How to gain an edge on that survey

I have seen dealerships that have hung up copies of surveys in the finance offices and have trained their sales staff to mention their survey as a report card for themselves.

Truly, the customer will fill out the survey honestly but there are steps to make sure you get that honest answer. If you did an excellent job all the way through delivery but there was an issue when they got home with "anything" and no one followed up or the customer decided it was no big deal UNTIL they got the survey in the mail, then they unleashed.

An old practice when I first started out was 3 things:

1. Introduce them to a Manager as soon as they arrive
2. The Finance Manager interview just gives them that extra "feel good" moment
3. Upon delivery, have them say goodbye to a Manager.

None of this ensures a 100% on your survey but if you have control of the customer and readily answer their questions, it's only going to increase your chances of getting a completely perfect survey.

There is not enough emphasis on the delivery as that's where I've had Sales Consultants get referrals and talk about the delivery in full. It's not a bad thing to go over a couple of features and benefits when they leave. The Manager coming to say goodbye strengthens the entire experience. Also, if you have a Facebook page set up, it's not going to hurt for you to ask for a photo to post it on Facebook. Some dealerships even send out that photo in a calendar...all ideas to help you get that perfect survey.

Some will not be looking for it so also, remind them of that and the survey process is a grade of the entire experience but focuses on you and your ability to deliver that memorable experience. That's how they'll send in a good review as everyone goes to Google or Yelp to give a review if they have something to say. If you feel you've earned that 5 star review, go ahead and send that in the email the very next morning, pending you know you aced the delivery and all the things went well.

One is never to speculate on if the survey is going to be a blindsided remark about how the tires weren't polished or that the time at the dealership was 4 hours...people have endured vehicle buying before so when you do have an appointment, get it confirmed immediately by a Manager which helps strengthen the show ratio and all they are doing is saying how great you are and ask if there is a specific vehicle that can be pulled up and waiting for their arrival.

CSI is vital to your dealership and all of the different departments so you must take the dealership sales process and master it so your transaction goes through without any glitches.

Good luck!