After I take my car in I get an e-mail asking me to take a survey about their service department. Before I even get this e-mail and while still at the dealership I was told I would be getting this e-mail and as usual told that even a single bad response on a survey makes the entire visit a failure. What this means to me? They coached me. I have seen this before, at the Toyota dealership when they still did paper surveys they actually had an example taped to the counter of exactly how to fill it out saying that one bad response was a bad survey for the department. Who is behind this and have they never taken a research methods class? My guess is that they are holding dealerships to unrealistic expectations by not basing goals on benchmarks or improvements and that is leading dealerships to have to coach customers in order to meet goals. It devalues the entire survey process.
