Yeah I got it like 5 or 6 weeks ago but I haven't filled it out either.

Its kinda long and they haven't offered me anything to actually fill it out. The way I see it, it's to help make the dealership AND the Manufacturer more business (i.e. more money) in the future, so I feel they should at least compensate me for my time.

So, untill they send me a follow up letter of "FREE OIL CHANGE" or somethin like that, its likely that letter will sit on my kitchen window for quite some time until I do my spring or summer cleaning.

 

I was a salesperson for a dealership last year. The survey you get from Ford is for the dealership and the sales person. The dealership gets graded to keep then Blue Oval Certified(sales and service). When a dealership is "blue Oval Certified" they get better responce and incentives from Ford. A sales person gets "extra cash incentives" for maintaining an above average score. In my case, I could get a $1200 monthly bonus if my average way 90%(score) or better, I would also have to sell a minimum of 12 cars that month.

At most dealships, the survey benefits the sales person alot more than the dealship. IMO, if you like the sales person, answer "excellent", if not, answer honestly.

 

I haven't filled mine out yet, the sale went ok, but the service at my dealership stunk (literally).

After getting it back for the bushing TSB, the car stunk like rotten feet, and the air conditioner was on full blast TO THE FLOOR VENTS, it was only a 60*F day too. Someone obviously used MY car to air out their stank-a$$ feet. Wasn't impressed at all (plus there was almost a 1/4 tank of gas missing even though the odometer only showed a few miles put on it, which means it was sitting idleing for a loonnnng time.

I told the service managaer what I thought about his business, but never did send in the form. Guess I should have.

 

As this thread indicates, the survey process has been corrupted so badly that it's amazing that Ford (and other manufacturers with such surveys) even bothers. I hear often about dealer employees pressuring customers about the surveys. And not just Ford dealers, but many others.

If I were Ford and wanted to really learn what was going on, I'd structure the process so there wasn't so much incentive to cheat, and come down hard on those that did cheat. Right now, Ford (and others) make cheating very worthwhile, and do little if anything to prevent it.

Putting a question on the survey that asked, "Did the dealership or salesperson pressure you to fill out this survey a certain way?" would be a good start.

Eliminating the whole bonus system would also be a good idea. Instead, just make the results publicly available so that consumers would know which dealers were best. If you knew you were affecting a dealer's public ranking, rather than affecting a salesman's ability to pay his rent, you'd probably be more inclined to fill the thing out, and accurately.

I'm conducting surveys myself, on vehicle reliability. I've sought to minimize people's incentives to fill the surveys out incorrectly, and if it becomes clear that people are nevertheless trying to cheat the system I'll take steps to stop this.

 

my dealership got good review on mine, but I did it online so I'd have more room to complain- ford and their allocation bull****, regional allocation delays, lack of response fro ANYONE at Ford for three frigging days when the hauler smashed up the first car at unloading...Ive written before, usually you get some kind of 'thank you for your comments' letter, but I actually did get a confirmation that they forwarded my fuel filling complaints to engineering- along with links to threads on various forums- so they do actually read them...CRC is a pathetic joke, but if you can speak up about ANY problems at factory/dealer/whatever, PLEASE for the sake of future ford buyers(and current ford employees) suggest improvements. two heads are better than one, eventually they will hopefully start acknowledging customer complaints and fix some of their problems. My dealer will never get a review from me on service, as I wouldnt let them work on my lawnmower after experiences over the years, but If for some reason a dealer messes up, ford needs to know about it- things happen but if undocumented, things will continue to happen more frequently. when I bought my 93 f150 another dealer offered free oil change if they could fill out my survey- instead I changed my own oil and wrote ford about it.

 

How many people opted instead for the free oil change?

Crazy system. I'm all for providing feedback. But I spent nearly two years inside another of these companies observing what went on as the basis for my Ph.D. thesis.

What they want more than anything is to pretend that everything's going to be alright. They hate bad information, and do their best to ignore it. If they really wanted feedback, there are plenty of better ways to get it.

Instead, Blue Oval is an old-fashioned way to supposedly force the dealers to provide good service. You cannot force good service, it just never works that way. I sold cars for a Chevy dealer in the summer of 1986. I still vividly remember a morning meeting where the owner SCREAMED at us for continuously earning the lowest CSI score in the region. How much do you think that helped?

This was a place where if three customers left the lot without the sales manager's permission the salesperson got yelled out. Salespeople did all sorts of screwy things to keep people from leaving.

Salespeople do whatever management pressures them to do. In a culture of pressure and fear, the way salespeople react to survey-based bonuses is to pressure/guilt customers into filling them out dishonestly.

 

I got two surveys. One from the dealer and one from a company that does surveying for FORD. The second was very indepth and I had fun putting in all the positives and negatives about the car. It took all of 10 min. I did it so that the next Mustang I buy will be a better one.

 

I've been referring to surveys that cover the sales experience.

The surveys asking what you think of the product don't get gamed the same way, and actually do often get acted upon. Responses to these will help.

 

Yes I got the survey and filled it out.

My dealer called me and let me know the first oil change was on the house...a day after I had just changed it myself! LOL

I'm going to take it to them at 6000 miles and see if they'll give me the freebie...

Mike

 

When I got my survey after buying my car, I PITY the person that read what I had filled out. (If you remember my rant last year, my purchase was a disaster from day one with the first car, and I ended up getting a replacement after 5 months of complaining), and I never heard back about any of my compliants either, big shock! But at least I was honest!