Service customers skip your surveys out of survey fatigue, and the reasons are plain: they get too many messages after a visit, the questions don't matter to them, and nothing visibly happens when they do answer. The fix is mostly housekeeping in systems you already run. Trim what goes out after the closes, and make sure a bad answer reaches someone who picks up the phone.
This page covers the follow-up your store designs itself. The survey comes up only where your follow-up could touch it.
Leave the OEM survey alone and design your own follow-up
After the closes, the manufacturer (usually through its research vendor) may survey your customer. That score feeds the 's programs.
Don't coach customers on it, don't ask for a particular answer, don't time your own outreach around it, and don't send "watch for your survey" reminders. OEM survey policies typically prohibit this, and a coached score tells you nothing about the visit. Check your franchise agreement and your OEM's survey rules.
Everything else that lands on the customer's phone after the visit is yours: the store's own satisfaction text, the advisor's thank-you, the review request, the declined-work follow-up, the service reminder, the promo. You can change all of that this week, and that's usually where response problems start.
Takeaway
Write down which post-visit messages are yours. You'll have a list of what you can change this week without going near the OEM program.
Survey fatigue: why customers ignore service surveys
Survey fatigue. In the week after an oil change, a customer can get the survey, your survey text, a review request, a thank-you, a next-service reminder and a promo. They can't tell which message is the OEM's and which is yours.
Unknown numbers. If your follow-up comes from a number they don't recognize, it often goes unanswered. 84% of Americans say they reject or ignore calls from unknown numbers, according to a survey by Hiya, which sells caller-ID products (Hiya State of the Call 2026). If your store's calls are being labeled as spam, read why your dealership calls show up as "Spam Likely".
Nothing happens. Take the customer who gave you a low score last time and never heard back. Their next survey text is likely to go unopened, so start any fix with call-backs on bad answers.
Bad contact data. If advisors type a placeholder email or the store's own number into the to get past a required field, your follow-up never reaches the customer at all. Have advisors confirm the cell number and email at write-up, while the customer is still at the counter, including during the morning drop-off rush.
Wrong moment. A survey that arrives while they're still driving home, or before they've had a chance to see whether the noise is gone, asks for a judgment they can't make yet.
Too long. The customer cares whether the car is fixed and whether they were treated fairly. Ask about those and drop the grid about the waiting room and the coffee.
Takeaway
Make sure each bad answer gets a reply from a person, and check contact details at write-up. Your follow-up then reaches the right phone, and the customers who answer see something happen.
What is a good survey response rate?
There is no benchmark that fits every store. Response depends on the channel, the customer mix, the length of the survey, how many other messages they got that week, and whether the visit was a quick oil change or a warranty repair that took days. Published figures from survey companies mix industries and methods, and we can't tell you what a good rate is for your store.
Check whether you hear from the unhappy ones. Happy regulars can keep a response rate looking healthy while the customers who are leaving never reply.
That's what the test is for. Pull last month's that had a comeback (including the car back in after an RO marked ), a long wait, a complaint to the advisor, or a price dispute at the cashier. Then check how many of those customers your own follow-up heard from. If it's almost none, start your redesign with those comeback ROs.
Takeaway
Have the same person run the comeback test at the start of each month and bring it to the service meeting. You'll walk in knowing which unhappy customers your follow-up missed.
How to increase survey response rate: audit your send rules
To see survey fatigue the way your customer sees it, map every message your store sends after an closes. Don't run an employee's car through as a customer to do it, because that can put a staff member into the survey sample and the review-request flow. Work from the paper. List every system and vendor that can message a service customer, and get each one's written send rules from the system settings or from the vendor: what triggers the message, when it goes out, which channel, what sender name the customer sees, and how opt-outs are handled. Expect to find messages nobody in the store remembers setting up.
The survey stack: who sends what
How to read it: each row is a message that can reach a service customer after the RO closes, and the question to put to its owner.
| Message | Usually sent by | Who decides | Audit question |
|---|---|---|---|
| OEM satisfaction survey | The manufacturer or its research vendor | The OEM | Hands off. Don't change anything because of it. |
| Store's own satisfaction text or email | Your or survey tool | Service manager, CRM manager | Does anyone read the answers and act on them? If not, why send it? |
| Review request | Reputation tool or CRM | , marketing | Does it go to everyone or no one, and does it land the same day as your own survey? |
| Advisor thank-you | Advisor's phone or a CRM template | Service manager | Is it from a real person, and does it say who to call with a problem? |
| Inspection, video or payment link follow-ups | or inspection tool | Service manager | Do these keep pinging after the car is picked up? |
| Declined-work follow-up | or CRM | BDC manager | Does it arrive before the customer is even home? |
| Next-service reminder | DMS or CRM | Service manager | Does it duplicate a reminder the OEM or the car itself already sends? |
| Specials and marketing texts | CRM, agency, co-op programs | Marketing | Should a customer with a fresh RO get a promo this week at all? |
| Recall notices | OEM and store | OEM, service | Keep them, and don't stack a promo on the same day. |
What it tells you: every row except the OEM's has an owner in your store who can change it.
The checklist to cut it down
How to read it: work down the steps in order. Each has an owner and a deadline.
| Step | What to do | Owner | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | List every system and vendor in your store that can message a service customer: CRM, DMS, reputation tool, inspection tool, BDC, agency | CRM manager | This week |
| Step 2 | Get each one's written send rules: trigger, timing, channel, sender name, opt-out handling | CRM manager | Within a week |
| Step 3 | Lay your store's messages out by days after RO close, so you see what lands together | CRM manager | Within a week of Step 2 |
| Step 4 | Mark each of your messages keep, cut, merge or move. Move them relative to the RO close and to each other, never relative to the OEM survey. | Service manager, GM | At the next meeting |
| Step 5 | Merge the thank-you and your own feedback question into a message from a named person | Service manager | Next month |
| Step 6 | Name who reads replies and how fast they act on a bad answer, and check your OEM's rules on dealer-run surveys, before anything is relaunched | Service manager | Before relaunch |
| Step 7 | Ask each vendor for its send rules again, because vendors add messages without telling you | CRM manager | Quarterly |
What it tells you: the work is mainly collecting send rules, and the decisions fit into a fixed ops meeting.
Review requests are part of the audit for volume and timing only. Ask everyone or no one. Filtering review requests by how happy the customer seems is review gating. Check each review site's policy and ask your counsel before you change who gets asked.
Takeaway
Give the CRM manager the vendor list this week. By the next fixed ops meeting you'll see every post-visit message on a timeline and can decide what to cut.
Survey or conversation: what each tells you
Once the stack is trimmed, decide what kind of follow-up you're keeping.
How to read it: read across a row to see how each kind of follow-up answers the same question.
| Rating text survey | Short follow-up call from a person | Open text: "How did it go?" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it tells you | A score you can trend | What happened, in the customer's words, plus how they sound to the person calling | What happened, in the customer's words |
| Who tends to answer | Often the very happy and the very annoyed | Whoever picks up and recognizes the store | Customers with something to say, good or bad |
| What you can act on | Little by itself: a low score with no comment is a mystery | A specific problem you can fix while they're on the line | A specific problem, if someone replies to it the same day |
| Where it falls down | Feels like a form; easy to ignore | Takes staff time; unknown-number problem; calling rules apply | A reply that goes unanswered teaches the customer not to bother |
What it tells you: the call takes staff time, and it's the option that gets you the specific problem.
We'd suggest a short open question from a named person, plus a call from someone who can fix things when the answer is bad. If you also want a score to trend, keep it to a quick tap under the question. Our take: you can't fix a low score, but you can fix "the noise is still there."
Takeaway
Before you renew a survey tool, ask who reads the answers and how fast a bad one reaches someone who can fix it. If nobody can say, put that budget toward call-backs.
What to ask after a service visit
Ask open questions: was everything fixed the way the customer expected, and is there anything you should have done differently. Skip the rating grid.
"Was everything fixed the way you expected?"
This is the reason the customer came in, so it's the question they care about answering. It also catches a early: the noise that's still there, or the check-engine light that came back on during the drive home.
"Is there anything we should have done differently?"
This catches everything around the repair: the wait, the price nobody explained, the loaner that wasn't ready, the car returned with grease on the door panel, the advisor who never called with an update. It's left open so customers can name the thing you wouldn't have thought to ask about.
How to read it: find the customer's answer in the left column, then follow the row to who acts and by when.
| Answer | What it usually means | Who acts | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Yes, all good" to the fix question | Visit went fine | Nobody. Thank them and stop. No extra ask in the same message. | None |
| "No" or "not really" to the fix question | A comeback in the making | Advisor or service manager calls, offers to bring the car back, notes it on the | Same business day |
| "Partly" or a vague answer | Something's unresolved or unclear | Advisor calls to find out which part | Same business day |
| A process complaint (wait, price, loaner, communication) | The repair may be fine, but the wait, price, loaner or communication went wrong | Service manager calls, apologizes for the specific thing, fixes what can be fixed | Within 24 hours |
| Praise for a named person | Something worth repeating | Service manager passes it to that person and mentions it at the drive meeting | That week |
| No reply | Unknown | Nothing further for routine visits. For a comeback, a long wait or a disputed bill, have a person reach out. | Within 24 hours |
What it tells you: every bad or unclear answer gets a named person and a deadline.
When you call back, talk about the specific thing they said. If it was the loaner, start with the loaner. Never use the call to bring up the survey or ask for a review. For the full call-back process, see the dealership service recovery playbook.
Every week, read the "done differently" answers together and sort them into themes. A complaint that keeps showing up is a process problem, so put it on the agenda for the next drive meeting.
Takeaway
Put a name from your store in each "Who acts" cell and walk your advisors through it at the next drive meeting. A bad answer then reaches someone who can fix it the same day.
NPS detractors at a dealership
(Net Promoter Score) asks customers how likely they are to recommend you, on a 0 to 10 scale. are the people at the low end of that scale: in plain words, the customers who wouldn't recommend you. A detractor may be telling you they're at risk of leaving, so call them back about the specific thing that went wrong, whether you run NPS or not. 45% of dealership service customers reported a frustration during their visit (2025 Cox Automotive Service Industry Study). A survey score won't tell you which customers those were, or whether they'll be back. For the customers you never hear from, see how to keep service customers coming back.
Takeaway
Pull this week's low answers and put a name and a day on each call-back. By Friday you'll know who is handling each of them.
Phone surveys: when they help and when they annoy
A phone survey is a set of questions asked over a call instead of a form. In a service drive, the version worth doing is a short follow-up call in your store's name, with someone from the store calling back when an answer is bad.
It helps when the call says who it's from in the opening sentence ("Hi, this is the service department at [store name], about your visit on Tuesday"), stays short and asks about the repair. What the customer says should reach someone who can book the car back in or get the service manager on the line.
It annoys when it comes from a number the customer doesn't recognize, reads a long script, lands at dinner, or keeps coming back after the customer didn't pick up. Never call someone who already asked you to stop.
The rules to respect
- Identify the store clearly, by name, right away.
- Honor opt-outs and do-not-call requests everywhere they're made: on a call, by text reply, at the service desk. Make sure every system in your survey stack sees them.
- Check your store's do-not-call list before dialing, and call within your store's calling hours, at times that suit the customer.
- Text only customers who agreed to texts.
- Which customers your store may call, and how, is a question for your store's own counsel.
Takeaway
Test it this week: give an opt-out at the service desk and check the next day whether the and the still have the number. Then a customer who asked to stop isn't called again by another system.
Where Lokam fits
With Lokam, you hear about the service customers who left unhappy the day after the closes, while you can still fix it. Your team calls back the customers who need it, and you can see which issues are still open. Lokam is post-visit follow-up for US dealerships.
Your store's follow-up calls are made with Lokam's AI assistant, which asks how the visit went and flags unhappy customers from what they say. On each call, the AI assistant speaks for your dealership and says it is a virtual assistant and that the line is recorded, and the customer can tell it to stop. When a customer on the call wants to talk to someone, the AI assistant passes the request to your team, who call back. The people on your store's escalation list get the customer, a short summary and the main issue, so the call back on a bad answer comes from someone at your store who can fix it. To see how it would work in your service drive, book a demo.
FAQ
Is our survey response rate good?
There's no figure that's "good" for every store, because response depends on channel, customer mix, survey length and how many other messages the customer got that week. The useful test is whether your follow-up reaches the customers who had a bad visit: pull last month's and complaints and check whether you heard from them.
Which type of survey do customers answer?
In a service drive, customers tend to answer a short message from a person or number they recognize that asks whether the car was fixed. What works also depends on your store and the channel.
How do I deal with a low survey response rate?
Audit your send rules and cut the messages that nobody acts on. Replace a long rating survey with a short open question from a named person, and make sure every bad answer gets a response, because customers stop answering when nothing happens.
What are the disadvantages of a telephone survey?
Calls take staff time, and customers often ignore numbers they don't recognize. A call that lands at a bad moment or keeps coming back annoys the customer. See the rules to respect before anyone dials.
Is the same as customer satisfaction?
No. NPS asks how likely a customer is to recommend you, and satisfaction asks how a specific visit went. For a service follow-up, "was it fixed the way you expected" is the question you can act on.
How often should you send a customer satisfaction survey?
After each visit, and only when someone will read the answers and act on them. If customers already get several messages after a service visit, cut an existing message before you add a new one, and don't ask your regulars the same questions every time they come in.
Why am I receiving survey calls after my service visit?
If you're a car owner: the dealership or the manufacturer may be following up on your visit. A legitimate caller will name the dealership and the visit. You can ask them to stop calling.
Before you go
What you can do with this
- Map your post-visit messages this week and you'll know which ones you can cut.
- Run the test monthly to see whether your follow-up reaches the customers who had a bad visit.
- Put a name on each bad answer so the customer hears back from someone who can fix it.
Where Lokam helps
- Cut churn at the source: catch the unhappy ones the day after the closes.
- Free your team from the follow-up list: they call back the customers who need it.
- Peace of mind: see each call and which issues are still open.