Introduction
Škoda UK's internal customer satisfaction programme was good at one thing: checking whether retailers delivered each step of the customer journey. What it didn't capture was how people felt about the brand, its retailers and the experience, or anything from visitors who didn't go on to buy. Meanwhile, customers were leaving feedback and researching dealerships across Google, review sites, social channels and dealer websites. Škoda needed one honest view of all of it.
How Škoda UK Turns Unfiltered Feedback Into Human Touch
Reputation brings every review and feedback source into one platform, then breaks it down by customer journey for both sales and aftersales. That gives Škoda a new lens on its customer feedback, and gives retailers like D.M. Keith in Leeds a single place to act on it. In the words of the team on the showroom floor, it's all on one platform, very easy to use and very easy to see.
Google and Facebook reviews proved the most valuable signal because they are unscripted. Nobody is asking leading questions, so customers give an unfiltered version of their experience. Škoda's Human Touch guiding principles set out how customers should be treated, and these insights now show whether that philosophy is coming to life at each retailer.
"We have an internal customer satisfaction program, which is great for testing out whether we're delivering the steps of the customer journeys. But what it wasn't doing was perhaps capturing how people are feeling about us as a brand."
Human Touch on the Showroom Floor at D.M. Keith
At D.M. Keith, reviews are now checked almost hourly instead of daily, and responses are quicker and less formal. When a couple of reviews pointed to the same theme, the sales team made a simple change: laptops away for the first half hour, so staff focus on why the customer is there. Reputation Score is reviewed three times a day, individual scores go out to the team, and a Google review that lands at 12:00 is shared by 1:00.
The culture shifted too. Colleagues now think about the review a customer will leave, not just a score on a page, and every five-star return is celebrated. The commercial impact follows: in sites with a strong score, D.M. Keith sees more returns, stronger renewals and stronger upsell on vehicle health checks. Even a customer whose car was in for two to three months with software issues left five-star reviews on Google and Trustpilot.
"The changes that we've made recently with having the benefit of Reputation is that the reviews are looked at almost hourly. Historically, we would look at them daily. We can respond a lot quicker."
"The changes that we've made recently with having the benefit of Reputation is that the reviews are looked at almost hourly. Historically, we would look at them daily. We can respond a lot quicker."