If you have had a awful experience with a GM dealership let us know what has happen.  

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 alltogether. 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.  

I was discharged from my possition as service advisor after 11-years with the the same GM company due to my scores being too low.

If I, like the other advisors on the service drive, avoided the customers who are repeat customers or known to give bad score customers then who would help them?

Good or bad survey, all customers should be treated equaly in my eyes but the end result was that my dealership did not feel the same way.

GM needs to come up with a better survey that will not lead to customers being ignored and shamed due to thier choices on the survey.

I have seen first hand how service advisors will leave thier area or pretend to be on the phone so they do not have to wait on a certain customer who they know will give a bad survey.

Is this how GM believes thier customers should be treated???????????????????

Theresa  

This forum is not a place to sell your pdf's. Your post will be edited.  

I just pasted this to this topic because it belongs.  And it was 2 dealerships not just 1.  Obviously, this is a widespread problem that needs to be dealt with.

I just had to bring my 2000 Z28 into the dealership this week because the security light on the dash came on.  I had one dealer check it out and they said that the problem could be one of 3 different things and that this shouldn't leave me stranded, and sent me on my way with some paperwork to find out on my own how to troubleshoot the problem.  Well, 2 weeks later, I had my oil changed and while getting ready to back it off of the ramps, I got power to everything in the car but it wouldn't allow me to start it.  So, I called a closer GM dealership and made an appointment and had it towed there.  Turns out it was a bad ignition cylinder and key.
My problem is this... the 1st dealership acted like they didn't want anything to do with the car, and told me that they'd be chasing wires and that it would cost loads to fix it.
The second dealership, while they fixed the problem left grease on the shifter and console and looks like someone backed the car into something, cracking the paint on the rear bumper and leaving visible damage.  I confronted what I think is the manager and showed him the damage.  While I acknowledged that the car had just had the rear bumper painted due to someone hitting me he said that the damage that was there has nothing to do with anyone there bumping the car and that it was a bad paint job.  Basically, he wouldn't own up to it.  I know for a fact that the car didn't look like that when I dropped it off.
What I want to know... if anyone here had to bring their car to a GM dealership for work that they didn't have the proper specialty tools to do the job, how were they and their vehicles treated?  It seems lately that these dealer's standards have been lowered.  I was actually thinking of purchasing a new Cobalt SS, but if this is how GM is treating their repeat, life long customers, I'm not even gonna consider buying or owning another GM ever as much as I love them.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  

I understand your frustration my grandfather had a Oldsmobile Van and it had an electrical short in it and the GM dealership could not find the short anywhere. He went to a private shop and they found a solution for it the first visit compared to 5 times at the dealership.

I had an instance with a Toyota dealership with a sliding door issue. I think all dealerships in general are lowering the bar real low to hires cheap labor.

I would buy the Cobalt SS but I would try to avoid the dealership as much as possible. If you have a private mechanic I would let them service your car unless its a warranty issue.

Thats just my 2 cents and my experience with dealerships. I hope this helped at all.