why low CSI ?

[sallen1]

Here's a question I've been pondering...

Why do some GM (mostly Chevy) stores have such low service CSI scores? Does it matter?

I get a list of all dealer's CSI scores in our market area. The service scores range from 25% top box to over 80% (the Cadillac stores). Why is there such a big difference? Is it product, people (customers)??

Is there any real pressure from the factory to improve, or is CSI just puffery??

I read a Business Week article (oct 23) covering the segmentation of customer service based on the customer's profitability to a business (banks, telcos, hotels, etc). The jist was that businesses don't want unprofitable customers and will offer them no or bad customer service hoping they go away.

Does this trend apply to dealerships?

just wondering...

scott

[gman]

Hello Scott,

An astute observation. I wish I had the answer but I don't. I can offer my opinion.
I have managed everything from exotic imports to Saturns and am currently involved with Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Saturn at 5 different locations. Since Saturn is in a world of its own, I'll just take on the General.

To begin, it is truly a combination of all the things you mention (product, owners, etc.) with a few other things thrown in.
As I began to move from the exotic imports and higher line domestics, there were two things that were blatantly obvious. My customer base changed dramatically in the areas of income, education, and overall intelligence. This has a direct effect on customer expectations and also the way that they respond in a less than pleasant situation. Where a Mercedes owner would be forceful, they would usually work through a situation with you and come out the back end a loyal customer. A typical Chevy owner will come in the door questioning your parentage before saying hello. Secondly, the limit that the manufacturer would go to satisfy a customer decreased significantly. This has been especially true with Chevrolet in our area. This leaves the dealer in the position of just how large do I want my policy account to grow in the name of customer satisfaction.
(As you know, the list of items that GM considers a "cost of doing business" grows every year) We all realize the importance of customer satisfaction. It goes above and beyond our desire to be fair and honest business people and to do the right thing. It is routine for us to decide in favor of a customer (at our expense) to make sure that their experience is what it should be.

All of this comes to your second point on customer service segmentation. Given some of the opinion above, we have come to the realization that it is not good business to attempt to retain every customer. If we were to listen to the manufacturer, they espouse all of this garbage on how every person comming in your door is possibly worth several hundred thousand dollars. For a majority this may be true, but not realizing the damage that one truly rotten apple can do to your business is false economy. While we do not truly segment levels of service, we do recognize these individuals and do absolutely no more than execute their product warranty by the letter. (no free cleanups, no service reminder letters, no Christmas cards, etc.) This is actually in hopes that they will try a Ford the next time they buy. While this may sound stupid to some, we feel that word of mouth is by far the best advertising tool around, and while this "rotten apple" can be romanced into continuing to do business with us, he will kill us in the street at every opportunity. To us, the question of attempting to retain this customer is a no-brainer.

On the importance of CSI: (SSS)
We have long believed that the opinion of our customer paid owners is as important as our warranty customer, simply because they are making a choice with discretionary income, not just finding a convenient place to have warranty work done. For this reason we pay much more attention to our in house survey than CSI when it comes to making changes in our operations. However, CSI is of extreme importance if you are looking to purchase additional franchises and currently we are. So, we do everything we can to assure that the survey is sent in "Completely Satisfied". Also in our market area a portion of the field sales and service reps pay plan is based on CSI, and we see some pressure from them for this reason.

gman

[Michael White]

CSI is always a diificult subject with imense complications. Going from a Cadillac store to a predominate Pontiac store, the expectations and inconveniences car repairs cause is significantly worse than Cadillac. Keep in mind, if a Cadillac customer comes in, you can give him a Cadillac while his vehicle is in for warranty repairs. Any other GM owner gets a $30 car after the first day. In our area, a $30 a day car is a GEO from Enterprise.

One area that has affected us and our CSI has to do with being unbelievably busy with no break. This causes everyone to be working at maximum levels and under more stress which gives way to more opportunities for errors and dissatisfaction. Most manufacturers want good CSI as long as it does not cost them anything or as little as possible. Costs are transferred to us that far exceed the labor rate increases that are given to us under option C.

We are also in a age in instant and immediate gratification. I cannot tell you how many times I will get a call from a customer complaining about the advisor not returning their call, and when I investigate it, the advisor was finishing up with another customer or on the phoneminutes before. I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!! This is the current day consumerism.

I have seen trends where customers will come in a brutalize you knowing the squeeky wheel will get grease. I high powered attornery comes in and every time he does he yells and screams to get attention and immediate response. He tells his golf buddy, who I know personally, what he does at our dealership because we all respond to him to shut him up.
A elderly gentleman comes in last to becasue his left front sill plate to his new LeSabre was not fitting as well as he expected. We wrote him up at 7:55am. A tech was on the job at 8:05am. the job required relocating the sill. He comes back from walking around the showroom and tells the advisor the other sill plate on his car does not fit as well as the one on the showroom floor. The advisor says no problem and makes a add on repair. I sign it at 8:20. We finish both sill palte repairs by 8:40. the paperwork is completed and at the cashiers at 8:50. 8:55 he is in my office complaining how much of his time we have wasted because he percieves the job should only take seconds to repair. He then blasted us with our followup CSI person because we refused to adjust his doors becuase he feels they close too hard. He never mentioned anything about his doors to either of us. All of us have these customers. but my point is there are too many of these customers. We are a very large store with amjor parkinbg and space problems and we do the best we can with the staff and facility we have. It is fustrating. I must admit, my tolerance for the abusive customer is pretty low. Instead of taking the abuse, I will say enough is enough and ask them to leave. Several years ago i would just take it like a good soldier.
Sorry for rambling on about this.

Mike

[sallen1]

Thanx MikeW and gman

I think I hit a nerve (it might be mine)...

Another question comes to mind, and perhaps you are not in this category: should you really worry about GM's scores or follow what gman says and focus on you CP work and ignore the general? Are you under any threats from the general?

With Cadillac and their SFE program (similar to the evil Ford blue oval) there's a direct financial benefit to high CSI scores. I was a pilot dealer eight years ago and we've collected over a half million $$ (GM loves pilot programs, should have run an airline). Anyway, the results are really positive: SFE dealers outscore all other Cadillac dealers in CSI and are easily 50% better than any other GM brand. Even 3rd party surveys show the trend which is great since product quality has suffered. You know, the CIA must be in charge of marketing at Cadillac because this is another fantastic secret (like roadside, certified pre-owned...).

I know, get to the point. Here it is: GM is trying to 'keep up with the Fords, Chryslers' with their own Blue Oval or what-ever. SFE seems to be a great solution, its been piloted, tested and in practice for eight years. Problem is that SFE costs Cadillac about $2M per year but when they ran the Chevy numbers, the costs balloned to over $100M (that's the bonus paid to dealers). Yikes! Finance won't buy that.

Another issue: Executive management at GM (above the divisions) have the perception that us dumb Cadillac dealers are not properly equipped to handle the 'new' customer that should be interested in upcoming product. They think we're old, greedy and run unfashionable stores. Contrary evidence is on their desk but they just don't get it. And if you think this only applies to Cadillac, you're fooling yourself.

The priority and value of customer satisfaction to General Motors is becoming obvious: blame the dealer.

Please join this discussion, I need the therapy.

scott

[Doug]

Lot's of great dialog here. The whole CSI issue can be very frustrating. Our staff becomes very frustrated...and even outright dejected....when, despite their best efforts, the scores come out so low. I spend plenty of time trying to prevent them from becoming too discouraged.

In the last few years we've had several GM service reps "visit" our operation for a few days claiming they could identify "the problem". They never could, each one proclaiming "From what I've seen, your scores should be higher."

I think we really have to start managing customer expectations...a tough concept in today's consumer driven world. The "Nordstrom Syndrome".....where customers' complaints are summarily "handled" regardless of how unreasonable they are....is one issue we have to do battle against.

The concept of "completely satisfied" .....where our sucess or failure in the CSI arena depends on customers being overwhelmingly pleased....is another toughie. For example, I have some favorite restaurants that I have been patronizing for years. I am satisfied enough to keep returning .... but I can't say that I am "completely satisfied" with any of them.

Interesting that the manufacturers place the burden on the dealers and expect us to keep everybody so happy yet we are simultaneoulsy obligated to work within their policies and guidelines.

I could go on for hours but whenever this topic comes up I always feel as though I am simply "sour graping" as many dealers DO manage to earn very high scores.

[Farfinator]

On Nov.23rd, I brought my 2000 K2500 Silverado LS for service. First, I was truely disappointed to discover that alternate transportation was not available for the warranty repairs necessary to the $35k truck I had purchased at this dealership, but I bit my tongue and set up a wait appointment for 1pm to have a 20K oil service and tire rotation performed and parts ordered to fix the knocking steering shaft and leaking rear slide window on my new vehicle of 15k miles! This "service" took 2.5 hours. The only add-on was wiper blades. After forking over the $115.00 for this "service", I specifically asked if I would be contacted when the parts can in. The advisor said "of course." It is Dec. 4th...No phone call. How should I respond to my survey?!
People have got to stop buying C.S.I. with policy and "really" examine what is compromising their C.S.I...Giving me a free oil change ain't fixing the problem!
Problem1: Most dealerships do not have an intelligent delivery program to educate their customers of both the product and warranty issues. No salesman ever sat me down to discuss my expectations and understanding of warranty coverage! I'm certain I would be far less disgruntled at my service experience if I knew ahead of time what to expect!
Problem2: Don't discount the effects of poor scheduling and dispatch. I was a very reasonable customer, being in the "buis", but even my tolerance was tested by clearly poor scheduling.
Problem3: How are you special order parts procedures affecting you? Are your customers getting the follow through they expect?

Now, I have to call tomorrow to find out whether the parts are in and set-up an appointment. How many of your customers do you think are similarly affected by mediocre or poor practices that could be easily remedied without throwing freebies at them?
This advisor was polite,friendly and professional, but all the systems around him failed to meet my expectations! Could this be happening to you? Does your survey reflect how well your advisor performs, or do you think it might reflect how the dealership as a whole is working to satisfy our needs?
Now, if this occured on my next three visits, I could become an unpleasant customer. Very probably one you would not like to return! And one who would most certainly find the survey and excellent venue to vent my frustration.

There are certainly problem customers out there and one's that would be better written off, but I've found that "most" people don't get so exited without CAUSE. And "nice" people, like myself, CAN be driven to extremes by seemingly "stupid" stuff that dealers do to them!

[gman]

Farfinator,

Sounds like you need a new dealer! Email me and I'll give you our address! I'll do oil changes and rotations for $115 a pop all day long!

By the way, what aspect of the "biz" are you in?

[FARFINATOR]

HI GMAN;
The last 2 years I've spent in Part's Management, the prior 5 years in Service-Asst Mgr,Advisor,Dispatch & Body Shop Mgr.

Your right, a new dealer is in order.But, in keeping with the concept of C.S.I., I offer you tody's experience as yet another example of how the little stuff, that IS CONTROLLABLE can bite you in the ass.

Same advisor-I walked in and inquired about the parts ordered for my vehicle. The following occured:

*The advisor pulled up the ADP Special Order Parts Inquiry screen. I thought:Great this will be quick! He advised me that my parts appeared in. I immediately observed that there was no entry in the RDATE(Received) field and questioned his answer. He replied "Well, they must be back ordered".

Again imagine this little stuff happening to your customer!

Problem1:Although a great idea to give access to SPI, your damn advisors need to know how to use the information.Service Manager's fault!

Problem2:Update the darn SPI "default" display to include the order status code so someone can identify a backorder.Parts and Service Manager's Fault!

Problem3: Don't friggin' guess! How do you expect to inspire trust and confidence if you can't answer a simple yes or no question with certainty. Advisor and Service Manager's fault!

Problem4: Advisor stated he would contact me by day's end with ETA...No call yet at 4:51PM. Failure to follow though on commitments! Service advisor and Service Manager's fault!

This dealer based on this experience appears to be a disaster, but you would be suprised how often this little crap occurs around you on a daily basis and believe me is having a substancial downward impact on C.S.I.

P.S. I've known my advisor for 5 years, he happens to be the SERVICE MANAGER!, evidently too busy with more important issues to pay attention to the "little","insignificant" details ...

Sound familiar??????

[ROLFE]

The one factor that has changed over the years is the customers expectation level that we as dealers have ruined. It is not uncommon for a customer who is 15,000 miles out of warranty to become outright indignant when you don't cover a repair under warranty. A customer, by the way, who doesn't service his vehicle with you.

We have made our own bed so to speak. The public has become so conditioned to getting whatever they want under any circumstances that warranty's are becoming a joke. If you can't get the dealer to give it to you, call the "800" number. If the "800" number won't help, arbitrate. I agree that known repetitive product concerns should be given consideration but the "squeaky wheel" is going to have to stop somewhere and it seems to have chosen our service advisors as a landing zone.

Regarding farfinators comments he is absolutely correct that we set ourselves up to fail at times. But what right minded individual would want a job that has a majority of unreasonable customers on one end and the everchanging expectations of the automotive technician on the other. An unenviable spot if I ever saw one.

[sallen1]

All very well said, however...

Since we've trained the customer to have high expectations and the job to exceed those expectatons is forced on us by the franchisor, then perhaps it is time to adjust.

Have you ever wondered how long you could survive without giving away all the goodies? There would be more than a bunch of customers standing on your desk demanding action but you'd need to stand strong: no more dealer give-aways.

That's what I described above: banks, airlines, hotels, mass-marketers, etc. are all doing the same thing: They are managing their consumers expectations. If you are not a profitable customer then you get lousy service, period. You still fly that airline that loses your baggage and still use that bank that screws up your statements, and on and on... We have adapted quite well to the 'new economy'.

I was kinda worried if GM would ever come down on me for using their own strategy (notice how GM's better customers (dealers) get preferential treatment and the rest of us get the run-around?).

Then again, if I were to be the low cost, low service provider, would someone else in my market capitalize? Hard to tell.

scott

[This message has been edited by sallen1 (edited 12-06-2000).]