Sales Satisfaction Surveys and "Why is buying a car still such a sad experience?"

OK.. to you people out there doing sales satisfaction surveys the day after you buy something here's an important comment:

"Are you serious?"

In two days of shopping with my daughter who is buying a car, getting insurance for said car, purchasing a few appliances for a new apartment, and more, we have had quite a few sales people say:

"Tomorrow someone will call you with a survey about how our sales process went. Please give me a 5; please tell them it was excellent."

Why do they do this? Let's explore the possibilities:

#1 - if they get good scores, they get bonuses.
#2 - if they get bad scores, they get in trouble.

Basically, you get what you pay for. This survey and the related incentives and/or punishments are creating a negative experience for the customer. You get what you pay for - people focusing on getting good scores. But lost in the mess of creating surveys and scores is the fact that what you are doing is CREATING A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE FOR THE SHOPPER.

Hey, remember us? The people who are buying the product? If you want us to buy more stuff, quit hassling us so much we don't even want to walk in the door of your store!!!!!! Quit torturing your employees to stoop to these methods that they don't like. PLEASE think about what you are doing!

First, I do not want to be hassled by sales people and pressured into giving them high ratings, particularly when in most cases, they don't deserve it.

Second, I don't want the phone call pestering me about the sales process.

You guys who are doing this are totally WASTING YOUR MONEY !!!!!

What kind of data are you getting?

And hey, car sales guys - why don't you interview real people and ask them about this process. Years and years later, the process is terrible.

* Treat women like they have brains.
* Don't talk to the man when the woman is buying the car.
* Quit lying to people to continue the haggling process.
* Don't leave the customer sitting there for a long time while you go 'fake' talk to the boss.

WE HATE BUYING CARS!!!!!!!!!!!

We may like cars, but the process is incredibly painful.

Hey, by the way, the obnoxious experience that set me off on this blog entry was with a non-USA car company; I am not picking on our friends in Detroit this time around.