phatbastard

Having worked and sold cars at a dealership before, not acura but chevrolet. You will screw the salesman with bad surveys like the previous posts have mentioned. I do not know how acura's surveys are setup, but at Gm they were numbered questions and each ranked satisfied, unsatisfied, etc. If one question was marked not completetly satisfied your pay would get deducted. Not by one survey, but the average of them all called CSI. If your CSI falls below a certain level you are deducted $50 a sold car on your pay. Might not seem like alot but when you sell 20 cars a month it really adds up. And once your average drops below zone its a pain in the ass to get it above zone. Usually takes at least 4 months. What I use to do is ask the customer if they would fill it out in front of me when they receive it in the mail at the dealership. i would usually get a 'yes' when i said that there was a free tank of gas for filling it out the way i wanted.

rc_cecri

I never ever got my Acura survey!!! Not that I had a bad experience buying at Acura Pleasanton (2007 w/ Navi). Is this over the phone or do they mail it in?

Omega P

When you perform an over the phone survey after you purchase the vehicle the actual survey is recorded & a wave file is given to the management @ the dlr. Actually docking a salesperson is not the intention of the survey. American Honda does not have policies regarding dealer pay plans. American Honda does not in any way encourage dealerships to pay individual dealership personnel based on the surveys. Pay plans are solely up to the individual discretion of each dealership.

o4Komodo

iTrader: (2)

Reviving this thread.
There are A LOT of long posts.. which I admit to NOT reading.. except for the first one or two.. and the last two. [above].

I work for a third party company hired Honda/Acura Canada to do these surveys for them.
We also do VW Canada and now VW USA. [as well as VW Service].
We HAD BMW and Audi.. but out contract was over... and last month we had a temporary contract with Mazda USA and their CX9.

Anyways....

The over-the-phone survey, in Canada, are based on a 1-5 scale. The survey you are asked to participate in takes about two to three minutes of your time [unless you have a lot to say]. It deals with either your purchase or your lease experience from the very first time you walked into the dealership... through the entire purchase/lease process... up till you receive your vehicle.
The survey is solely for customer satisfaction... and 'a little more'.
Honda Canada and the dealership you dealt with receive the survey you have done over the phone, which is documented on computer. And yes, it is actually recorded and at times monitered by Honda Canada representatives our our TLs [team leaders].
You may be wondering why I'm only saying Honda Canada---well Honda Canada practically is Acura Canada.

Anyways. On the Honda campaign... you are asked to give a rating for almost every single question. The rating, as I've stated is 1 to 5. 5 being the "highest"--1 being the "lowest".
A rating of 5 or 4 will continue to the next question. A rating of 3 or below will result in a justification for your rating.

On the Acura compaign, things are slightly different. All questions remain the same as the Honda Campaign however there is one questioned changed for the new RDX.. and also a questioned changed for the MDX. On the Acura compaign, it uses the same rating scale. However, a rating of 4 and below will result in a justification for your rating.
The Acura campaign has a goal of getting ALL 5s from their customers. Most of our customers get fed up when they have to give a reason for rating 4, when 4 is still good.. and there is no reason.

Once the dealership and Honda/Acura Canada receives the documentation, they will see your personal information. They will see the ratings you gave them... and any other comments you had for suggestions for improvements.
If ratings are low, disciplinary action is taken to improve customer satisfaction.

Each salesperson at each dealership has a chart.
Each survey deleted [because customer did not wish to particpate] or each survey completed affects the salesperson's status.

The salespeople and financial advisors can actually get bonuses from having x amount of "good" surveys.
Again, disciplinary action could be taken place if their goals are not met for good ratings [which usually are not harsh, unless you had something really bad to say about them].
However, as you know, the salespeople and financial advisors get paid on the amount of sales made per month. They have a quota to make.

The surveys that you are asked to participate in help improve the facility, customer satisfaction... and help make your salesperson obtain their quota in "good" surveys.

o4Komodo

iTrader: (2)

Oh yes. The employees at the dealership can also survey you personally.
So sometimes you might not even know who you are talkin to.
Our company, is hired to say "calling on behalf of Honda/Acura Canada". Don't know what the dealership says...

And also, employees at the Honda/Acura dealership are not allowed to the survey---even if they did not purchase the vehicle from themselves.
Also, customers are not allowed to participate in the survey if they have purchased the vehicle from a broker or a leasing company. They had to have purchased the vehicle directly from the dealership to participate in the survey.

camporealer

I agree with the previus posts, that the current scoring system is just a way to cheat employees. Basically if the consumer isn't aware of the scoring system, then the results are totally meaningless...

A real honest survey would benefit both the customers and the dealers. Too bad we are never going to see one.

TLingham

Grade inflation! We wouldn't want to tell someone there is room for improvement.

Will Y.

FWIW, I just filled out and returned a JD Power survey for my '05, based on 3 years' of ownership. The JD Power survey also had about 3 pages of questions on the dealership and service experience, so that feedback would get back to AH.

alextclam

When I took delivery of my car, my sales person informed me that I would be receiving a phone survey over the next couple of days. He told me it was VERY important that I give nothing lower than a 10.

When I got a call from Acura, one of their questions was, "Did your sales representative ask you to give all 10's in the survey?" Of course I said no but I thought it was funny that it was part of their survey.

o4Komodo

iTrader: (2)

They arn't supposed to say that.. and I'm surprised the American version uses 10s and even has that question!

I want to get my company a contract for Honda/Acura servicing---only so I can take advantage and try to get lower prices at the dealerships since I do the surveys for them. :lol:

TallyCL-S

Phone surveys for customers that have just purchased new cars are a good way to monitor the performance of a dealer/dealership. I personally like hearing the feedback from my customers, it helps me monitor my levels of performance, and allows me to see what areas I can improve in.

That being said, I hate Acura's system of surveying internet customers, talk about unfair and completely ridiculous.

jcondon

I in general hate any type of survey. The dealer sends me letters asking me to complete them when they call. At least once I was asked by the dealership to give good marks. I find them to be an intrusion on MY time. If I was interested give me a card or link to fill out. Don't hound me the customer.

I think I have done one total for Acura service. I recently did one for Microsoft service. And another for an MS class I was taking.

Acura freaking hounds me for 2 damn weeks calling all hours. Durning dinner time before 11am on the weekends. They NEVER leave a damn voicemail. I call their 231-xxx-xxxx number and get a recording saying they will probably call back. They should give me the option to opt out or pick a time for a call back that would be good for me.

To be honest it annoys me. I am the customer. I do not owe you anything. Let me choose if I want to do your damn survey or not. If I do I will. If I don't I wont.

BG74

I couldn't agree with you more. I didn't need a lecture when I picked up my car explaining that anything less than a "10" constitutes a failure. I just threw their surveys in the trash and hung up on them when they called.

black label

The dealer is just gun shy, honestly they are just as happy with you hanging up or not answering surveys as they would be with getting all 10's for service or 5's for sales.

They don't really gain anything with good surveys, they just lose with the bad ones. If the customer gives any bad marks in areas that Acura corporate deems important, they send an "opportunity bulletin" to the dealer and shit rolls down hill.

That's why the dealer is asking for good marks, although they really should just explain the weight of the survey and ask for "fair" marks, don't beg......earn.

jcondon

[QUOTE=black label]The dealer is just gun shy, honestly they are just as happy with you hanging up or not answering surveys as they would be with getting all 10's for service or 5's for sales.[QUOTE]

My issue is more with corporate Acura then the dealer. If they are going to hound me for upto 2 weeks everytime I take my car in maybe my next car will not be an Acura.

If I honestly thought the survey would help me I would probably answer it. But, it just seems whenever they call is not a good time for me. Why can't I call them when its good for me? Or goto a website and fill it out online?

Anyway just my rant. In a year or so I will probably be buying a new car and just one of many many factors I will consider.