Dealer Survey-Who is it about and what does Ford do with them?

pdxzzr

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Does anyone know whether Ford reads the Post-sale dealer surveys, and who they reflect upon most at the dealership?

When the Survey arrived it clearly talks about rating the dealership as a whole, not necessarily any one person in particular. And since I wasn’t especially happy with how the finance/business manager conducted himself and the kind of representations he made with respect to Ford Options financing (basically ignoring any thought of actually learning about it in the first place for the two months after I brought it to their attention, and then trying to convince me it’s the same thing as a lease, and giving me lease paperwork at the time of sale before finally looking it up) I filled out the survey accordingly.

But at the time of my purchase, the salesperson indicated the survey was interpreted mostly as a reflection on him. Even so I filled out the survey explicitly saying he did fine, describing my dissatisfaction was with the business manager.
I just got a note from the sales guy that they received the survey and again saying he thinks it is a reflection on him alone (presumably because that is what his boss told him).

Does anyone know of that is really true, or just another bit of information about what kind people run the dealership?
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Some of the dealerships I worked at paid out a bonus based on the overall rating, or "Top Box" score on the survey. I would guess your salesman is compensated that way.
 

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Generally with those dealership surveys unless you give people top marks then the dealership gets dinged from ford and they may follow up, this normally happens with servicing. If you thought the dealership business manager what crap they say so and don't lose any sleep over it as a lot of the time is just an overall rating ford are interested in.

If you have a nice experience with salesperson then say so in the comments, but if the finance manager sucked well that is your lasting impression so mark accordingly IMO, not wanting to make it sound like it is a worthless job as it isn't but the sales staff at car dealerships tend to have massive turn over it is pretty common to go to dealer for service later to find the person that sold to car to be long gone but the hopeless finance manger to still be there :(

I remember going with an ex many many moons ago car shopping as their lease was up, salesperson spent a lot of the time to go over what they where interested in, test drive went well only for it all to collapse at the end when the finance manger spend the time trying to do the deal talking to me despite my constant efforts to remind them I was not the one wanting to lease the vehicle needless to say we went elsewhere so if you think it was bad mark down I say :)
 

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Trust me when I say that they do read them and will follow up if they don't like what they see. I marked down the review for the dealer I bought my MMe from after they refused to give up on the ADM (yes, I know I could have gone somewhere else; limited availability, especially now with the shortages, not to mention my lack of patience got the better of me). Within THREE MINUTES I had a phone call from the dealership questioning the results of the survey and wanting to know what they could do to make it better. Things definitely have spiraled since then, but I won't bore everyone with details.
Another side note here - the surveys have an impact on the total dealer allocations granted by the manufacturer, so this is yet another reason why dealerships will constantly pressure customers to give top ratings (I know this from experience, having purchased or leased 30+ cars in the last 10 years; don't ask...).
 
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pdxzzr

pdxzzr

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Some of the dealerships I worked at paid out a bonus based on the overall rating, or "Top Box" score on the survey. I would guess your salesman is compensated that way.
I’d be ok with that if it affected everyone at the dealer who is a customer touch point, rather than basically hammer the one person least in control.
 


Tampamike

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Trust me when I say that they do read them and will follow up if they don't like what they see. I marked down the review for the dealer I bought my MMe from after they refused to give up on the ADM (yes, I know I could have gone somewhere else; limited availability, especially now with the shortages, not to mention my lack of patience got the better of me). Within THREE MINUTES I had a phone call from the dealership questioning the results of the survey and wanting to know what they could do to make it better. Things definitely have spiraled since then, but I won't bore everyone with details.
Another side note here - the surveys have an impact on the total dealer allocations granted by the manufacturer, so this is yet another reason why dealerships will constantly pressure customers to give top ratings (I know this from experience, having purchased or leased 30+ cars in the last 10 years; don't ask...).
I had a similar experience with my dealer. Salesman was great. Finance process, not so much. My survey reflected that. There was immediate feedback to me. I gather that the comments don’t matter as much as the number ratings. Bonuses/commissions must hinge on those.
 

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I had a similar experience with my dealer. Salesman was great. Finance process, not so much. My survey reflected that. There was immediate feedback to me. I gather that the comments don’t matter as much as the number ratings. Bonuses/commissions must hinge on those.
The bonus definitely hinges on the score. How the comments are used varies widely I'm sure. The salesperson probably gets an extra ass chewing as they are your primary contact and 'should've done a better job making sure you understood how important the completely satisfied rating is'. The dealerships that suck to buy from usually suck to work for too.
 

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Does anyone know whether Ford reads the Post-sale dealer surveys, and who they reflect upon most at the dealership?

When the Survey arrived it clearly talks about rating the dealership as a whole, not necessarily any one person in particular. And since I wasn’t especially happy with how the finance/business manager conducted himself and the kind of representations he made with respect to Ford Options financing (basically ignoring any thought of actually learning about it in the first place for the two months after I brought it to their attention, and then trying to convince me it’s the same thing as a lease, and giving me lease paperwork at the time of sale before finally looking it up) I filled out the survey accordingly.

But at the time of my purchase, the salesperson indicated the survey was interpreted mostly as a reflection on him. Even so I filled out the survey explicitly saying he did fine, describing my dissatisfaction was with the business manager.
I just got a note from the sales guy that they received the survey and again saying he thinks it is a reflection on him alone (presumably because that is what his boss told him).

Does anyone know of that is really true, or just another bit of information about what kind people run the dealership?
Ford responded to mine but I'm not sure what they are going to do about what I said.
I purchased an Infinite Blue AWD with a std battery on April 15th. I looked at the car on April 14th and spent a lot of time with my primary salesperson who did a great job and really knew his stuff about the Mach E. Susan and I discussed it and what they wanted for the car and we decided we were going to purchase it. We returned April 15th and expected to see our salesperson but it was his day off and so we saw another salesperson who was not really up to speed on the Mach E but was pleasant and knew how to handle the purchasing process. We negotiated our deal and filled out all the necessary paperwork and our salesman was going to take us to the Finance Manager. Before he did that I asked if they could match the price for a Ford ESP from Lombard Ford. He took the quote with him and Susan saw our salesman show it to somebody she did not recognize and how he was obviously upset when shown the proposal. This person came over to where we were sitting and started yelling at us that he wasn't making any money on our deal and he had to run a business and pay his people, yada, yada (which was untrue because we were paying an ADM fee). He then told us he was thinking of buying the car for his son's 16th birthday and that the was going to talk to his wife and if she wanted him to get it HE would buy the car NOT us! He then went storming out of the showroom with our salesperson on his heels. He got into his truck and I thought he left but my wife saw our salesman go behind the lot and she thought the two met and talked there. Susan and I were embarrassed and incredulous at what had just happened and began to collect our papers to get ready to leave when our salesman came back and told us the deal was OK and that now we would see the Finance person. When I asked who the person was that caused such a commotion he told me it was the General Manager and part owner of the dealership! Again, I couldn't believe what had just happened but we went with the Finance Officer who couldn't have been any nicer and didn't try to push any post sale accessories on us. We got up to leave and on our way out our salesman came up to me and asked that we not give them a bad review. I told him no way was I not going to tell Ford about what happened and how we were treated. I told him that I was going to give him and the first salesman (and the Finance Officer) good marks but after what the General Manager did to us that Ford was going to hear about it.

About three weeks later Ford sent me the evaluation form to rate my experience and I wrote what I'm telling you. At no time did the General Manager or the dealership try to contact us except for the 2 salesman we worked with (they thanked us). A week later Ford wrote back and wanted to know if the dealership reached out to me and I told Ford they did not contact me at all except for the salesman. That is where this stands now and I'm waiting for Ford Corporate to contact me again or the dealer to contact me. When Ford asked me what they could do to make this right I told them that I had to pay an ADM fee if I wanted the car as I had lost a previous one that was exactly what we have on order because I wouldn't pay the ADM fee. So yes, Ford does listen but I don't know what they'll do about it this time because it is the General Manager and part owner of the dealership we're dealing with. Stay tuned . . .
 

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Trust me when I say that they do read them and will follow up if they don't like what they see. I marked down the review for the dealer I bought my MMe from after they refused to give up on the ADM (yes, I know I could have gone somewhere else; limited availability, especially now with the shortages, not to mention my lack of patience got the better of me). Within THREE MINUTES I had a phone call from the dealership questioning the results of the survey and wanting to know what they could do to make it better. Things definitely have spiraled since then, but I won't bore everyone with details.
Another side note here - the surveys have an impact on the total dealer allocations granted by the manufacturer, so this is yet another reason why dealerships will constantly pressure customers to give top ratings (I know this from experience, having purchased or leased 30+ cars in the last 10 years; don't ask...).
Oh that honestly kind of scares me. My wife and I have been sitting on our survey and fully plan to 1 star it along with dropping a 2 page long negative review. Only reason we are sitting on it is I need my plates for the car and they are dragging their feet.
Yes it was that bad. Worse dealership experience by a health margin for either one of us. This would be the 5th car between the 2 of us that we have bought and this mixes in with all the test drives elsewhere still WORSE dealership ever. We would of walked if we could of gotten the car elsewhere but could not.
 

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Wow, I wish I had gotten a survey after I bought my Fusion. Dealer would definitely gotten a 1 star review (or half if I could pull that off somehow).
 

Illinibird

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We had a horrible experience with the General Manager and part owner of the dealership that almost cost us and the dealership the deal on our car. Luckily, our salesman took the initiative to straighten things out and we ultimately bought the car. When the survey came we gave our salesman and the Finance Officer very high marks but the dealership as a whole the lowest marks possible and mentioned the General Manager who had caused all the trouble by name. I didn't think it would go anywhere but about a week ago Ford Corporate e-mailed me and asked if the dealership reached out to correct the situation or contacted me and they had not and I told Ford that. They then wanted to know what they could do to make this right and I told them at this point I couldn't think of anything that would undo the damage that had been done. I went into my explanation again about how the GM yelled at us, threatened to buy the car we just got finished negotiating on, embarrassed us, and made a big scene acting like an ass. I said I never wanted to talk to him again. We're waiting now to see if this goes any further but I don't think it will. The GM is part owner of the dealership also. So Ford definitely DOES look at these evaluations but in my case I doubt they will do anything about it.
 

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I've been told by a friend who has worked for several different dealers that things like dealer hold-back and ability to order highly-desirable (e.g. limited production or special edition cars) can be tied to their ratings.

But this puzzles me because I've not just read the horror stories ... I've experienced a few myself.

It's not all bad ... I've had my share of excellent dealers ... but I've also had a few really bad dealers.

Several years ago I had a couple of Audi A6's ... after each warranty service I would get a survey from VW America asking how I liked my "FREE warranty service" on my car (and the survey would keep emphasizing the "FREE" part over and over through the survey). My former neighbors who worked for Ford at the time told us the horror stories of dealers that would get a car in that clearly qualified for warranty coverage ... but would tell the consumer it was NOT covered. After charging the consumer, they'd go ahead and file the paper work for warranty service reimbursement to the OEM (as if they covered it under warranty) ... basically double-dipping charging BOTH the consumer AND the OEM for the *same* service. The surveys emphasizing the "free" warranty service were a tool to catch the dealers that commit fraud ... hoping the consumers would call them if they were charged for the "free" service.

While I feel for the consumers who have to put up with it ... I can't help but also feel for the OEMs. They are equally frustrated by a number of states that have laws forbidding the OEM to sell direct to consumers. They are forced to use the dealer system ... and have to put up with dealers that drive customers away to the competition.
 

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I have nothing bad to say about my salesman. Pretty neutral on the dealership in general. I’d sure like a chance to say my piece on the ?Ford? corporation.
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