Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 12

DD24

// Dealership
Management

FEATURED SPEAKER
By Sean V. Bradley, CSP
Founder & President,
Dealer Synergy

A Mystery Shop
for a Major
National OEM
Dealer Synergy was
recently (2018)
contracted to conduct a
thorough mystery shop
campaign across the U.S.
for a major automotive
manufacturer. The goal
was to mystery shop a
proportional number of
their dealers in the country
and evaluate them on
several important
communication Key
Performance Indicators
(KPIs):
 Calls
 Emails
 Text
 Social (DMs)
 Chats
 Video
We have conducted
hundreds of thousands of
mystery shops of phone
calls, text messages,
emails, chats, social
media direct messages,
video and other KPIs over
the last 14 years so we
had extensive mystery
shop templates and
surveys but we decided
to completely tear them
down and build brand new
evaluation forms for 2018.
We dissected the mystery shop evaluation and
rebuilt it. It took weeks
and numerous meet12

MARCH 2018

ings with our executive
team but in the end, we
believe we had created
the most powerful and
realistic mystery shop
evaluation(s), especially
for the 2018 prospect and
their wants, wishes and
expectations. We wanted
to make sure that we captured the most accurate
and relevant data based
on both qualitative and
quantitative measurements.
The purpose was to
identify how their dealers
responded to potential
prospects and buyers
across all of the major
communication mediums
and the results were a
reality check for the OEM
but not a surprise to me.
What I saw in this OEM
mystery shop was scary
but not surprising. We see
it every day. This industry
is plagued with mediocrity
and inconsistency. The
problem is not just at a
dealer or dealer group
level or even at an OEM
level. The issues transcend manufacturers. It
is an industry issue. The
only way to fix something
is first by being aware
there is an issue, then

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

and only then can you
formulate a strategy on
how to rectify it. But a
plan is not enough, there
needs to be dedication
and commitment and of
course execution.
I would not be able to
do the analysis justice if
I tried to cram all of the
data into this one article.
So, in the text to follow,
you'll find an overview of
the mystery shop where
I focused on what I felt
were the most important
elements to make the
industry aware of.
Now, let me share with
you the results of this
national OEM mystery
shop campaign. But to
set proper expectations,
I will not be able to share
the complete evaluation in
one article. So, I will focus
on the first couple KPIs
in this article. And next
month, we will go through
the remainder KPIs. This
way you will be able to
absorb the full scope of
the evaluations.
Note: Each dealership
that was mystery shopped
was done so twice on
different days, at different
times by different mystery
shop agents to ensure

that everyone was given a
fair opportunity to showcase
their true standings.
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE:

Overall, 44% of the dealers ranked higher or even
to the national average (for
all KPIs).
PHONE
PERFORMANCE:

55% of the dealers
ranked higher than the
national average.
Dealer Performance
(45% national average)
 55% of the dealers'
calls scored 50%+ (highest
score was 71%).
 31% of the dealers'
calls scored between 27%
and 40%. The majority of
these calls were scored
lower due to the Dealer
Performance Scores (attitude, friendliness, listening,
professionalism).
 The lowest-scoring
call of 15% was to an
"uninterested" salesperson.
Although the second call to
this dealership (to another
salesperson) was 55%.
OBSERVATIONS:

 Almost all calls did not
include value differentiation
items, mention of sale or
special, discuss trade-in,
discuss quality, or offer to
email a video.
 Almost all calls did
proper identification, discussed price, and tried to
answer all questions
 There was virtually
no control on the calls or
process. It seemed as
though the prospect led the
vast majority of the call and

Continued on pg. 14
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