A short (≈3-minute) spoken clip from Chris Collins about why dealers struggle with Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores. Collins argues the root causes are lack of intentionality and weak fixed-ops management: dealers treat fixed ops as an afterthought, have poor advisor-to-technician ratios, chaotic scheduling, misaligned pay plans, inadequate hiring/training, and insufficient shop capacity. He urges dealers to intentionally run fixed ops, align systems and pay plans, and empower/train staff to create repeatable positive customer experiences rather than passively chasing manufacturer-mandated CSI targets.
Chapters
Okay, let's talk about csi. So you were speaking in an event and you asked them, like, what are the biggest issues that you have? Yeah. And the thing that came up more than anything else was csi. Csi. Okay. So.
The first thing that we notice about people that struggle with CSI is that they're not intentional, they're passive. They want CSI because they want the manufacturer off their back, but they're not intentional about it. Because if. If you just think about this from like 10,000ft, like just step back a little bit. CSI is a manufacturer's band aid to inconsistency in their franchise Dealers. Yeah, right. They ca. They. They want their customers to be loyal to the brand. Therefore, positive experiences are important. That's why CSI is created. Because it was wild, wild west in the 80s, and now dealers that didn't have a good customer experience.
And don't take fixed ops seriously and just run it as a necessity, but it's not a profit center. It's not something that they're really focusing on or understand are inconsistent with csi, but they're not intentional about fixed. Stop. So the first thing that we would say is get in the business of fixed ops. Like, start treating fixed ops like it's important and that the customer experience is important. And it isn't about the manufacturer holding your feet to the fire. It's about actually intentionally creating an experience where customers feel like you're wanting them to come back. Like, more than anything else. Like, which is the. You're not just saying business. You're have to come here for warranty. So take it or leave it. It's kind of the approach. Right. So it starts there. Like, you should have had a good customer experience to begin with, but now the manufacturer is doing this to you. And so you got to figure it out. They're forcing you to, but you shouldn't be in that situation. Right. Right. Then the first thing is, once we get past that is it's your systems. So most of the time in a dealership, your advisor to technician ratio is off. How many appointments each advisor is doing in the time between the appointments is madhouse. It's chaos. Like, it's just not well planned out. We don't have enough text in the shop to do the work. Right. So we don't have enough advisors or enough techs. The pay plans don't line up the way they should. Right.
We're not training them or empowering them, and we don't hire the right people, in a sense. And then if we do get the right people, and they start doing well and making money. What do we do? Cut their pay plan. Cut their pay?
