Ford Sales - new car after sales survey

[900dukess]

Hi all,
I was lucky today picking up my brand new Ford Falcon FGX ute today.

I was a little taken back by the amount of pressure the sales person put on me regarding my response I will give for the survey I will be sent to complete.

It was almost like he was trying to guilt trip me in giving favourable responses for my sales experience by saying he won't receive his sales commission unless he gets 100% positive feedback.

I am not sure if the survey is a Ford Australia thing or just my dealer.

What is everybody thoughts as there was a couple of things during my sales experience that was annoying but wasn't the sales guys fault only the dealerships general manager fault.

Has anybody else experienced this pressure to give positive feedback on their new car purchase?

[ronwest]

We picked up my wife's new Kuga today. The sales guy did mention the survey and "jokingly" suggested that high marks would be appreciated.

I had a similar call from the Holden guy when I bought my Calais a few weeks ago. He did specify that the question that related to him was, err... whatever it was (can't rem exactly). He said that if we were happy with him (we were) he'd appreciate a ranking that reflected that fact.

Neither was "pressure" as such. Moreso, a heads up.

The Holden survey was from GMH not the dealership. Presumably the Ford one will be likewise.

With regards to what you weren't happy about, mark it accordingly. There will most likely be a "comments" section as well (there was on the GMH one).

Oh, while I think of it, there was a check box that you could tick if you were happy for the dealer to receive the results your survey. I don't know if the Ford one will be the same.

[NX74205]

Originally Posted by 900dukess

Has anybody else experienced this pressure to give positive feedback on their new car purchase?

Nope.

Pressure to give positive feedback is a bit like compulsory tipping in American restaurants. Those who have to pressure you to give positive feedback probably don't deserve it in the first place.

The salesman didn't have to pressure me to give positive feedback. I wouldn't have given any less than 10/10 in any event. All he had to do was to give some good old fashioned customer service by going above and beyond to make sure I was completely happy, and be a genuine, down-to-earth person with a demonstrable enthusiasm for what he's selling.

Originally Posted by ronwest

The Holden survey was from GMH not the dealership. Presumably the Ford one will be likewise.

The one I did was from a sub-contractor doing the survey on behalf of Ford, and there was also a check box which asks if you're happy for Ford to receive the results of the survey (presumably the full answers rather than just the statistics that they would've otherwise received).

[PG2]

Originally Posted by 900dukess

Hi all,
I was lucky today picking up my brand new Ford Falcon FGX ute today.

I was a little taken back by the amount of pressure the sales person put on me regarding my response I will give for the survey I will be sent to complete.

It was almost like he was trying to guilt trip me in giving favourable responses for my sales experience by saying he won't receive his sales commission unless he gets 100% positive feedback.

...

When I worked for Ford part of my sales commission was dependant on the customer survey.

[Crazy Dazz]

Please, please be aware, that from the employees' pov, some of these surveys are just murderous.
My Missus used to work for Westpac, and customers would get hit up to answer surveys (not sure if it was email, or what.)
The usual thing, rate various aspects of the experience on a scale of one to 10.
And the "scaling" was "standard." 1 = "Extremely Dissatisfied," 10 = "Extremely Satisfied," 5 = "Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied." Sounds simple right?
Except that according to Westpac Management 8 out of 10 is the pass mark. (At which they get NOTHING) Staff needed to score 9 or 10's to qualify for their bonuses.

Then consider, that MOST of the things that **** customers off (Having to wait too long, being given the 3rd degree if you want to withdraw too much money in cash, being charged $20 for a bank cheque, being told your tax refund cheque will take 10 days to clear, etc, etc) are all down to Management. Yet the Staff are blamed for every low score.

And here's the thing, if you didn't like the salesman, why did you buy the car off him?
Trying to sink the boot in afterwards just makes YOU the a___hole.

[axe]

I didn't realise this before I filled in my one recently and then got a call from the guy I bought the car off. Apparently he got reamed for the responses I gave even though my issues were all with the dealership itself or with Ford corporate and their poor communication with the dealer. If i'd known I would have marked the ratings a lot higher and added a bunch of comments about how bad Ford is at its higher levels.

Got sent a second survey which I just ticked the top marks boxes on because I don't want the sales guy copping it over bad management practices.

[Sabantien]

At my work there's a survey sent out after visits. Quite often a low score can be explained, but it's a bit frustrating too. People will rate something low when it's not something they participated in (okay, the survey system should be a little smarter and only send questions based on what they actually booked for), and in general just put things in the wrong spot. While surveys can give an overall guide, if you took just the numbers it doesn't tell the complete story.

Not to mention how subjective it is. A rating of 10/10? Things would have to be phenomenal. And there are definitely people out there who never give full marks for things, they have a fundamental belief that nothing can be 100%.

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

Please, please be aware, that from the employees' pov, some of these surveys are just murderous.
My Missus used to work for Westpac, and customers would get hit up to answer surveys (not sure if it was email, or what.)
The usual thing, rate various aspects of the experience on a scale of one to 10.
And the "scaling" was "standard." 1 = "Extremely Dissatisfied," 10 = "Extremely Satisfied," 5 = "Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied." Sounds simple right?
Except that according to Westpac Management 8 out of 10 is the pass mark. (At which they get NOTHING) Staff needed to score 9 or 10's to qualify for their bonuses.

Then consider, that MOST of the things that **** customers off (Having to wait too long, being given the 3rd degree if you want to withdraw too much money in cash, being charged $20 for a bank cheque, being told your tax refund cheque will take 10 days to clear, etc, etc) are all down to Management. Yet the Staff are blamed for every low score.

And here's the thing, if you didn't like the salesman, why did you buy the car off him?
Trying to sink the boot in afterwards just makes YOU the a___hole.

wow, I wish I had of known that.

I didn't give a 10 for anything, nobody is perfect.
I rated it as what I thought was fair and yet the salesman was great, he even went out of his way to get rid of the ming-mole.

He still talks to me though, hopefully he didn't get a reaming, I will have to ask next time I see him.

[PaulXR50]

I heard nothing from my dealer - they got their money i got the car. No follow up to see if all ok or anything. That was second car i bought from them.

Service dealer i took car to was better, they rang couple of times after 15k service to see all ok.

[Ratmick]

The guy that sold me my Fiesta ST (picked up on Tuesday) was a newbie. Nice guy, couldn't do enough for me. His knowledge of exactly what is/isn't in the ST was a bit lacking but then he has a whole fleet of cars to sell in various spec-levels whereas I was only focusing (fiestaing?) on one

I went into the dealer to test-drive their in-stock ST and three days later (including the weekend) it was in my garage. Rang yesterday and asked how it was going (great!).

One of the other sales guys stuck his head in the passenger's side door as I was about to drive the car out and said their commission depends on the buyer survey but I had no issue with him anyway so I won't mark him down (my EOY bonus depends on how well the bank I work for goes globally, so I know what it's like to be reamed when you've had a good year).

[csv8]

Since buying my Captiva, salesman has rung me twice, Holden emailed me twice...in 6 weeks clocked up 3,100kms..No problems..getting 9.1l/km for the 2.2 diesel. The heated drivers seat is great this cold mornings!! The Hyundai Accent has had its sound system replaced and when it had its 1500kms check, the service manager said "the wheel alignment was out from the factory" my daughter complained of it pulling to the left. All happy with the cars.. Isnt commission based on sales ? not your opinion of salesman tactics ?????