In August, J.D. Power released its latest annual Customer Commitment Index Study which highlights the levels of satisfaction customers experienced during the vehicle service process. The 2014 study, conducted between February-March and May-June, surveyed those who owned vehicles between 4-12 years in age, focusing on service behaviour, satisfaction and customer loyalty, relating to both warranty and non warranty work. It also measured both dealers and independent repair facilities, rating overall satisfaction on a 1000 point scale.
J.D. Ney, Manager of the Canadian Automotive Practice at J.D. Power, says that while overall satisfaction hasn’t changed significantly, within the chart itself there has been quite a bit of movement and a lot of that has to do with the focus each service provider places on the customer experience.
“An interesting find for us this year, was that more frequent service visits indicated greater satisfaction among those surveyed,” says Ney. He notes that part of the reason is due to the fact that the less frequent the service visit, the more in terms of items and cost the OEM and the provider has to bundle into it. For example, the study revealed that on average, owners who made one service visit per year, spent $248; those who made two spent $212; while those who made three spent $208 on average. Overall satisfaction on a 1000 point scale revealed that those owners who visited their service provider once a year, ranked the experience 813 out of 1000; those that visited twice ranked it at 827 points; while those that went three times ranked it at 836 out of 1000.
Although OEMs have been increasing the time between recommended service intervals, Ney says there’s still an opportunity for providers to spread out those service intervals more evenly throughout the year, providing a greater opportunity to educate the customer, build relationships between customers and service staff and provide greater affordability for the customer during each visit.
Although the top ranking providers — NAPA AutoPro and Lexus couldn’t be more different in terms of the image they project at the retail level, Ney says that for customers, it really boils down to the overall impression of service quality. “When it comes to the service advisor experience, that’s something the top performers take very seriously,” says Ney.
He notes that while NAPA may not have the advantage of performing factory warranty work or luxurious facilities, it takes the personal relationship between the customer and service staff very seriously because repeat business has to be earned, one retail customer at a time.
“NAPA has been very good over the last few years making sure they build those customer relationships, which is why they have been consistently ranked at the top.”
Ney says that among the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from the study, two of the biggest were focused on soft skills, essentially the ability to put customers at ease, as opposed to hard skills which include fixing the vehicle and doing the job right the first time.
“I think the key here, whether you’re a dealership or an aftermarket service provider, is that you need to take time to educate your customers about what the service intervals for their vehicle really are,” says Ney. “While we see vehicle maintenance intervals getting longer, it’s important for us to maintain those customer touch points. If we abdicate that responsibility we are really missing out on an opportunity to build a relationship, which ultimately, is what the service experience is all about.”
To view the full 2014 Customer Commitment Study Index visit: http://canadianautodealer.ca/2014/09/shorter-service-intervals-greater-csi-scores/
