Episode 38: NADA Survey

Share Your Insights

Todd Milbury, NADA Vice President

Being on the front lines every day, your insights are valuable as we build and adjust our programs and products. The NADA survey helps us capture feedback about the value of your GMF sales and credit relationships or your opinions on products like GM Protection.

“Our mission at NADA is to bring the dealer voice into the conversation and bring people together with information, perspectives and conversations so the whole industry can move forward,” says Todd Milbury, NADA Vice President, Industry Relations. Todd reviews quarterly survey results with GMF leadership four times a year noting positive trends and areas of opportunity.

Similar surveys only ask a small subset of finance-oriented questions, but with the GMF survey, questions are more granular, and therefore, more actionable. "This survey strikes the right balance between the longer-term view and providing feedback often enough that GMF can take action sooner rather than later,” says Todd.

Not only does the survey provide insight into what's working and what's not, but it allows us to track sentiment over time to see if we're supporting GM dealers and moving in the right direction, adding a deeper level of accountability.

This is why, Todd says, the survey is so valuable: “It's important that dealers participate because your scoring matters, your words matter. They're heard, they're discussed. You can have an impact.”

Your Peers See Results

Members of GMF's Dealer Advisory Council

For the past eight years, GMF and NADA have partnered to tailor the Dealer Survey to focus on improving the captive experience for dealers. Filling out the survey offers dealers a seat at the table they’re not often given. This access offers an opportunity for GMF to take an in-depth look into the attitudes of dealers and common challenges they face.

“I have never, in all of my years working with different manufacturers, had survey results brought back to me and explained in detail and then asked for feedback about what else we would like to share,” says John Love, Owner of Bob Johnson Auto Group in New York and member of the GMF's Dealer Advisory Council. “It makes such a tremendous impact on what we’re doing tomorrow and into the future.”

The survey results are reviewed by region, brand and dealership size to gather sentiment trends that inform how we take action to offer many different slices of impact. And council members have spoken: The survey process shows GMF’s willingness to understand and work together with dealers.

“Unlike many other surveys we get, GMF is absolutely going to take action on what they hear,” says Bryan Ferraez, council member from Green Brook Buick GMC and Bridgewater Chevrolet in New Jersey.

Taking Action on Your Feedback

Jonas Hollandsworth, COO and EVP

A decade ago, when GMF was a new captive in the market, the GMF team needed to quickly develop expertise. We needed honest dealer feedback, and we needed it often. Jonas Hollandsworth, GMF’s COO and EVP of Dealer Services, wanted to hear about things like GMF’s policies, products and team. In response, we partnered with NADA to launch the survey eight years ago.

“Our business needs to be tailored to what's happening in your market, within your dealerships, and we need to be nimble and respond to those changes. This survey is designed to do exactly that,” he says.

The new Dealer Dividends Lab is one of the latest programs to come from listening to dealer survey results. In this new program, we offer short-term floorplan programs to find lift in areas that showed up in feedback from dealers. Currently, F&I Managers at dealerships hitting Platinum tier can earn $200 in earnPOWER on each Used contract submitted to GMF.

Measuring progress over time and making consistent improvements is why it’s important for dealers to participate and engage with the survey. And, like Jonas says, it makes GMF be a better captive: “I think it’s representative of all the work that we put in together, to be a captive for all dealers.”