Hyundai rolls out new system to track customer satisfaction

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.

To get a better grip on service satisfaction, Hyundai is rolling out a three-prong approach, including a customer retention survey due by early next month.

The new process started in late 2014, when the company began asking customers within two days of picking up their serviced vehicle for a brief review like those on Amazon and Yelp. The e-survey, managed by SureCritic Inc., takes less than a minute to complete and can be done on a smartphone, tablet or computer, Deitz says.

The review is private -- shared only with Hyundai and the store -- but the customer has the option to make it public. The dealership may respond in the same forum.

Part two of the plan was launched in March, when the company introduced the streamlined 16-question Hyundai Service Experience Survey. A week after their visit, it is mailed to 35 to 40 percent of repair and maintenance customers -- a sample size Deitz says is statistically sufficient.

Both new surveys provide near-instantaneous results, and service managers are alerted of incoming customer reports, complete with verbatim comments. The platform that supports the longer survey tracks the service manager's response.

The two processes are "good at diagnosing where the problem lies," Deitz says. "And now we have a robust way of capturing dealer follow-up."

Coming by early June is a third component: a customer retention survey. A "lapsed customer" -- one who doesn't bring in the vehicle for routine maintenance within a year -- is no longer relegated to a once-yearly mass mailing from Hyundai. Instead, as soon as the system notes the lapse, it emails that individual with questions aimed at understanding why the business was lost.

The multiple-choice questionnaire asks in detail why the person hasn't returned, where the service was done instead and what it would take to get the customer to return to the dealership. The survey also inquires whether the customer intends to buy another Hyundai eventually and whether it would be at that dealership.

The timely report about an individual customer, rather than a group, "will give us an opportunity to reach out and try to get you back," Deitz says. Sometimes, all it takes is a coupon, a free car wash or a persuasive explanation of dealer-exclusive services such as software updates, he adds.

The retention survey also highlights problems that might be fixed before more customers are alienated. And the service manager knows not to waste time chasing customers who sold their vehicles or moved away.

The new three-part approach "is aimed at addressing individual problems," Deitz says. The dealership finds out immediately whether a service customer is unhappy while there still may be time to turn the experience around. The system also enables a dealership to identify patterns as they emerge.

If, for instance, customers complain that an express lube job took longer than promised, the service manager can find out where the bottleneck is and whether staffing, process or equipment changes are needed. If the car wasn't clean, the customer might be offered a free car wash. Or, if gripes center on the waiting room, a dealer may say, "I need to have fresh coffee or get a TV," Deitz says.

In the Hyundai Service Experience questionnaire, customers rate various aspects of their experience on a scale of 1 to 10. Deitz says the comments are "richer" than in the past because respondents take more time to elaborate now that the survey is shorter.

Results are shown on a computer dashboard from which dealership staff can read comments directly. From that system, based on a platform from J.D. Power and Associates and Medallia Inc., a manager can send an email to the customer without leaving the main screen. The email and any response from the customer are captured by the system, as well as notes entered by the manager.

The dealer also knows which staffers were involved in a service visit and whether the problem was "soft skills" -- such as customer relations -- or technical repair skills.

The dealer and the general manager can see at a glance what action has been taken. Hyundai also has access to that information. "Sometimes, issues don't get resolved at the dealership level. If the person calls our customer care line," Deitz says, the original report and any response from the dealership are at the fingertips of call center employees.

Hyundai hopes the three-part approach will discourage dealers from trying to game the system. Across the industry, service departments often pressure customers or offer inducements for a high rating, which results in misleading scores. "We want to be measuring behavior rather than a [customer satisfaction] score," he says. "Our desire is to stop chasing the number and focus on the experience."

Still, Hyundai plans to eventually use the process to reward outstanding dealerships. And like many a carmaker, Hyundai is shooting for first place in J.D. Power's U.S. Customer Service Index Study, which is based on Power's own survey.

Hyundai has boosted its score 2.9 percent since 2012, enough to remain fifth among mass-market brands, with a score of 814 out of a possible 1,000 points. The challenge? Mini, No. 1 then and now, has improved even more.