[JimD]

I am in a very different industry but I am responsible for my companies interface to my customers. Until recently I went to each customer once a year to conduct a detailed and structured feedback process on our performance. We used a 5 point scale but I only got all "5s" once from one customer and this is one of the very few all 5s our company received. We also did not do things like tell them that we needed all 5s to keep our jobs. When you do that, you shut down the communication with the "nice people" who value getting along highly. You will only get meaningful feedback from the people who do not care so much about feelings and care more about getting the facts straight. So you miss opportunities to learn. We wanted good feedback so we did not try to push them to high scores. We did ask them to provide specific examples rather than flowery statements because we can do more if we have specifics.

I agree it seems rampant in the car industry but it doesn't make it right. I fill the survey out with what I view as factual feedback. I do not think I've gotten one yet on my bimmer. I have filled them out for my Suzuki, my late wife's Mazda, and my daughters Hyundai. They were all similar and all the dealerships let us know that they expected perfect scores and wanted to know in advance if they would not be getting one. I do not honor those requests unless I want them to do something right now. Even that is a distorted idea of customer service. If I have to threaten you with a low score to get you to do what you should have in the first place, that is now good service?

A car company that did not try to distort things would improve more rapidly than the others. They are loosing data and customers by doing this the way they do it.

Jim