The Chrysler - SGS Connection
 

If you work at a Chrysler Dealership then there’s a strong likelihood that you or one of your employees has had an interaction with a Mystery Shopper from SGS. In fact, your dealership has probably had more than just a single contact – a lot more.

Chrysler’s Dealer Rewards Program requires as many as 100 – 150 Mystery Shop contacts per year for larger stores. That’s a new “fake” customer every three days for many dealerships.

Ever wonder why Chrysler’s requiring so many Mystery Shop contacts? Ever wonder why SGS was selected as the sole vendor?

Maybe the SGS Chairman of the Board had some influence? - click here

DealershipForum welcomes new members. If you own or work at a dealership and want to share your comments please register with the forum by clicking here. Membership is FREE and allows you to access sections of the forum that are hidden from public view.

After seeing the new traffic this thread is getting I thought I’d post up a couple items for you new folks (lurkers) to think about.

We have some great car people here! Some Oldco, some Newco but we coexist and try to grow here daily. We discuss all things relative to the auto business and attempt to communicate assistance and answers to the hurdles we all face… including the hurdles that our own manufactures throw at us.

Times are different and I understand it’s time we do things different. And after representing Chrysler for 20+ yrs I can comfortable state, “anti-factory” is not in my blood! But think about this for a second…
> We properly handle a mystery inquiry 9 times, the 10th time we do not… is a FAIL or NO score fair here? If we are accountable for 100% satisfaction every time… why are we continually ridiculed over our DAZE numbers?!
> Is the 1000% increase in mystery shoppers suppose to help our own productivity seeing as we all are working with smaller crews?
> We’re told this huge increase in the expense of mystery shoppers only betters or sharpens our ability to take care of the customer… yet Chrysler won’t even pay for a tank of gas in these same customers new vehicle.

:facepalm:

Thanks for the visit. :beerchug:

CL, I agree. All the money spend on rating our customer handling skills would be much better spent actually taking care of customers with problems. Chrysler doesn't want you spending their money on goodwill, extra repairs, etc. but are willing to pay SGS a ton to tell us how to take of our own customers. What the factory never understands is that the dealers are their customers.

CL - Thanks for posting a message for the lurkers. :lurking:

For the people who are viewing this site for the first time, please understand that this topic is just the tip of the iceberg. There are great people on this site who are dedicated to improving their dealerships. If you meet the eligibility requirements I encourage you to join the forum and share your experience.

For the people who have been to this site before but never registered, please understand that you're only seeing part of the forum. There's a portion of the forum that's hidden from public view so dealers and their managers can discuss sensitive issues in a more private setting. If you meet the eligibility requirements I encourage you to join the forum so you can access these hidden forums.

Finally, for the people who are members here, if the Chrysler - SGS Connection frustrates you please take 10 minutes out of your day and tell the other dealers and managers you know about this site.

You've got to love Google....
 

The speed and accuracy of Google is simply amazing. :thumbsup_old:

This thread isn't even three days old and it already comes up on the first page of the Google Search Results when you search for "Chrysler SGS"

In my opinion, more people need to know about the Chrysler SGS Connection and then they need to start asking why Chrysler thinks it's necessary to perform 100 - 150 mystery shops per year for a large store.

Excellent article on Marchionne by the Financial Times
 

Here's an excellent article on Marchionne that appeared in the Financial Times - click here

The article is long but I think it's nicely balanced - you get to hear from both sides about the long term prospects/agenda for Chrysler.

Concerning SGS, the most interesting part I learned in this article is the level of Marchionne's involvement. He was working for the company that owned SGS before he became the CEO at Fiat. Marchionne's association with SGS is long and deep.

Given Marchionne's trigger finger for firing top managers, I doubt you'll see too much support from the Business Centers to drop the SGS program.

That was an interesting article. I feel a little different after reading it, though I'm not sure how?

CNH (Case New Holland) got word in Jan. that corp. company vehicles would now be Jeep Liberty’s or Ram Dakota’s. They had been drive Ford’s… Sergio definitely keeps things in the family doesn’t he!

Automotive News covers the Chrysler - SGS Connection
 

I finally had a chance to read the article in Automotive News that covered the Dealer Rewards Programs and discussed Marchionne's involvement with SGS.

Concerning Dealer Rewards, in my opinion it's the rebirth of two-tier pricing. If Chrysler has the ability to determine which dealers get payouts amounting to as much as $800,000/year a dealer doesn't have a choice but to jump through the hoops and go with the program.

At first glance it appears the Dealer Rewards incentive will amount to about $400/vehicle - seems pretty similar to MPA, VPA and IVC coupons. :rolleyes:

Concerning Marchionne and SGS, it's nice to see that Chrysler provided the reporter at Automotive News all the info he needed to write the article. Chrysler implies there's no conflict of interest because SGS does work for BMW, Volkswagen and Toyota. Is SGS performing 100 - 150 mystery shops/dealer for those OEMs, or are they just inspecting lease return vehicles?

We had been getting several sales calls form different people calling from the same 704 area code number, wanting to buy a 300, encouraging salespeople to locate a particular vehicle. One claimed to work for Bank Of America in this town, and there is not one. Service Dept had one make an appointment, and our service manager was not too happy to lose the time slot. I called the SGS rep who told me they would never do anything like this. And it will continue for 3 years. It's always nice to know how your employees treat customers, but it's a bit overdone.

Make sure you read the thread in AREA 51. To say that the level of mystery shopping is overdone is an understatement.

Hey… maybe someone IS listening!? Had to laugh when I read the new SGS revision's two and three.

SGS Dealer Standards Update:

REVISION #2
Standard CCA1.9
Was: “Provide alternate transportation option(s)"
Is: “Offer a minimum of two alternate transportation options for service customers, such as Loaner, Shuttle Service, Rental, Pick-Up & Delivery or other means”

REVISION #3
Standard CCD1.7
Was: “Offer alternate transportation options(s) for service customers"
Is: THIS STANDARD IS ELIMINATED – REDUNDANT TO ABOVE REFINED STANDARD (CCA1.9)

I'll support ANY good news that comes from Auburn Hills. :)

Hopefully the next step Chrysler takes will address dealership sales and profits. Maybe they'll increase incentives and come out with some aggressive programs like Toyota's been doing for their dealers?

:roflolk::roflolk::roflolk::roflolk::roflolk:

oh, sorry, you where being serious, I thought you where doing a stand up routine.
My Bad...

Yeah, that was my effort to be balanced. :rolleyes: I don't want this site to be perceived as being "anti-Chrysler" because it's not.

If Chrysler were to follow the moves GM's been making I'm sure my attitude and the attitude of their dealers would improve significantly. GM's already proven that it's not difficult to improve dealer relations and there's no reason Chrysler couldn't be doing the same thing.