By offering customers excellent service throughout the purchase and ongoing service (oil changes, repairs, etc.), auto dealerships can build ongoing loyalty among customers that will continue to feed on itself, according to Ryan Robinson, director of the Canadian automotive practice at J.D. Power and Associates.
“There is a loyalty bridge between sales and service,” Robinson said. “Then there is a loyalty bridge from service to service, so that the customer keeps coming back for repairs. Then there is a loyalty bridge from service back to sales.”
According to Robinson, 42 percent of customers who rate their dealer service experience 10 (on a 10-point scale) indicate they “definitely will” purchase the same make the next time they shop for a new vehicle. In contrast, only 7 percent of customers who rate their service experience between one and five say they definitely will purchase the same make.
“The dealership service staff essentially acts as a second salesperson to the customer after they have purchased the vehicle,” Robinson said. “The interactions they have with customers after the sale is critical to ensuring that customers not only purchase the same make of vehicle in the future, but also do so at the same dealership. The link between service satisfaction and future vehicle purchase intent is a critical one.”
The relationship was the most critical finding in the J.D. Power 2012 Canadian Customer Commitment Index Study released Wednesday. The study measures the service behaviors, satisfaction and loyalty of owners of vehicles that are four to 12 years old. Overall customer satisfaction is determined by examining five key factors of the service experience: service initiation; service advisor; service facility; service quality; and vehicle pick-up. The study examines customer satisfaction with both new-vehicle dealerships and aftermarket facilities.
The study findings were similar to a similar study of U.S. dealerships, according to Robinson.
According to Robinson, one of the biggest factors in ensuring customers are happy with service, and therefore, return for future purchases, is communications.
Customers prefer to be communicated with via the same communication channel they use to schedule service appointments, indicating a comfort level with that channel. Among customers who schedule a service appointment via telephone, 54 percent prefer to be contacted in the future by telephone, compared with e-mail (32 percent) and traditional mail (10 percent). Similarly, among customers scheduling service appointments via the Internet, 66 percent prefer to be contacted by email, compared with phone (22 percent), traditional mail (3 percent) or text message (8 percent).
“Knowing how a customer contacts a dealership is just as important as the communication itself,” Robinson said. “The study shows that customers prefer to be contacted in the way that they schedule appointments. The additional effort that service staff put into the method of communication provides an opportunity to set the tone for the upcoming service interaction.”