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Old 12-16-2015, 11:05 AM   #1
XDCX
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Default FCA reinvents Five Star....

It appears that FCA has reinvented Five Star and decided to call their new program Customer First Award for Excellence.

In fairness to Auburn Hills the new program clearly has elements that Five Star lacked, like J.D. Powers intervention, but I still wonder why FCA decided to go with a more complicated program name given that they want dealers to incorporate their award status in their advertising.

Maybe I'm too simple of a person, but I would have stuck with the Five Star designation. Granted the Five Star branding may have some negative equity with Chrysler Dealers but I think it still has a strong positive association with the public.

So, what do you think of FCA's new program with J.D. Powers - will the program fix the problems that FCA hopes to address?

As always, I'll flip this thread to AREA 51 based on member feedback.
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Old 12-16-2015, 01:58 PM   #2
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We have been getting some calls that are obviously 'mystery shoppers'.
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Old 12-16-2015, 03:30 PM   #3
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I don't think there will be huge gains in initial quality measures and CSI as long FCA dealers continue to have the requirement to push ruthlessly to hit numbers to hit volume $$$. It's a necessary evil, I suppose, but volume is the winner in the current structure, not CSI.

So many of the issues are also related to things outside of the retail network's control... a vehicle with major quality issues has issues, not matter how much perfume a dealership tries to spray on it. We might do a little more to 'teach to the test' for CSI surveys, but until other moves are made initial quality much not budge up very much.
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Old 12-17-2015, 07:59 AM   #4
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So let me get this straight........
Chrysler's CSI numbers stink and they are collected by J.D. Power.
Chrysler cannot figure out how to raise the number.
Chrysler hires J.D. Power to administer a "NEW" program to raise the CSI number.

Does anyone see where this is going?
The wolf is watching the hen house. It is in Powers benefit to have the numbers increase so I'm betting they will. I will be curious to see if any of the questions on the survey change.

I wonder if Chrysler is regretting cutting all those dealers that had excellent CSI numbers back in 2009?
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Old 12-17-2015, 09:40 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by birch3x View Post
We have been getting some calls that are obviously 'mystery shoppers'.
Interesting.

I wonder if FCA is still using SGS for their mystery shopping? I remember one of the most popular threads in AREA 51 was one where our members could provide details on how easy it was to spot a SGS mystery shopper.
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Old 12-17-2015, 11:29 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by XDCX View Post
Interesting.

I wonder if FCA is still using SGS for their mystery shopping? I remember one of the most popular threads in AREA 51 was one where our members could provide details on how easy it was to spot a SGS mystery shopper.
The SGS mystery shops were very easy to spot if they were internet mystery shops.

Dealer.com's lead tool (which is another OEM partnership with FCA) shows the IP from which all leads are generated. Not surprising, the IP on every mystery shop went back to IPs assigned to SGS!

I haven't noticed any blatant mystery shops as of late but I don't personally check through the internet leads nearly as often as I did when Dealer Standards first launched in 2009-2010.
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Old 12-18-2015, 11:06 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mryan55 View Post
The SGS mystery shops were very easy to spot if they were internet mystery shops.

Dealer.com's lead tool (which is another OEM partnership with FCA) shows the IP from which all leads are generated. Not surprising, the IP on every mystery shop went back to IPs assigned to SGS!

I haven't noticed any blatant mystery shops as of late but I don't personally check through the internet leads nearly as often as I did when Dealer Standards first launched in 2009-2010.
Thanks for the information - it's interesting to see that Sergio is still supporting SGS...

I remember a thread on the forum where we discussed the Chrysler/SGS connection. It was almost as good as the thread we had when it was discovered the company Chrysler was using for the Special Tools audit was owned/controlled by the company that provided the vast majority of Chrysler's Special Tools.
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Old 12-18-2015, 11:12 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by steve_biegler View Post
So let me get this straight........
Chrysler's CSI numbers stink and they are collected by J.D. Power.
Chrysler cannot figure out how to raise the number.
Chrysler hires J.D. Power to administer a "NEW" program to raise the CSI number.

Does anyone see where this is going?
The wolf is watching the hen house. It is in Powers benefit to have the numbers increase so I'm betting they will. I will be curious to see if any of the questions on the survey change.

I wonder if Chrysler is regretting cutting all those dealers that had excellent CSI numbers back in 2009?
I missed your post when you first posted it but just read it now.

I agree with your skepticism 100%

How is it possible for the company that's supposed to collect the data on customer satisfaction to also be a vendor that the OEMs can hire for training/consultation? In my opinion it's a huge conflict of interest and signals that J.D. Powers knows they no longer command much attention in the market and this is a last gasp to generate a new revenue stream.

I wonder if some of the other OEMs that don't use J.D. Powers as a vendor will stop paying for their customer satisfaction results? I think it would be kind of cool if an OEM like Toyota or Honda dropped J.D. Powers due to the appearance of a conflict of interest.
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Old 12-18-2015, 02:54 PM   #9
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No one on the factory side ever acknowledges the surveys are biased to make the "problems" as coming from the dealership side of the business. The dealers can see this, the independent survey makes can see this, but no,...not the factory reps or JD Powers. The surveys are completely unbiased representations of the way the facts are.
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Old 12-21-2015, 10:51 AM   #10
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Quote:
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No one on the factory side ever acknowledges the surveys are biased to make the "problems" as coming from the dealership side of the business. The dealers can see this, the independent survey makes can see this, but no,...not the factory reps or JD Powers. The surveys are completely unbiased representations of the way the facts are.
There's no question that there are a lot of variables when it comes to customer satisfaction and only some of them are within the control of the dealership.

As we've discussed, stair step incentives can have a definite impact on customer satisfaction and vehicle quality also plays a large roll.

Concerning vehicle quality, it's no secret that FCA has had their share of issues. As I recall FCA fired one of their execs who was in charge of vehicle quality and another recently quit.

Additionally, I get the impression that the biggest quality concerns that impact customer satisfaction are the issues that the dealers cannot repair because they're characteristic to the design - the shifting issues on the automatic transmissions are a good example.
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Old 12-22-2015, 02:47 PM   #11
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It's hard to keep a CSI up when the dealers are booked 3-5 weeks out and you can't get any parts to fix the broken junk you already have crowding your lot...hehe.

Last edited by TNtech; 12-22-2015 at 02:51 PM.
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Old 12-23-2015, 07:33 AM   #12
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It's hard to keep a CSI up when the dealers are booked 3-5 weeks out and you can't get any parts to fix the broken junk you already have crowding your lot...hehe.
That's interesting.

While I can understand the parts availability issues I'm really surprised to hear that your store is booked 3 - 5 weeks out.

Unless that's just an unusual occurrence I'd think your Dealer would want to come up with a solution to increase shop capacity. I remember one store that was space constrained so they implemented a "3 Day 13 Hour" work week for their techs and ran two separate teams. Offering Saturday Service made it a six day work week and eventually the techs really liked having four days off a week.

I don't think 3/13 is the perfect solution but it's a viable option for some stores.
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Old 12-30-2015, 09:50 AM   #13
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That's interesting.

While I can understand the parts availability issues I'm really surprised to hear that your store is booked 3 - 5 weeks out.

Unless that's just an unusual occurrence I'd think your Dealer would want to come up with a solution to increase shop capacity. I remember one store that was space constrained so they implemented a "3 Day 13 Hour" work week for their techs and ran two separate teams. Offering Saturday Service made it a six day work week and eventually the techs really liked having four days off a week.

I don't think 3/13 is the perfect solution but it's a viable option for some stores.
FCA is riding their butts hard about getting with the facility standards. They're so far off the mark right now, I don't know if they'll ever be able to comply.

We're all over worked. You can't have a 3 day work week as a tech. You'll have too many irons hanging in the fire when you're not there and too many loose ends. One of the dealers close to us has gone to 2 shifts. I think that will fail too. I work 6 days a week, 3 weeks out of the month as it is right now. Back in the Summer, I put in 13- 6 day weeks in a row. We can't find new techs to hire. If we find one, they usually suck pretty bad.

Last edited by TNtech; 12-30-2015 at 09:54 AM.
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Old 12-30-2015, 02:16 PM   #14
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We're all over worked. You can't have a 3 day work week as a tech. You'll have too many irons hanging in the fire when you're not there and too many loose ends. One of the dealers close to us has gone to 2 shifts. I think that will fail too. I work 6 days a week, 3 weeks out of the month as it is right now. Back in the Summer, I put in 13- 6 day weeks in a row. We can't find new techs to hire. If we find one, they usually suck pretty bad.
Wow, that's really interesting.

Is the mood and morale of the techs pretty high because everyone's making good money or would the majority rather have some more time off so they can enjoy life?

Concerning 3/13, I agree that it probably sounds better on paper than it is in reality. I think the reason I'm familiar with it is the local Zone was pushing the concept because they wanted to increase parts sales and they wanted to appease Detroit by showing that more of their stores were offering Saturday Service.

Concerning techs, I agree that the talent pool that's available to hire is pretty shallow and when you find a tech the Service Manager has to figure out why the tech is looking for a job.
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Old 12-31-2015, 06:49 AM   #15
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Funny how 3500 dealerships close, and there are no techs out there in the pool to hire. I can not believe the dealer service shops are so busy that the NET retiree pool from 2008-9 was absorbed, and still looking for more.
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