GM Says A "Satisfied" Customer is a BAD Customer

[blazee]

Found this on another forum, it goes along with what I read here:
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/09/10/g...th-customer-s/



A "Satisfied" Customer Is A Bad Customer

In a time when General Motors is discontinuing and downsizing product lines, losing market share to compeditors, and shaky over their own financial future, the company's Customer Satisfction Index (CSI) policy only makes things harder for the company to survive.

Working with CSI program nearly 2 decades old, the financial penalties toward the dealerships trickle down directly to the way consumers are treated by dealership employees. A customer who gives less than a Completely Satisfied score is viewed as a bad customer, and a financial risk. A customer who repeatedly sends in a survey with poor markings is often seen by a dealership to be undesirable as a consumer. In fact, the dealership stands to be more financially sound to lose that customer entirely, then to service them and receive poor survey scores by continuing to sell them cars and service their vehicles, under the current CSI program.

The GM survey gives the customer five possible answers. Completely Satisfied, Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, and Not At All Satisfied. The only answer the dealership can afford to have on every survey is choice #1: Completely Satisfied. Mathematically speaking, if a customer chooses 80% of the available answers, the survey is a failure to the dealership, and there are financial consequences to the dealership and the employees.

Sales staff and Service personnell stress to the consumer that only one answer is correct. Some dealers go to the point of stating the "in order to continue" serving them, Completely Satisfied is the only answer for the consumer to check. If anything is needed to demonstrate the flawed system GM is running this should be enough right there. Some dealers offer free services, others offer prizes or incentives, and others outright strongarm their customers into getting the scores that they need. How is this program benefitting the consumer? How is it benefitting GM? It's not.

Let's look at the available answers on the GM survey. Is a "Satisfied" customer a bad customer? Is a "Somewhat Satisfied" customer a bad customer? I believe a good customer is a customer who purchases GM vehicles, and has them serviced at a GM dealership, reguardless of what they fill out on a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, under the defunkt GM CSI program, simply being devoted to GM products and services is not enough. Service Advisors shun people who send in poor surveys, as they are paid based upon the scores marked on them (the "trickle down" financial penalties to the dealership in action).

Now let's consider how reliable the surveys are altogether. For example, when a spouse or sibling fills out the survey, and not the person who actually brought the vehicle in for service. This person may not understand the magnitude of how important it is to have the survey filled out Completely Satisfied. Also, if the survey gets into the hands of the correct person, they may fill it out while they are having a bad day, and project their frustrations onto the survey. They could be angry that their expensive new vehicle broke in the first place, and now they have a piece of paper where they can purge their feelings onto. They could also be offended that the dealership insisted to them that only one answer was acceptable, and complete the survey with their genuine answers in rebelliance to a totalitarian system.

Let's also consider exactly what Completely Satisfied means. To me, one would think this means that all aspects involved were the best they could ever be, with no room for improvement. The cream of the crop. It can't get any better than this. Well, this is impossible. Any business person knows there is ALWAYS room for improvement. There are always ways of doing things better. If a consumer checks that they are Completely Satisfied, they are essentially limiting their service experience. A consumer always wants more, they always want better, and they always want new. What is the incentive to conceding you are Completely Satisfied, when in fact, satisfaction can not be measured. The limits of what makes someone satisfied are constantly changing.

If the treatment you receive at the dealership you purchased your vehicle from is based upon a survey score, would you purchase another vehicle there, or continue to business with them? Would you continue to do business with them if you are constantly told what to put on your surveys, or treated differently if you did not comply?

I doubt it.