LOOKING AT WHAT THE CONNECTED CAR MEANS FOR CONSUMERS AND DEALERS, PARTICULARLY IN THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT There has been a lot of talk in the past year about “the connected car.” Most of the discussion revolves around cars that communicate …
CUSTOMERS EXPECT THEIR ONLINE INQUIRIES TO BE HANDLED PROMPTLY, AND DEALERS NEED TO BE READY TO RESPOND It’s not news that consumers use the Internet actively in their vehicle shopping process and increasingly, to schedule service visits. In many cases, …
Dealerships have measurement tools to record customer feedback. But are they really listening? THE AUTO INDUSTRY is probably one of the most avid users of “voice of the customer” data. We use surveys of one type or another to measure …
The research is mounting that consumers expect much more from retailers — but how can you respond? Many times in this column, I’ve referred to the need for dealerships to see themselves more as mainstream retailers than as a highly …
Why trust and not price is the key to not only earning our customers’ business but also retaining it Is Ivan Pavlov alive and well and working in your dealership? Pavlov, if you remember, was a Nobel Prize winning Russian …
Richard Cooper looks at Customer Satisfaction Measurement and asks if we’re really tackling the issue head on It always interests me to see how, when you look at satisfaction levels across business sectors (such as banking, travel, airlines, telecommunications, foodservice), …
Some months ago, I wrote about an informal survey of dealerships in North York, Ont. and how many were just not geared up to greet and engage the digital customer’s attention. Recently, I did some more mystery shopping at retail …
RICHARD COOPER ASKS WHO REALLY “OWNS” THE CUSTOMER WHEN IT COMES TO DELIVERING THE AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL EXPERIENCE Back in the 1990s, I attended one of Automotive News’ Congress sessions in Detroit. One of the keynote speakers was Francois Castaing, who …
THE CHALLENGES (AND ALSO BENEFITS) CAR SHARING COULD BRING TO AUTOMOTIVE RETAILING No one will argue that car sharing is essentially an urban trend. It’s also true that it’s witnessing significant growth both in Western Europe and North America. While …
WHY DOING WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IN AUTO RETAILING SIMPLY ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH ANYMORE We talk about change and adopting the ways of a dynamic retail sector, but many things remain the same in auto retailing. Customer expectations continue to …
WHY UNDERSTANDING HOW CUSTOMERS WANT TO ENGAGE IS CRITICAL TO BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND GROWING YOUR BUSINESS It’s generally accepted these days that consumers, young and old, are gravitating towards screens to keep in touch with what’s going on, not only …
DEVELOPMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY MEANS SHORTER, SIMPLER SURVEYS WILL BE WHAT PROVES VALUABLE FOR DEALERSHIPS IN THE FUTURE In the auto industry, we’ve been measuring customer satisfaction for decades. Millions of customer surveys have been conducted about the ownership experience, performance, …
