Service Department - Technicians - Attention to Detail

[Callum]

The only weird thing is that when I was paying the service advisor he started begging me for a positive review on the survey from Kia. He said he's afraid he might be about to lose his job and handed me a template showing exactly how he wanted me to answer Kia's survey.

I don't believe for one second that he thinks he's about to be fired. I'm sure he just says that to get sympathy from people so they won't say anything negative on the survey that would reflect poorly on his service. Unfortunately, the only negative part of the visit was when he begged me to say there were no negatives.

So, the surveys are a really shitty part about Kia's rating system. If the advisor does not get a 100%, or 1,000 points it's considered a failure and goes against the dealership.

If you rate them a 9 out of 10, it's a strike against them. I'm not sure who, or why that was created but it's garbage. We got knocked for the free car wash not cleaning cars that hadn't been washed in years....

 

[Revvdmedia]

So, the surveys are a really shitty part about Kia's rating system. If the advisor does not get a 100%, or 1,000 points it's considered a failure and goes against the dealership.

If you rate them a 9 out of 10, it's a strike against them. I'm not sure who, or why that was created but it's garbage. We got knocked for the free car wash not cleaning cars that hadn't been washed in years....

I'm aware of this same rating system, we have it here. I wasn't sure if it was the conglomerate that owns the multitude of dealerships, or Kia themselves. The issue that I have is when I leave a less than perfect score, I rate them fairly and leave comments as to why I rated them this way. Nobody ever gets back to me on that though, which is disappointing.

 

[Peeso33]

I'm happy to report Hendrick didn't break anything or overfill the oil. They returned appx 3 qts to me. I also had the recall done. All told it took a little over 2 hours.

The only weird thing is that when I was paying the service advisor he started begging me for a positive review on the survey from Kia. He said he's afraid he might be about to lose his job and handed me a template showing exactly how he wanted me to answer Kia's survey.

I don't believe for one second that he thinks he's about to be fired. I'm sure he just says that to get sympathy from people so they won't say anything negative on the survey that would reflect poorly on his service. Ironically, the only negative part of the visit was when he begged me to say there were no negatives.

What about the sunroof noise?

 

[Helo58]

If you rate them a 9 out of 10, it's a strike against them. I'm not sure who, or why that was created but it's garbage. We got knocked for the free car wash not cleaning cars that hadn't been washed in years....

Yeah, I have seen drug stores and restaurants all use the same approach. It is unfortunate that anything less than a 100% is a fail when asking subjective questions. It is my sincere hope that people implementing this type of survey try a new approach or abandon surveys altogether. If the dealer's true desire is to get better, then that requires me to rate things that they did good but not great. If anything less than a 10 is a fail, then the survey should have a "zero" and a "ten" on it and nothing else. Until then, if "7" is how I feel, I see no reason to put a "10."

For the record, the Hendrick Kia shop in Concord, NC has made great efforts to take care of me with the only exception being not having the grommet for the wiring harness recall when I had my appointment. No complaints otherwise.

 

[Kamauxx]

What about the sunroof noise?

It was 25 degrees when I went. In anticipation of them saying it was because of the cold I didn't even mention it.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Kia survey is the same here. The service head has told me flat out, "You might be asked to answer a survey on how your service went today. Remember, anything less than a hundred percent satisfaction is a 'fail' to us." He doesn't beg or act in any way as if I am going to give him/them a hundred percent just because he tells me how their survey works.

What is happening here is Kia holding everyone to a perfect goal. It doesn't mean that they are guilty of black and white thinking. It's obvious that a scale of zero to ten means they look at trends; but they want that perfect 10 score.

 

[friss]

I'm happy to report Hendrick didn't break anything or overfill the oil. They returned appx 3 qts to me. I also had the recall done. All told it took a little over 2 hours.

The only weird thing is that when I was paying the service advisor he started begging me for a positive review on the survey from Kia. He said he's afraid he might be about to lose his job and handed me a template showing exactly how he wanted me to answer Kia's survey.

I don't believe for one second that he thinks he's about to be fired. I'm sure he just says that to get sympathy from people so they won't say anything negative on the survey that would reflect poorly on his service. Ironically, the only negative part of the visit was when he begged me to say there were no negatives.

Yeah that guy has always been a bit spacey in my opinion as well when working with him. He gave me the same blurb when I went but, funnily enough I have yet to actually get a survey email from Kia to fill out. He also told me there wasn't a TSB out about the tailgate thudding but not like Kia has been really able to solve that one according to this forum.

 

[Peeso33]

It was 25 degrees when I went. In anticipation of them saying it was because of the cold I didn't even mention it.

I Hope it gets resolved with a reasonable solution... either that, or wait after the mid-cycle refresh, when the R spec GT will hopefully be available?

 

[morphrider]

I had my wire harness recall done today.... Let's say I have to go back because they did not have all of the parts to do it. I scheduled this a week ago.
After reading more of these post I need to go check the oil in the morning :/

Ya know, we brought ours in today (still waiting) for the recalls as well. After seeing your post I called yesterday to verify they had the parts on hand and they confirmed they did. We get a call back 10 minutes after dropping it off today stating they needed the VIN to order the vehicle specific item they didn't have on hand, asking me if I want to wait until end of the week or overnight it. Poor girl got an earful from me, my biggest question I had she couldn't answer was that when I scheduled this 2 weeks ago why did they not ask for the vin then to confirm they would have the correct part on hand making today easy. Not to mentioned the jackwad I talked to yesterday. I told them to overnight it on their dime for sure, let's see if I get a discount on the oil change, which I will be asking for.

 

[Grewzuff]

Crazy right. It boggels my mind. They ended up overnighting the part and I got it fixed the next day. They offered a loaner car for my troubles. I told them I wanted a Telluride, got a Sorento

 

[morphrider]

We have had ours in the shop for over a week getting hail dents repaired. Wife had a rental since then, that was out of the question, lol. She wanted her baby. It goes back in Tuesday, oil change was discounted.

 

[Kamauxx]

I told them I wanted a Telluride, got a Sorento

Lol, c'mon now. Let's be reasonable. You knew that wasn't going to happen!

 

[Grewzuff]

Worth a try

 

[morphrider]

Brought it back in for the 2nd recall item, the ECU. I had it in my garage today and figured I would double check oil level. It is a fuzz over F level so I will keep an eye on it. They left a sheet of paper in the engine bay on the drivers side. Not a fan of this dealership and will be bringing it to the local one that had serviced our Sportage for the past several years. Never an issue over there.

 

[NS_Stinger]

Regarding the KIA survey...I agree that the anything less than a 10 thing is absolute bullshit. So here is what happened to me because KIA does this.

My sales guy texted me a few days after I took delivery of the car and said I'd be receiving a survey, he said if I liked the dealership experience to give them all 10's and if I didnt to not fill out the survey. It really pissed me off and I almost wrote him back a nasty message, I decided not to because I figured it wouldnt do me any good and i want to service my car there. I didnt bother filling out the survey because the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. It wasnt until I saw this thread that I understand why he asked that. He still explained it in a foolish way but it really makes a great example of how idiotic the way those survey's are conducted. Shame on KIA for doing that and putting that kind of pressure on the dealers and customers, because I damn well that sales people must be passing that info onto the customer in a lot of cases. Im the type of person that doesnt just hand out 10's on everything unless the whole experience is exceptional. It doesnt mean I wasnt pleased with my experience because I didnt give a perfect report card.

 

[Steve2.0]

I know this thread isn't about the Kia surveys but...
I too got the request from the sales guy to give a perfect score, then to rub salt in handed me a photocopy of the questions with the answers he wanted all circled, you know because I might get confused!!!
The best bit though was when I started the survey, first words from Kia specifically stated I should only select the top rating if I truly mean it and the dealership really excelled, then gave some spiel about lower scores actually help the dealership improve.
Anyway I didn't give a perfect score and use my full 1500 words to tell them why ;-) Then came the questions about other dealerships I'd visited which resulted in a dead end where the only options were to give negative feedback for the other dealerships, needless to say another diatribe in the comment box followed that one. Chose to exit out and submit at the next available chance before my blood-pressure exceeded safe limits.
Would love to have dealership call me up about my comments or better yet Kia, doubt either will happen.
OK rant over, only 600 miles on the clock so far, shouldn't be seeing the service department for a few more weeks - I hope....

Steve

 

[MerlintheMad]

Shame on KIA for doing that and putting that kind of pressure on the dealers and customers

I think it must be a product of "Asian" cultural thinking. From here, they seem to me to be excessively concerned about public image and what others are thinking/saying about them. So striving for perfect scores is in their cultural DNA so to speak. There are plenty of people over here working for them who will be tainted by that and go along with the corporate pressure.

I intend to give straight up honest appraisal as I always have.

Btw, the "boss" at the dealership where I go called me after the first few services to solicit my personal appraisal. But he hasn't continued to do that after those first few times.

 

[Helo58]

I think it must be a product of "Asian" cultural thinking. From here, they seem to me to be excessively concerned about public image and what others are thinking/saying about them. So striving for perfect scores is in their cultural DNA so to speak.

To add... From my experiences in Korea, the corporate culture favors only questions that have binary answers. As in, "success or failure." The company we worked with didn't give a lot of second chances for failure with its engineers. Task failure usually meant reassignment with a lower level of responsibility.

 

[NS_Stinger]

To add... From my experiences in Korea, the corporate culture favors only questions that have binary answers. As in, "success or failure." The company we worked with didn't give a lot of second chances for failure with its engineers. Task failure usually meant reassignment with a lower level of responsibility.

With ethics like that so ingrained in their culture how did they ever release the Kia Spectra.

 

[MerlintheMad]

With ethics like that so ingrained in their culture how did they ever release the Kia Spectra.

It seems to have been a successful car. What are you saying?