There’s no doubt that if you have ever been a customer of just about any business in any industry, you have not escaped the owners or manufacturer trying to get you to fill out a survey. It might seem confusing to someone outside of any applicable industry, why are these surveys so ubiquitous and prominent? You may be asking; “Why am I being harassed for these surveys?”. The answer is much more sinister than you might think.

Lets get the facts out of the way right from the start. The manufacturer does NOT care what you think. They already have your money, they have brand loyalists that no matter how substandard the product is, they will stand by it till the bitter end. The entire purpose of these surveys is so that the manufacture or franchise owner can pay their employees less, resulting in higher profits. That’s it. That’s really all its for. Ever notice no matter what you respond with on these surveys the product still remains the same?

My experience with these fiery darts from hell comes from working on both the sales and services sides of the automotive industry. These surveys have become so important to the dealership owners that they will lose alarming amounts of money in attempts to receive a good survey. I have seen some truly sad acquiescence in the attempt to save the survey. Disturbingly enough, these surveys have encouraged bad behavior from people whose status goes from customer to “entitled parasite”.

So you may be thinking, I usually give 4’s and 5’s on these surveys, so its all good. The problem is the surveys are not graded on a scale, they are binary. You may have options that look like this ; Strongly agree – 5, Mostly agree – 4, Somewhat agree – 3, Disagree – 2, Strongly disagree – 1. If it is not 5 or strongly agree, its 0. This is why advisers and salesmen call and ask for the surveys, and beg for 5’s, often to the brink of or even crossing into harassment.

Now you may also notice that there are questions on that survey that may have nothing to do with the person who helped you. There are questions on the surveys my manufacturer sends out such as “How do you feel about the brand?” or “Would you recommend the dealership?”. These questions have nothing to do with the salesman or the adviser, but they exist for good reason. The manufacturer needs absolutely every and any opportunity to save money and not pay the dealership what it deserves.

I have often been disgusted by the audacity that my manufacturer has to ask these questions, especially after a customer has just dumped over eight thousand dollars into their truck because the transmission only lasted 10,000 miles after the warranty expired. As a customer, I would be livid that the vehicle I spent $90,000.00 only a few short years ago is now a heap of problems and engineering failures. Of course I am going to respond negatively.

The issue is, however, this crap rolls downhill and your adviser or salesman is the one who pays the price for it, the person who was helping you or taking care of your vehicle is the one who is solely impacted. Between 2023 and 2024, I lost an estimated $16,000.00 in income due to bad surveys, of which a small percentage were genuinely earned. I can admit that I fell through on some of the expectations and rightfully deserved to get what we in the industry call “burned”. However, I have been burned for things that are completely out of my control.

The infractions have been from something as pathetic as “get better coffee” , or “The Lyft driver dropped me off a block away from my stop and I had to walk 1/32th of a mile”, all the way to complaining about the overuse of technology in the vehicle, or the quality of the FREE car wash. It is difficult to explain the disappointment and in some cases fury that come with being burned wrongfully. That is food off my table, bills that don’t get paid, which usually compounds and gets worse as they pile up. Once the survey is finalized there is no taking it back, the manufacturer will take ABSOLUTELY any excuse to withhold rightfully earned funds.

The dealership owner will still get to go buy their new car every year or yacht or what have you, they will get the same share and bonuses they usually get, nothing happens to their cut. I try my best to explain this importance to my customers and explain to them anything less than 5’s and I lose pay. I have reached a point of desperation that I no longer care if it is impolite or improper to say that to a customer, because so many have been so frivolous with the survey that I have to say something.

Some dealership’s advisers and salesmen have found ways to deal with burners. On the customers profile, if they have burned an adviser, there will be a comment that pops up alerting whoever is looking at the profile that this person gives bad surveys. Have you ever called a dealership to talk to an adviser and you keep getting put on hold and left there? Or if you get ahold of someone they continually try to direct you to a different dealership or simply tell you “no” or are dead ended in their responses? There’s a possibility you burned one of the advisers and they are now trying to protect themselves and pass you off elsewhere. The equivalent of “Burning bridges”.

In the past when I have given a bad survey, I do not go back.

Whenever I finalize a service by giving the customer back their car I go over the importance of the survey. Once they tell you how important it is, if you still burn them, despite getting your car fixed properly or the adviser doing everything in their power to make you happy, well, maybe you should go elsewhere next time. Nothing is more annoying than someone burning you on a survey, taking money out of your check and then showing up later for repairs and services acting like your old friends, and it happens a lot.

Worst of all is when you go above and beyond for a customer and they still burn you. This may be why many in the industry will not bother to go the extra mile, as it has not been appreciated or resulted in a loss of pay.

If the advisor or salesmen is absolutely horrible and has done a job with no effort and all negativity, then yeah, he deserves it. Thing is when it comes to this particular industry, there are a number of moving parts that are beyond control, especially when it comes vehicle services and repairs. If the adviser is updating you, being honest with you, going over the services and repairs and answering your questions, but you are unhappy with how much it cost to repair your vehicle or in general unhappy with the car, keep in mind when you get the survey, that advisor has nothing to do with that and it is wholly unfair to take money from him.

Some manufacture’s have a comments section on the survey. If the advisor did a good job but the dealership or manufacturer fell short of your expectations, do the guy a favor, give the questions he says he needs 5’s on the 5’s he deserves, and put the dealership or manufacturer on blast in the comments.