Volkswagen and its dealers have been mining their online consumer reviews for COVID-19 best practices, thanks to a new system the automaker rolled out across its retail network just before the pandemic struck the United States.

In January, the German brand opened up a verified-respondent consumer survey system to all of its 650 dealerships in the United States after a two-month pilot that began in November with 50 stores. Aptly named VW Customer Reviews, the system was developed to make it easier for consumers who purchased or serviced their vehicles at a VW dealership to leave their impressions in their own words instead of just numerical scoring.

After a brief period of review by a dealership, during which it can respond but not alter the review, the system — with customer permission — automatically propagates the consumer feedback received into the dealership’s Tier 1 and Tier 3 advertising platforms, explained Erin Buhrmaster, director of customer experience for Volkswagen of America.

“For us, it really kind of created what we wanted, which was a cultural change,” from the previous numerical-based scoring system, Buhrmaster said. “Unfortunately, you can get into a habit of chasing a score and creating success with a numerical value, versus focusing on what the customers say. And now, since the focus is on the verbatim [feedback] from the customer and responding to that, we’re truly managing the process and really listening to the customer.”

Mark Scully, general sales manager of East Coast Volkswagen of Myrtle Beach, S.C., said the new feedback system was “a big improvement” over the previous 1-to-10 grading system, which had far more questions but produced less useful results.

“We’re seeing customers reply back quicker and with more opinions than they ever did with the old pre-loaded questions surveys,” Scully said. Those responses are helping the dealership to quickly respond to any issues and keep customers happy.

The new feedback system — which is free and helps dealers save on third-party reputation management for their reviews — had been up and running across the network less than three months when it found a second use as a way to get nearly immediate feedback on customer interactions with the dealerships during the pandemic, Buhrmaster said.

“It’s very clear when you read the customer reviews that customers are very frightened about going into the dealership,” Buhrmaster said. “And the dealers did a great job about reading those and listening to those and responding.”

She said dealers were able to craft messages on their landing pages specifically addressing consumer anxiety about coming into stores or about interactions with service. And they largely did it on video, Buhrmaster said, including videos explaining how vehicles were cleaned before being returned to customers, or FAQs about what the dealership was doing to ensure customer safety.

The feedback also pushed some dealers into individualized video walk-arounds and remote transactions for consumers unwilling to venture out.

“I recently read a great best practice that a general manager in the Atlanta area did. After the vehicle was delivered at the customer’s home, he sent them a personal email video, thanking them for their purchase, which I thought was super nice,” Buhrmaster said. “Dealers are learning quite a bit during COVID, and they’re making a lot of changes to their practices as a result.”