Buying Tips

Very Pleased, Somewhat Pleased, Not Pleased: The Surprising Importance of "C.S.I." Surveys

You're negotiating for a car when the salesman says he'll drop the price in exchange for "high fives" on a survey you'll be given about his performance. What does he mean by this and what should you do?

The answer is: see what else he'll give you, of course. But keep in mind that the survey he's referring to is about customer satisfaction and your responses mean the world to your salesman and the dealership.

Soon after a person buys a car, they'll get a letter or phone call from a company hired by the manufacturer asking them how they would rate their experience with the dealership. And surprisingly to most consumers, the automakers care deeply about how you feel.

From increased profits to dibs on hot new cars from the car companies to getting the green light to expand, dealerships have become beholden to what their customers say about them. Knowing this can win you a surprising amount of leverage in the showroom.


Competition Creates the Survey

Until well into the 1980s, customers were used to rough handling at the car dealership. Many folks considered the jostling and pressure to be an unavoidable part of buying a new car.

But with the advent of Toyota, Honda and other import-brand dealerships, all that changed. Suddenly, Americans had salespeople bending over backwards for their business as the Japanese brands battled to get a foothold in the North American automotive market.

With the additional competition, the behavior of the dealerships was crucial to the success of the companies. So the Consumer Satisfaction Survey was born. These scores are tabulated, compared with other dealers in your city or region and then calculated into a Consumer Satisfaction Index, or "CSI" as dealers refer to it.

From humble beginnings, these surveys have become a big part of the buying experience and an important tool for carmakers. More than a dozen companies work for the manufacturers collecting data from mailings and phone calls about buyers' experiences at the dealership.


All Good Car Dealers Go to Heaven

The head honchos at the automakers like to see high scores from their dealerships and are willing to back that up with a series of rewards and punishments for those that succeed or fail to live up to expectations.

The most widely used "carrot" for well-reviewed dealerships is product. Simply put, if you do well on your CSI scores, then you'll get hot-selling models. If you don't, you'll only get your stock from what the other dealers have picked over.

"It's very important to the dealership to get new products," said Carlos Zelaya, sales manager at Ed Butts Ford, a member of Ford's top-performing "Blue Oval" dealership program in La Puente, Calif. "With the 2005 Mustang, we're going to be getting four. There are a lot of dealerships that won't be getting any."

In the past, top-performing dealerships have also gotten bigger "holdback" payments from the manufacturers. "Holdback" is a percentage of the price of a vehicle that the manufacturer rebates to a dealer after the car is sold. Ford will be cutting this part of its CSI incentive program, dealers say.


You've Got the Power

While most dealerships won't admit it, you can often use the importance of these surveys to your advantage. One editor at Edmunds.com reported that she was directly offered a few hundred dollars discount from her purchase price if she promised a good response to the survey. While the ploy likely won't work all the time, the threat of a bad survey is yet another arrow in the buyer's quiver when testing dealers' bottom-line offers.

At the very least, dealers will often give you your first full tank of gas, a car wash or some better floor mats to help sweeten your experience and boost their scores on the surveys.


Surveys Aren't Perfect

To be fair, dealers have long complained to manufacturers that the surveys aren't fair. Some customers will give a dealership a poor review after having a seemingly pleasant experience. Others refuse to call any experience "Excellent," preferring to mark "Good" for all categories to mean they were satisfied. But, by the way some of the companies score these surveys, "Good" is often counted as a failure on the dealership's part.

"It doesn't make any sense to put this much importance on them because you can never figure out what people are going to say," said one general manager of a Toyota dealership in Missouri. "It's been a big issue for the dealers trying to get these things changed because customer experiences and their responses don't match up."

In fact, some dealerships are being driven to great lengths to improve their scores. Some will offer to have you come back to the dealership to fill out the survey, or send flowers to your home imploring you to give them a top rating.

Others will go to unethical measures to prevent your responses from being heard. An editor at Edmunds.com was displeased with a repair experience at a Los Angeles-area Chrysler dealership and loudly complained during a survey. But when he later returned the car for a subsequent service appointment, he noticed his phone number and address had been altered, making it impossible to contact him for another survey.


Speak Your Mind

While CSI surveys create headaches for dealers, remember that it's only because your opinion is very important to manufacturers. So don't be afraid to make your displeasure known during the buying process. It can often work to your advantage by making the dealership work harder to please you. On the other hand, after the deal is done, if you are pleased, be sure to give the dealer credit in the survey. But if you're not, don't hesitate to let them have it, knowing full well that your opinion counts heavily and your voice will be heard.