No problem, friend.

Now go out there and sell the he!! out of MINIs.

 

One thing that sells cars to people who already own a MINI is a great service experience (regardless of where the MINI was originally purchased).

As an example, I decided to drive an extra couple hours to try the Nashville dealership after being disappointed with the quality of service I had received previously from Global Imports in Atlanta. I made an appointment a month in advance with the specific request and agreement with the service manager that my car be worked on first thing in the morning because I have a 7 hour round trip drive from Birmingham.

Although I left home at 4:00am and arrived when the doors to the service department opened, my MINI sat there for 7 hours until 2:30pm before any work began. When my roof rack was finally installed 10 hours after I arrived, I left the dealership with the belief that I should take my business elsewhere in the future.

When we decided to buy a second MINI for my wife, I never even considered purchasing from Nashville, and we bought our new 2006 Cooper from Classic MINI in Ohio because they are a sponsor of this website and because they have an excellent reputation for taking care of their out of state customers.

I'm not posting this as a bash against Nashville, especially since I have heard so many great things about John Monk in the past few months and my one disappointing experience was likely an isolated event and not a true measure of the quality of the Nashville dealership. But it is a good example of how important it is to make a good first impression with a new customer and how the quality of the service department can affect future sales. Had Nashville been a sponsor of this site like Classic is, I probably would have heard more good things to offset my one and only experience with them, and we probably would have shopped closer to home. . . .

I think we might give Nashville another try the next time we need service just so we can meet this famous John Monk!

 

Thank you for posting this Yucca. These are the type of things that our service and sales managers need to see. I will print your post and let my manager read it. Heck it might even help get them on the ball about being a sponser, I've been bugging them for a while.

 

Well, since we have at least 2 MA's actively reading this thread, I have a question that I would like an answer to.

I read on these forums prior to picking up my car that my MA would pressure me about a rating phone call I would be recieving. Sure enough, before we had finished the walk-through, he was explaining to me that he would get a failing grade if any of the categories were rated below the maximum of 5 (sound familiar?). Now, at this point of time I was slightly annoyed that we were taking the time away from my MINI to talk about his ratings, which were up to this point going to be all 5's. I told him he had nothing to worry about, that he did a great job and his rating would reflect it. Now I am not saying that he completely shut down at this point, but he definately heard what he wanted to hear because the attention to detail dissipated instantly. It became a race to see me off. While slightly annoyed, I was cool with it because I wanted to be off as well, and knew if I had any questions I had this forum to ask them in, no big deal.

That is until I was walking through the BMW section of the dealership to use the restroom before taking off, and heard the EXACT SAME speach about getting all 5's from a different dealer to a BMW customer who was picking up his car. The speach was word-for-word what I had just heard.

Now, my company has instilled into me the importance of feedback; how giving and receiving relavent feedback can improve job performance and job satisfaction. How can BMW and Mini take these ratings seriously if the MA's and BMW dealers are demanding the highest ratings from the customer? How can an MA or dealership hope to improve if they are not getting realistic pertinant feedback? Finally, when it comes to monetary rewards, is it not better service to give the customer actual satisfaction rather than to extol some false sense of satisfaction from the process?

Of course it may not matter in the end for my MA. Two weeks after picking up my as of yet still unnamed beauty, I have not received that phone call requesting information on the experience. I have however received a present from the dealership and a card from my MA.

 

I think it's important for a MA to EARN all 5's, it is how we are graded and also helps us keep our job. Do I ask my customers for 5's, heck yes. I learned my lesson long ago that some customers can love you to death and think that 4's are a good score (that's equal to a 75 on our report card). I'm reading a book right now titled "Customer satisfaction is worthless, Customer loyalty is priceless". So far a good read and makes lot of sence. Anyway, when I do a survey on something that I bought (my house for instance), my ratings would have been very bad but being in the field that I'm in I know that his wife or kid didn't do anything to me, so I refused to give a score but did want to make some comments that I fealt his company needed to hear. I fealt that I didn't affect his paycheck but I was heard and he was dealt with.

 

While we're on the subject of service vs. sales.....

MINI of Nashville was great, but when you head next door to the big house to get BMW of Nashville service, it's like you took your sick baby to the free clinic. I can always tell within about 5 minutes which are the MINI owners and which are the Beamer owners just by the treatment. You'd think the SA's get docked $100 for every MINI they take in. I'm glad I'm not alone in this opinion. But, thank God for the service surveys

 

I got my first mini from MON and the MA I was dealing with was a good person and maybe it was the luck of the days or saying white rabbit on the first of every month from good luck that I have had good service at the dealership when I needed it. I meet John Monk about 2 year ago at the dealership HomeComing that John put on and very time I came through Nashville for car work or just stop by John would take time to stop and talk.

After 3 yrs with a 03 MC I upgrade to a 06 MCS and thanks to John for putting with all my calls to add thing.

 

Great thread, John. Check your PMs. I have some questions, if you'd be so kind as to answer.

 

Simply said..."You can please some of the people some of the time and all of the people none of the time"... Sounds like you are trying to do the best job possible. The forum seems to bring out the worst example and not as many success stories. I have owned my MSC05 for over a year and every problem has been solved by my MA over the phone.

 

Then the problem is with the rating system, which should be changed. If you get a 5 under the current system no one can say whether that means truly exceptional service or a barely passing 76%. With a 1-5 scale, a 5 should equate to more like 95%, 4 85-95%, 3 75-85%, 2 65-75% and a 1, below 64%. The way it is now a score that could be interpreted as perfect is being asked for, for service that could be way less than perfect.

Needs to be changed to be more fair to both the employee and the customer.

Maybe MINI needs to read the comments on their rating system that have been posted here on NAM.

 

This effect is common in numerical customer service ratings, that of the perception that the highest score (in this case a 5) needs to be given for exceptional you-held-my-hand-through-the-whole-process and I-also-had-an-orgasm, type experience.

At a former service position I held there was a possible rating scale of 1-10, but the only scores which were recognized as passing were 9s and 10s. Everything else failed. This setup is severely harsh, as many customers equated 8 out of 10 to a good enough experience, which did absolutely no good for us despite the service we provided. Purely making customers aware of the fact that the highest rating is the one that counts, does make a difference.

I don't blame MAs for making MINI customers aware that the score they would like is a 5, however I will always feel positive feedback is only given when deserved and constructive yet critical feedback will be given when deemed necessary. So far with Long Beach MINI I've only had to provide the former.

 

In that case, in order to make the rating system revelant, one more question needs to be added. "Did your MA say anything about a survey?" If the customer answers "yes" then that survey should be thrown out.



Just my $0.02

 

Then whats the point? If I wind up buying a car from someone, its pretty much assured that I was satisfied with their performance. Don't know about you, but I've walked out of dealerships and never returned as the sales service was pathetic. Either bought from someone else or decided to look at a different manufactures product instead.

In the end if the only passing grade is a 5, and every MA prompts the customer that in order to feed your starving families you've gotta have a 5, what new thing has anyone learned about customer satisfaction? Absolutely nothing. That a customer bought a car from you says you did a good job. So what have the people reading the poll numbers learned about there MAs? Absolutely nothing it couldn't have picked up from the sales numbers. This is a system that clearly needs to be changed, if anyone at BMW (or any other car company as they all seem to do this) really wants to learn something about how the MAs are truly doing. I can tell you that if I were reviewing the forms, the only ones I'd pay attention to were the ones that weren't all 5s. Yikes, in my gig, I don't get all 5s or their equivalent from my management and they seem to think I'm a valuable employee.

From your net persona, you clearly strike me as a great MA. Its a shame that the ratings can't possibly reflect that you're willing to go a little further for your customers than some of those around you. My MA has been absolutely killer, he hasn't asked about ratings, but I've been around enough to know to give the 5's if polled. OTOH, I'd really like those 5s to mean something, so maybe I'll give 11s instead. Probably wind up getting him fired though.

 

I agree with the above statement completely. My MA didn't tell me how to respond to a the survey. Heck he never even said I'd get one. He has earned good marks as far as my buying experience goes. If I had a problem with anything he'd done I'd tell him about it & expect him to make it right.

I've had one experience where I was not only told how to answer the survey, but given a sample survey with all the correct things marked for me. It was for service work I'd had done on my Forester. Trouble was the service was dreadful. The survey that I mailed in was just a bit different than the sample I'd been given. The service manager called me to complain to me about the survey that I'd sent to Subaru. After a nice long chat on the phone he agreed that the only way to tell if the service was poor or good was through honest customer feed back. The next time I took my car in the service was much better & they no longer tell folks how to answer the survey. They did however ask if everything was done to my satisfaction & if not what they could do to make it right. The next survey I sent in was marked all top numbers for them. Seems to me the survey helped them improve.

Chuck

 

|I agree with the remarks above,basically if you made the sales you did your job.To explain the rating system is one thing,to"ask" for 5s is another.I'm glad we have MA here who participate in this forum because i believe it will keep them informed of consumer feedback .When i asked a local MA about this site he had never heard of NAM.Q

 

I agree that the way the survey is scored could use improvement. I have had many customers tell me "well, I'm glad that you told me it was so important because I never give perfect surveys, but you were great so 5's it is". The good part about the survey is that the comment section at the end goes straight to the GM of the store. I see nothing at all wrong with talking with a customer about the survey. Worst case scenario, your customer tells you no and why. That is an immediate opportunity to fix the problem and make a happy customer. What's wrong with that?

 

So I wonder what a GM would think of my last service survey since I haven't heard from them after what I had to say? No 1-5 stuff, just jump to the comments section is what I told the person on the phone doing the survey. Though I did get an e-mail from Karen, I like her , because she was out and wanted to know if I had been taken care of.

Oh, and what are you doing on the computer, John. Hiding while your wife wraps all the presents? That's what I'm doing. Merry Christmas.

 

It seems to me some people are real ****** when it comes to filling out these surveys, in despite of receiving good service from their MA.

 

You said it not me....

 

I can relate SB....I gave some pretty bad scores on a service survey, and told the woman on the phone a few things, and next time I could tell that my file was marked or something, it was obvious somebody there got to see my answers so from the customer end I think the service survey works

 

Here are my .02: I really like my MA, I think he's a great guy. I bought a car from him because he's a great guy. I almost bought my mini from the dealer that's closest to my house, but I was unimpressed with the pressure they put on customers there, so instead I went with the "cooler" MA. So I personally don't think all MA's are bad, John. Overall, the service was great.

BTW: Thanks, Dennis, for being a great MA!!! I love the car!!!

 

I agree with you, SB, and Yucca. Our service department needs improvement. We earn an extra allocation of cars a few times each year based on combined CSI scores. Times when we have no cars in stock when we would have IF service CSI was better I get really
I try (when I have time) to help out in the service dept. to keep customers happy. Ask battle Cattle.

 

I'd like to know (if you're willing to divulge, of course) ....what drew you folks to the MA positions at your dealerships, and was previous auto sales experience required to be hired there?...It seems like such a rewarding job, uniting people with their MINI's all day long.....

 

For me personally, I am looking forward to a needed change in careers. I am seriously considering becoming an M.A. and will very soon start the required process to do so. It is hard work, long hours and basically signing your life away to MINI

But it should also be a fun and very rewarding experience. Basically this will be my dream job. Be around and talk about MINIs the whole day

 

Will you please tell me more-everything you know!? What is 'the process', other than applying, and interviewing, etc.?
.....I've been wanting to make a career change myself, and have noticed (for the last 4 months!) that my local dealersihp has been looking for people!...I've thought about it everday for the longest time...