megger5963 wrote:(Excuse the long-winded-ness, there is a lot to cover...)
Thanks for taking the time to present your experience. I gotta' say you're a determined person if you still manage to be enthusiastic when the dysfunctional dealership sales model results in a 50% pay cut for stuff that's not your fault, not to mention (OMG!) having to spin a roulette wheel for your salary.
There's so much going on there that is disheartening, and I sympathize. Some of it may improve as you begin to get repeat EV customers and don't have to go on at length about differences, etc... Some of it may get worse as I think EV buyers are more familiar or comfortable with internet sales, so the email-dance that takes up your time may become the norm on other models over time.
As far as surveys that is a particularly sore spot for me. I've had several dealers push WAY too hard for good responses, anywhere from begging, to beratement and veiled threats. You guys really are being bludgeoned with this approach and unfortunately so are the customers. I really don't want to worry that my next service visit or warranty claim is going to be problematic because I answered a survey honestly. It's a sorry reflection of a business model that has allowed itself to become corrupt.
I'm sorry a LEAF sale takes 2-3 days of your time. Certainly wasn't the case for my salesman. I walked in and drove away in my LEAF a couple of hours later. Would have been quicker if the dealership didn't have to dick around with all of their self-inflicted ins and outs.
In short, while I sympathize you're clearly working for a dysfunctional enterprise model. And in my opinion it's headed for the ash-heap of history. Nobody likes it. The MSRP is set high because they expect the customer to haggle. The customer has to haggle because they know they're being screwed. Dealerships invent byzantine financing itemizations to dazzle and confuse. It's all so pathetically crass and stupid.
Wouldn't it be so much nicer to work for a business like Tesla? Where you'd get paid for providing potential customers with a great experience, and then they go home and decide to buy one or not. They're not wasting your time with haggling and you're not wasting theirs. They're not blaming you for the finance guy tricking them on the payments or for having to sit and drink cold coffee while being abandoned for an hour to soften them up. They weren't made marks and you didn't have to make them marks. You don't have to worry about holdbacks and invoices and spins or any of the horse shit that you currently have to dodge every day at the dealership.
That's the car-sales model of the future and EVs will be leading the way. Hope you find a way to jump on board!