Re: GM Rep Management "Required"
Just as in the academic arena, when there are requirements to get to the next level, such as to get into college, students have to to have a certain GPA, then the GPA measurement becomes useless. Every student has an "A." Some schools go as far a creating new GPA measures to be on a glorified scale rather than the traditional 4.0 and then we end up with students with GPA's higher than 4.0.
When a manufacturer gets involved in measuring performance, dealers who simply cannot perform at the standard most often find a way to enhance their position and it all becomes a lost measurement tool.
CSI is the perfect example. How many CSI fraud incidents can you recall? "Burning" a survey because the customer was upset, creating fake email addresses so the dealer can pick up the survey and fill it in themselves or using fake emails all together so the customer never gets a survey by email. Then the customer never gets notifications that they really need such as recall information and the OEM can't market to them by digital means because the contact information is incorrect. When manufacturers tie money to any performance, the dealers whose poor performance are the same dealers who will falsify the new system. And if you think it can't be done, think again. So, then all the 'bad' ratings go away and all the dealers appear as if they live in a perfect world and every dealer is making every customer happy. So, the OEM is happy. And absolutely nothing is achieved except for a false sense of security that their brand is protected.
The reality is that real reviews assist us in performing better. The good ones are a reminder of what we are doing right and the bad ones are a reminder of where we need to improve. The negative reviews are an opportunity to resolve a problem you may not have known existed or was recently created by a change in process or personnel. It is an opportunity to actually be better than you were the day before and to reflect on how to continually improve.
When the voice of the upset customer is muffled by the drive for only positive reviews and an external force of the dealers' hand, it creates a system much like the academic arena where every kid gets an A and it's hard to measure who the stars really are.
When a manufacturer finds that a dealer has reputation management issues, they know there are other issues as well. The manufacturer has access to all of the R.O.'s, to the sales documents, to finance records; they know there are problems internally before a negative review is ever posted online. Forcing the dealer to enter into an agreement with and use only certain vendors deflates the competitive nature of our business models. It goes against the very essence of differentiation strategy. GM is well known for controlling their dealers. Their track record shows how successful this philosophy has been in the past with websites and CRMs; not a winning situation, unless you are the vendor.
