What is "CSI?" Well, it's not "Crime Scene Investigations" -- although I suppose some might look at it that way. CSI stands for Customer Satisfaction Index. And it's something that's very, very important to manufacturers these days. In fact, I would say the quest for better CSI is one of the major forces driving the auto industry right now.

How does it work? Well, after you buy a car, you get a survey. The survey might come from the manufacturer, or the dealership, or the parent company of the dealership if your dealership is part of a large chain. The survey might be in the form of a letter, a phone call, or an e-mail. Basically, the survey asks you to rate your buying experience on a scale, usually from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. Sometimes, you may be asked to answer a series of "yes or no" questions as well. Once they get the survey back, the manufacturer uses your answers to evaluate how well its customers are being treated.

Simple, huh? Not so fast. There's a great deal of money tied to CSI. If scores are low, the thinking goes, the brand can lose customers. So manufacturers go to great lengths to make sure their CSI remains high. Salespeople's pay is often tied to it, and a dealership may lose tens of thousands of dollars if their CSI drops below a certain level.

But most customers are totally unaware of it. Ask the average buyer what CSI stands for, and they'll probably say it has something to do with the transmission. A lot of folks have no idea how important their answers to the surveys are. As a result, many folks don't answer them. But it's very important that you do answer the survey -- and answer it honestly -- because that's the only way manufacturers have of finding out what's really going on with their customers at the dealership level, and making changes if necessary.

In short, CSI give customers a constructive way to complain, and a tremendous amount of power. If you ever feel you're not being treated properly by a dealership, casually mention "The Survey." The next sound you hear may be their butt puckering.

But, as Stan Lee wrote in "Spider Man","along with great power comes great responsibility. "

CSI is a loaded gun. Don't take your answers lightly. A single bad survey can cost your salesperson money -- perhaps, even their job.

Why? Because, in the car business, CSI surveys are done in one person's name: the salesperson's. When I sell a car, a survey is sent to my customer and they're asked to grade my performance. How I greeted them, how well I know my product, etc., etc. So far so good. I see no problem in being graded on my performance.

That's where the typical survey goes wrong. It doesn't just stop with the salesperson's performance, but asks you, the customer, to grade us on things over which we have no control. For example, how nice was the dealership? Was the building in good repair? Were the facilities clean? I'm sorry, but I'm not the architect or the cleaning crew. I can't control those things.

The customer is also asked about their experience with the Finance Department. How long did it take before your paperwork was completed? Was everything explained to your satisfaction? Was the F & I Manager polite and responsive to your questions? No salesperson has control over F&I, or how long it takes to get into Finance. We wish we did, but we don't.

The customer is then asked to grade the condition of the vehicle at the time of delivery. Was the vehicle clean and free of all defects? I'm sorry, but I do not make the cars I sell, or wash them. As a salesperson, I have some control over the Detail Department, but it's limited. If a car isn't clean, I can send it back to have it cleaned again -- and have, many times -- but after hours, or on a busy Saturday with everybody backed up three or four deep, it's often impossible. And after you've complained ten times to the guys in Detail and nothing improves, you have a tendency to throw up your hands and say "It's just not going to get any better."

But it doesn't stop there. On some CSI surveys, the customer is allowed to rant about their experience with the Service Department or Parts -- or anything else they feel like complaining about. Again, as a salesperson I have no control over either of these departments. If a Service Manager is rude or the guy behind the counter in Parts is incompetent, it's hardly my fault. Yet it all goes on my score.

If the building is forty years old and falling apart, it goes against the salesperson. If it takes two hours to get into Finance, it goes against the salesperson. If the Service Department can't fix a problem, it goes against the salesperson. If -- well, you get the idea. It's all on the salesperson's survey-- and no one else's.

And what happens if I get a bad survey?

At the very least, I'll get an ass chewing from my manager. If my score drops below a certain level, my pay will be cut. Some dealerships simply dock their pay, taking out a few hundred bucks from their next paycheck. Others reduce their percentage. My commission might go from 25% down to 15%. That means that if the profit in a particular deal is $2000, my pay might be cut from $500 to $300. Now multiply that 10% reduction over three months, or thirty deals, and you're talking real money.

Or, you might even be fired. I know salespeople who have lost their jobs over a single bad survey. That's right, one bad survey and they're gone. One year, five years, fifteen years at a dealership -- it doesn't matter. Bad CSI and you'll be cleaning out your desk. A disgruntled customer may have had a problem with every single department in the dealership except you -- Management, Finance, Service, Parts, and Detail -- but because the survey goes in your name, and yours alone, you're the guy who loses his job. Or, the customer may have just been a vindictive jerk taking the opportunity to "get even" with a car dealership by lashing out at his salesperson. There's no way to tell.

Is this fair?

In my opinion, putting the entire responsibility for CSI on one person's head is a mistake. A huge mistake. The performance of the F & I department shouldn't be put on the salesperson's survey. It should be broken out and graded separately. The performance of Service and Parts should also be treated separately. And it is absolutely ridiculous to hold a salesperson accountable for the quality of the building, the cleanliness of the restrooms, or the inventory.

I suppose manufacturers do it this way -- putting everything on one person's survey -- because the salesperson is the one who spends the most time with the customer, and it's convenient. Someone somewhere decided it was impractical or too costly to send out four different surveys to every customer, so they put it all on the sales guy.

Well, I say, let's get real. If CSI is important, and you have to put the survey in one guy's name, put it under the one person in the dealership who has some control over everything that happens at the dealership: the General Manager. I guarantee you, if all General Managers' pay was tied to CSI, or if they all knew they could be fired as a result of one bad survey, CSI would improve dramatically across the nation -- overnight.

In the meantime, when you get your CSI survey, be nice. You may not think it's important, but it is. There are real world consequences to every question on that survey. If you're unhappy with something that happened when you bought your car, talk to your salesperson first -- before you fill out the survey. Give him or her a chance to correct things.