After a trip to the dealer and a test drive of a 2001 VW convertible, she decided to buy it. That's when the salesman introduced the "closer," promising a great deal. He explained that the convertible had 13,000 miles on it, but since an employee of the dealership drove it the car qualified as new, with the full warranty.

Huh, a new car with 13,000 miles? She got up and headed for the door; I followed. Then off to another dealer, where she was dusted off as not being a serious buyer-grandmothers don't buy stick-shift VW convertibles.

On the way home we stopped at another dealer for a test drive of a Honda Accord. It was a good-looking, comfortable car, not a convertible but it drove like a dream. She wanted to buy it, but before bringing in the closer the salesman pointed out that after she owned the car, Honda would send her a Customer Satisfaction Survey. And it was important to give only excellent marks on the survey questions, because if she didn't it would be a blemish on his performance. With that he produced a survey form he had completed to show how the form should be filled out. Then he introduced the closer and the deal was done.

The next day, when she picked up the car, the sales manager was there to make certain everything was to her satisfaction and again emphasized the importance of the Honda Customer Satisfaction Survey. When the survey arrived two weeks later, she rated every experience "excellent." About the same time, the customer service person from the first VW dealer called to see if she was still interested in buying that new convertible.

Three lessons learned: 1. Don't sell used merchandise as new. 2. Even grandmothers buy convertibles. 3. If your company wants to get really good customer satisfaction marks, show the customer how to fill out the survey.

When Frank isn't washing her new car, he can be reached at fburge@cmp.com.