After my recent dealer service I was sent the shortest customer satisfaction survey ever.

Was I "extremely satisfied" with my experience. Answer had to be YES or NO.

I answered NO, which could mean many things less than perfection and not necessarily outright unhappiness..

They now ask me to explain my answer....

Anyone else had this?

Was that just a Dealership survey, not a Skoda UK one?

Did it not ask permission to contact you for further assistance to help them improve their customer service and satisfaction?

 

Who is asking you to explain, the Dealer Principal by mail or Email or a phone call.

I would be telling them in person what was wrong at the Dealership & with the survey.

Edited 24 October, 20178 yr by Headinawayoffski

"Our dealership" Customer Care Team. And no, I don't want to contact them after such a brusque approach. I quote. 

 

We are sorry to hear this. Could you provide us with more information please., Regards Customer Care Team 

?

Did the survey ask if they could contact you for further responses?

 

There have been Dealership in trouble for doing so in the past.

I even told Skoda Customer services to have Alasdair Stewart contact me when he was the Skoda UK Brand Director as i had ticked 'no 

to Post, SMS, Email, Phone and they phoned to ask.

Then a Communications manager called about my complaint, and she was told to get Alasdair Stewart to call.

In the end i just called him and told him what i thought, and on their IT security or lack of.

I quote their last message in full, above.

And the first message in full below.

Thank-you for your business. Were you extremely satisfied with your recent visit to our Skoda Dealership? Please reply Yes or No, Regards Customer Care Team 

My beef is that there appears to be nothing acceptable less than extreme satisfaction. Life's not like that.

Sorry for being stupid, if you could just explain, 

was that a TXT, Email, or note through the door message, and how did you reply, TXT, Email or note through the door?

Many  dealerships are so very “amateurish”. Personally, I don’t feel they are worthy of a response.

Received by SMS, and replied ditto, if that is significant.

Edited 24 October, 20178 yr by gregoir
Boredom

Kind of explains the 'short survey' (Abrupt). 

Surveys handed over at Dealerships or received by Email or Courtesy car are common.

I get a call from mt dealer and the last one was how did we do. When i told them i wasnt all that satisfied the caller said i would get a call to discuss. Did i bugger...

I do not see any issue here, I read the message as asking for feedback, could have been phrased better but there is nothing in the request that stops you answering in long form and explaining any areas you were not 100% happy about.  No reason to get upset.

 

I see it as a clever marketting tactic for the dealership to report back to Skoda.

Dealership often have different targets, some based on sales, others on Customer satisfactions etc.

 

It is likely that their target for this month/quarter/year is greater than some percent of "extremely satisfied" dealership reports.

If you phrase your question like this the majority of people we take the questions as "was the service ok or not".

If you had no major problems you would just reply "yes" meaning another gold star for the dealership to report back to Skoda HQ.... cue big Christmas bonus for the franchise manager & nice party for all their employees....

Being "extremely satisfied " is way OTT. I'd have accepted "OK".

The upselling pressure was just too much, engine oil and fuel additives, premature imho aircon service and amber alert on tyre wear. Maybe I'm too literal in my response. It would take more than a main dealer service to make me extremely happy. Maybe a day's loan of a new VRS and a bottle of champagne to take home.

I'm sure the dealer knows this too but if they don't get "extremely satisfied" there's no new R8 for the franchise owner...

You could try bargining with them..... What can you offer me to give you extremely satisfied...

I recently had my first service for my 66 plate Octavia vRS. Where they scratched my car and also the dash cam recorded their cleaners ramping up my stereo and watching them dance in front of the car.

 

I did provide poor feedback to Skoda UK (email feedback that was sent to me). 

 

After a few days I did get a call from Skoda UK to investigate the situation and speak to the local dealer where I took my car into.

 

They said they will get the branch manager to give me a call and discuss the situation then Skoda UK will call both of us up (separately) to see what has been said...e.g. did I get any freebies...

 

 

There are so I believe bonus payments based on satisfaction. So new car sold, were you offered x or y post purchase survey questions.

 

The immediate cause here is the use of the word extremely.

 

That is a stupidly high bar to set and whomever used it in a short sms survey needs an update. If you were satisfied that's far easier to achieve a yes... if they are box ticking.

 

there might be some data privacy issues if externals are then contacting you. When you consented to your mobile being used on the service sheet there was probably a very small bit of text saying they can send your data somewhere. As of May next year you can really take them to the cleaners over it all  google GDPR, it's huge for us as consumers, for our data. 

 

It's also huge for business as few know about it, fewer are doing anything and only a few actually care...

 

Then again life is short, I ignore most automated sms... I never reply as at best that's confirmed your number is in active use. Likewise with email, marking as spam is actually a spammers tool to obtain verified active mail addresses which are worth more  Just delete it and  mute sender.

Customer satisfaction surveys are a pain for both the dealership and customers, its just a mechanism for Skoda UK to retain back end money that should go to the dealership, Skoda surveys are marked out of 5 and only extremely satisfied on EVERY question will get the dealership a 5/5, considering 1% of backend money is held back and not paid per quarter if the average score is below 4.7 out of 5, its pretty important for main dealers who are coming under more and more pressure from manufacturers with brand standards, demo fleets etc they need this 1% money, so just do them a favour give them 5 out of 5 if the service has been good and move on or don't bother filling out the survey at all and tell the dealership if things have gone wrong, most will deal with it accordingly. 

The dealers are not the problem in this case, its Skoda UK who are sending out the surveys and hoping you'll score the dealership poorly so Skoda UK can retain the 1% and have nice demo's, flash offices and a great xmas party!

'Most will deal with it accordingly'  would be lovely, maybe all should deal with it accordingly.

 

Dealerships that are chancers know they are, the bosses know they are and Skoda UK and Rod McLeod know they are.

It is Simply Clever if they clean their act up.

 

Dealerships can ask the customer to do a survey quite easily but too many are not going to do that as the truth can cause offence.

agreed, all should deal with it accordingly, but having been on both sides of the fence, I am an ex Brand Manager for a Skoda franchise and now a private owner, there are a hell of a lot of chancers, opportunists around and the culture in this country is at the "Where there is blame, there is a claim" levels of the US, the amount of nonsense I've heard form customers over the years is frankly ridiculous, from the "Yes my part exchange has a full service history" lie, to the "I am going to take you to court because my Yeti has KM's on the digital display and you cant turn it off" its got ridiculous

That stuff is ridiculous that comes from many customer, but then lots do think spending thousands should get them treated well.

 

As is the VW Group Service Campaigns or Recall Actions and Dealership Staff calling a Customer they have contact details and saying 'There is a recall' when there is no Recall.

there are Recall Actions maybe a Service Campaign and the Full Time or Part Time Dealership employee has no information they can pass on.

 

As the Up-selling, the telling those needing Cam Belts on cars not requiring Cam Belt Changes.  The Advisory nonsense that should be explained by someone with a clue to customers that might have not a clue but trust in a Dealership for safety and honesty.

 

The Reputation that many get is well deserved because of the poor dealerships and training of staff tainting good ones.

Some of the worse are the biggest Dealership Groups.

 

Recommendations should always go to good Independents where there are one, or Branches of Groups that are doing customers right.

http://victoriagarage-maud.co.uk

 

Edited 10 December, 20187 yr by Offski

I was sent one after trying to arrange a test drive with Lookers Newcastle.

 

This was after none of the sales staff were interested in speaking to me, would never return my calls etc.

 

When I responded accordingly, the manager took great offense stating it wasn't a true reflection of my experience. Not quite sure what his experience of it was but mine was utter carp.

 

Thought I'd give them another chance this year then I wanted to try and get a service closer to home. Again no one was interested.

 

Customer feedback requests were often made very black/white to force you to say yes, unless it was a big enough issue to say no.

 

Over time, obviously this isn't useful when your only negative is "you didn't have those lovely bacon sandwiches you usually have" so they have had to change it.

 

If you were dealt a carp hand and you said so, them giving you stick for it only makes the matter worse and I'd personally tell them to go forth if they asked me in any way other than "how can we fix this".

Just to balance this out a bit, we have just bought a 2 year old Citigo from Pulman Skoda in Durham. Generally speaking, we were treated very well and felt that we got a fair deal. However, there were some things that could have been better, so I emailed the Sales Manager with some constructive criticism. Within 15 minutes, he phoned me and went out of his way to put things right. Most impressed as this certainly wasn't a high value deal but Pulman ( a family firm) claimed to have good customer service and they certainly have tried to live up to that claim.

John M

I find Skoda dealerships vary considerably and that is never a good thing. The brand wants to delivery consistently and that so rarely happens.

To give you an idea of dealerships where I've had nothing but great service:

 

ALS-Lock, Ely - No longer a Skoda dealership (although they are still authorised for Skoda repair). Bought my 2011 Octy vRS from them and couldn't have been happier. However later on I had to try and get goodwill on an Inlet Manifold issue (yes, the one) and they didn't want to play ball. When I spoke to Skoda directly they told me that "goodwill" is a dealership thing and it is their decision.

 

Vindis, Cambridge - Took my 2006 Octy to them with an error code/light and was, in my opinion, completely ripped off with additional work that was carried out. Complained but got nowhere. Gave them another chance a few years back and they completed some service work very well, they were polite and a pleasure to deal with. Fast forward to my new car and me contacting them about trying to find a rattle - emails unanswered and promised call backs never happening.

 

Dennis Horton, Lincoln - Bought my 2006 vRS from them. Very good purchasing experience. Got home to find the AC not working, I drove back to them where they identified a failed compressor. All covered by warranty and they couldn't do enough for us - dropping us into town while the work was carried out, picking us up afterwards and giving me a full tank of fuel for my trouble.

 

Rainworth, Mansfield - Bought my new car from them 3 weeks ago and loved the experience. Fantastic salesman.

 

Wings, Peterborough - Have contacted them about my 1yr old (3 weeks old to me) car with a rattle and they couldn't be more helpful. Car booked in for this Friday for diagnostics, offered full access to their comfy seats and coffee while I wait or access to their upstairs offices if I want to actually do some work while I wait.

 

Wish it would all be consistent.