JStraw

Do any of you see any benefit to the survey conducted by BMW NA after each service appointment??

Case in point... I had taken my car to change over to the summer wheels/tires (among other things). All they had to do was remove the winter wheel/tire and install the summer wheel/tire (I have two sets of wheels/tires). In the process, one of the rims was scratched slightly - probably by the metal plate surrounding the rotors in the rear. The stractch is not noticable unless you run your hand on it. Of course the only reason I found it cause I was cleaning them up after I got them home.

I get a call from BMW asking me to take the survey, so here are the questions (questions are shortened) :
Q1. Overall satisfaction with the dealer (scale of 1 to 5).
Q2. Was appoint made via internet, fax, telephone?
Q3. Do you feel that the dealer/SA understood your service needs (scale of 1 to 5)
Q4. Was all the work completed as per your request (scale of 1 to 5)
Q5. Would you go back/recommend the dealer to your friends (scale of 1 to 5).

For Q1 and Q5, I gave a 4. Other q's I couldn't give anything less than a 5, since they completed all the work.

Where within these questions is an opportunity to say that they scratched the rims (i.e. did the job poorly)?? you could argue that Q4 is the best candidate for this, but look at the question again. They did complete all the work. (it's not "did they complete the work to your satisfaction").

I am beginning to wonder about the usefullness of these surveys.

homerrs

The purpose of the survey is for the dealership. I believe that the end result of the surveys gives the dealership the ability for an award (Center of Excellence). I've heard that this gives the dealership some perks such as number of vehicles and pricing.

I also believe that they have incentives tied to their customer service performance.

It's obvious that there is some type of incentive tied to this survey. Each time after meeting with the service advisor, the survey is brought up with the importance of receiving 5's.

JStraw

I understand that, but what I was trying to say is that the questions are phrased such that you have no choice but to give them high marks. IMO, it's one of those biased surveys, not meant to collect real feedback about the dealer.

Kamdog

Q1. score 1, not satisfied. They scratched my wheel.

UUronL

I tend to agree - I hate to ding the guys (they get paid based on the surveys). I gave them all 5s on the last visit even though I wasn't completely satisfied. I plan to go back and use that as leverage - like I have a "credit" saved up with them now. They need to make my brakes stop squeaking.