how to fill out "excellent" for every question, should you forget how when doing the real survey.
Well, when I did the real survey, I answered every item honestly. The quality and service is excellent, the personell friendly. They give me special treatment being a loyal customer. There's a nice waiting area with a big TV and work desks. Questions related to those, I answered positively for.
Then there were questions related to price and location. The dealer is located about 10-15 minutes out of the way, while my local GoodYear is within walking distance. Also, the dealer is about 30% more expensive than the goodyear. I answered honestly.
So here's the big section. They ask several questions to compare the dealership with other service shops. Well, my local Goodyear also has excellent service, friendly people, and they give me special treatment as a loyal customer too. So I honestly said the dealer was equal to other service shops I go to.
Also note, that I was under the assumption that this survey was confidential, but I could have been wrong. I don't remember reading the fine print.
Well, so a week ago, the dealer service manager's secretary called to verify that I had a satisfactory service experience. They asked all quesitons about quality, service, satisfaction to verify, and of course I said they were all excellent. I figured they must have gotten wind of a non-perfect survey, and were calling up all the recent servicients.
Well, then I started getting messages from the service manager, and eventually he caught up with me yesterday, to give me a follow up to the follow up on the survey. Well, he had my survey with all my comments infront of him, and knew it was me (somehow). Basically, he admitted all my service questions gave excellent scores, but the problem was the one question about comparing this dealership to other service shops. I gave it an "equal" since I rank the goodyear and the dealer equal. But apparently, in subaru of america's corporate office, an "equal" is considered a negative mark, and counts negatively on their performance.
So, he explains that to me, that my thinking the dealer was equal to my other shop counts negatively towards them, and told me they'd be sending me out another survey (they give you a second-chance survey after the service manager talks with you), and he flat out asked me directly to check "Excellent" on every single questions on the new survey. Please.
So I'm like, well fine, if corporate is a bunch of snobs, I'll help you guys out and give you good ratings. He also asked me to be part of a future focus group, and I'd get a free dinner. (well, the storal of this mory is that if you give an honest review, you get a free meal!).
But then I was thinking, that if the only surveys that subaru of america ever receives from all its dealerships are excellent surveys, they're just getting a pile of lies, or a weighted sample. I mean, getting a real negative survey is one thing. But they can't honestly expect 100% of the customers to think they're far superior to every other service shop they've been to. I think it blinds corporate to what changes they really need to make (for instance, lowering prices!).
Buuut, then I was thinking, what if the request was actually a threat? What if my next service might have an issue if I don't give them a good review? I can't possibly believe it - they're good guys. But I always think about that when I'm eating out. I have to say that 80% of the reason I give tips at restaurants is because I'm scared they'd spit in my burger next time if I didn't.
What do y'all think?
Whenever I get service at the dealer, they send out a survey afterwards. At check-out time, they mention this, and give a little "sample" survey that demonstrates how to fill out "excellent" for every question, should you forget how when doing the real survey.
Well, when I did the real survey, I answered every item honestly. The quality and service is excellent, the personell friendly. They give me special treatment being a loyal customer. There's a nice waiting area with a big TV and work desks. Questions related to those, I answered positively for.
Then there were questions related to price and location. The dealer is located about 10-15 minutes out of the way, while my local GoodYear is within walking distance. Also, the dealer is about 30% more expensive than the goodyear. I answered honestly.
So here's the big section. They ask several questions to compare the dealership with other service shops. Well, my local Goodyear also has excellent service, friendly people, and they give me special treatment as a loyal customer too. So I honestly said the dealer was equal to other service shops I go to.
Also note, that I was under the assumption that this survey was confidential, but I could have been wrong. I don't remember reading the fine print.
Well, so a week ago, the dealer service manager's secretary called to verify that I had a satisfactory service experience. They asked all quesitons about quality, service, satisfaction to verify, and of course I said they were all excellent. I figured they must have gotten wind of a non-perfect survey, and were calling up all the recent servicients.
Well, then I started getting messages from the service manager, and eventually he caught up with me yesterday, to give me a follow up to the follow up on the survey. Well, he had my survey with all my comments infront of him, and knew it was me (somehow). Basically, he admitted all my service questions gave excellent scores, but the problem was the one question about comparing this dealership to other service shops. I gave it an "equal" since I rank the goodyear and the dealer equal. But apparently, in subaru of america's corporate office, an "equal" is considered a negative mark, and counts negatively on their performance.
So, he explains that to me, that my thinking the dealer was equal to my other shop counts negatively towards them, and told me they'd be sending me out another survey (they give you a second-chance survey after the service manager talks with you), and he flat out asked me directly to check "Excellent" on every single questions on the new survey. Please.
So I'm like, well fine, if corporate is a bunch of snobs, I'll help you guys out and give you good ratings. He also asked me to be part of a future focus group, and I'd get a free dinner. (well, the storal of this mory is that if you give an honest review, you get a free meal!).
But then I was thinking, that if the only surveys that subaru of america ever receives from all its dealerships are excellent surveys, they're just getting a pile of lies, or a weighted sample. I mean, getting a real negative survey is one thing. But they can't honestly expect 100% of the customers to think they're far superior to every other service shop they've been to. I think it blinds corporate to what changes they really need to make (for instance, lowering prices!).
Buuut, then I was thinking, what if the request was actually a threat? What if my next service might have an issue if I don't give them a good review? I can't possibly believe it - they're good guys. But I always think about that when I'm eating out. I have to say that 80% of the reason I give tips at restaurants is because I'm scared they'd spit in my burger next time if I didn't.
What do y'all think?