Dealerships ‘live or die’ on reviews

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This article was published 08/03/2018 (3012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At Crown Auto Group they put more weight on their customer-satisfaction survey scores than on financial results.

Kabeir Dilawri, vice-president of the seven-store Winnipeg auto dealership group and the son of founder Ashok Dilawri, said, “My dad always says he’d rather have no customer than an unhappy one.”

Customer-satisfaction surveying is not unique to the auto dealership business, but that sector may have taken it to another level.

With the average purchase price of a new vehicle now close to $40,000, it is obviously a big-ticket item that only comes around every few years, so it’s crucial that it is a good experience. And with dealerships earning significant share of their revenues from their service department, keeping customers happy — and keeping them coming back — is vital to their ongoing success.

Geoff Sine, the CEO of the Manitoba Auto Dealers Association, said, “I would go so far to say dealers live and die by their customer-satisfaction scores. It is also a very important tool for their relationship with the manufacturer.”

It is serious enough that in the past, dealers have been threatened with the loss of franchise rights. But by all accounts, these days there is a more collaborative relationship between the manufacturers and the dealers, both of whom have as much at stake in keeping the customers happy and making sure that problems are addressed quickly.

“These relationships are incredibly important,” said Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association. “Ultimate customer satisfaction is critical. Everyone, now more than ever, is competing to retain customers. They are taking extensive steps to make sure customer satisfaction is key.”

Obviously, consumer response is extremely valuable intelligence in just about any commercial relationship. In the past, manufacturers sent out lengthy surveys with dozens of questions. But not surprisingly, the response rate for such a time-consuming undertaking was not ideal.

They’re now a lot shorter, but they are also a lot more frequent.

Steve Chipman, president of the Birchwood Auto Group with 21 franchised operations, is a self-professed customer-satisfaction survey geek.

The company sends out 70,000 of them a year and Chipman can get score updates hourly on his computer screen.

Chipman and Birchwood have also become more sophisticated in their execution. Previously, manufacturers would ask 40 to 50 questions like: Were you greeted on time? Was the bathroom clean? Was the reception area clean? Was the service adviser friendly? These questions are an attempt to determine exactly what, if any, problems existed.

But Chipman has boiled Birchwood’s surveys down to a couple of key questions: would you recommend the dealership to friends and family and if not, why not on a scale of one to 10.

“We are not into getting a score just to get a score,” he said. “I am more concerned about finding out what we are doing right and doing wrong, so we can give customers a better experience.”

The surveys are sent out 24 to 48 hours after a customer interaction and results are available in real time.

“I don’t want to find out about a problem six months after it happened,” he said.

At Birchwood, the internal survey results are shared with everyone in the company and all the stores are always aware of which ones have better scores than the others. Chipman said the company is not big on specific incentives for high scores. Negative responses are acted on quickly to resolve the issue.

“Most customers are very appreciative of the fact that we reached out,” he said. “We want to get better. I always say I don’t like getting those calls (with negative reactions)… but I love getting these calls because it will make us better.”

Dennis DesRosiers, the founder and CEO of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, said there is always some amount of controversy about the value of customer-satisfaction surveys, because, as he says, “It’s the complainers who respond. People who are thrilled have a lower response rate. So the question is, are you getting a true picture?”

While he agrees that it is an important part of the ecosystem of the industry, he said there continues to be plenty of questions as to whether or not high scores translate into more sales. DesRosiers said Ford spent millions on surveys about a decade ago to track the correlation between customer-satisfaction scores and sales, and they did not see the needle move.

“Low customer satisfaction or any negative blot on a dealer is taken very seriously,” he said. “But does a dealership or brand with a high customer-satisfaction rating get more business because of that? We have never been able to track that down.”

Technology has altered the strategies over time. Now, in addition to the structured internal surveys, there is also the unregulated world of social media, where customers are free to say what they really feel. At Crown Auto Group, they monitor social media for mentions of customer experience.

“We put lots of focus on Google and Facebook reviews,” Dilawri said.

“We watch it every week. If there is a good one, we respond and thank the customer for the taking time to do it. If there is poor, one we take action to see if we can address the situation.”

Dilawri said they even go so far as to ask their customers to post their reactions online.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca