For years, Hyundai Motor America and its dealers tracked the satisfaction level of service department customers with a survey containing as many as 40 questions -- some of them multipart.
Completing the lengthy questionnaire discouraged many customers from spending time on detailed comments, depriving dealers of a valuable tool, says Michael Deitz, senior group manager in charge of owner marketing.
The data was aggregated on Hyundai's internal dealer website, where looking into individual problems or reading verbatim comments required a service manager to drill down into the results. Follow-up mechanisms were clunky. Worst of all, the system wasn't able to tell whether or when service staff followed up with customers who reported a bad experience.