While overall customer satisfaction with dealership service continues to rise, satisfaction rates for recall-related repairs declined for the first time in six years, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Customer Service Index (CSI) Study released in March. That drop has accompanied a record number of recalls, and could be the result of inattentive or overwhelmed dealer service departments.
The annual study measures CSI with franchised dealer service for both maintenance and repair work among owners and lessees of one- to five-year-old vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates there were 51 million vehicles recalled in 2015. Recall service CSI dropped from 789 to 781 on a 1,000-point scale compared to the prior year. The score for non-recall service averaged 809 for the current year.
According to the survey, recall customers reported they were less likely to have their vehicle returned to them cleaner and with the same settings as when it was dropped off, and were less likely to be contacted by the dealer after service was complete.
Chris Sutton, vice president of U.S. automotive retail at J.D. Power, says that 14 percent of service visits were recall related, and that the sheer number of recalls was affecting dealer service capacity and the service experience for all customers. “Overall CSI went up this year, but that increase has slowed a bit,” Sutton says. “The recall experience, which had been contributing to that growth in CSI, didn’t help as much this year.”
The gap between recall and non-recall repair satisfaction was 28 points this year, compared to 13 points the prior year.
“We tried to isolate different factors, but this wasn’t really attributable to any particular brand’s handling of recalls,” Sutton says. “We’re left with some guesses. One of those is that, based on the amount of recalls over the last few years, if they are being treated more as ‘business as usual,’ the service departments aren’t going that extra mile for those customers. While it may be tempting for dealers to focus more on repair or maintenance work, recall customers represent both an opportunity and a risk to the brand and dealer," he added.
Manage wait times
The study also highlighted some potential strategies for service departments to follow that can help boost satisfaction levels. The study found that 70 percent of customers are willing to wait between one and two hours for service. Another 17 percent were only willing to wait for less than an hour or not at all. Customer satisfaction averages 835 if the wait is less than one hour and 40 minutes, but falls to 756 for longer waits. Dealers should consider loaner vehicles, shuttle service, and waiting area improvements to help mitigate against the effect of wait times.
Satisfaction also improves by 44 points when service advisors greet customers within two minutes. However, 27 percent of respondents said they waited longer than that for a greeting.
Dealerships are doing a good job of achieving high first-time fix rates for vehicles. According to the study, 94 percent of respondents said the dealer correctly fixed their vehicle the first time. For the 6 percent who had to return, satisfaction rates dropped to 611, a full 207 points lower than those who had the repair completed in one trip. The top reasons for the lack of a first-time fix were “work performed didn’t correct the problem” (28 percent) and “dealership could not find the problem” (22 percent).
Dealerships also continue to struggle to increase their tire business. Over the past 12 months, the most frequently replaced components were front wiper blades (25 percent), tires (22 percent), brake pads (6 percent), rear wiper blades (6 percent) and batteries (5 percent). Tires were the only product that customers were more likely to have replaced at a non-dealer facility than at a dealer facility.
Audi, MINI take top CSI spots
Overall customer satisfaction averaged 854 in the luxury segment (up from 852 in 2015), and 797 for the mass-market segment (up from 792).
The big news among individual nameplate rankings was that Audi topped the luxury segment for the very first time, scoring 874. The company was followed by Lexus (869), Cadillac (863), and Mercedes-Benz (857), with Jaguar and Lincoln tied at 856.
MINI was the highest ranked mass-market brand at 858. Buick (849), GMC (830), Chevrolet (818), and Hyundai (814) also led that segment.
“Audi has steadily increased its score over the last several years,” Sutton says. “MINI also had really good performance. From our side, it was encouraging to see the overall industry continue to improve. I think to really accelerate that improvement there will need to be accelerated adoption of new technology.”
One of those technologies should be text-messaging capabilities. Only 2 percent of customers currently receive service updates via text or e-mail, but 37 percent of Gen X customers and 38 percent of Gen Y/Millennial customers prefer that method, along with 22 percent of Baby Boomer-age customers. According to J.D. Power, catering to that preference could help boost satisfaction.
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