J.D. Power Asia Pacific Reports:
Notifying Customers When Vehicle Maintenance Is Due Has a Strong Positive Impact on New-Vehicle Owner Satisfaction with After-Sales Service
BMW Ranks Highest in Customer Service Satisfaction in Malaysia
SINGAPORE: 1 August 2011 — Notifying customers when their vehicle is due for service contributes to higher levels of customer satisfaction with after-sales service, according to the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2011 Malaysia Customer Service Index (CSI) StudySM.
The study, now in its ninth year, measures the overall customer satisfaction among vehicle owners who visited their authorized service centre for maintenance or repair work during the first 12 to 24 months of ownership.
The study evaluates new-vehicle owner satisfaction with the after-sales service experience by examining dealership performance in five factors. In order of importance, they are: service quality, vehicle pick-up, service initiation, service advisor and service facility. CSI performance is reported as an index score based on a 1,000-point scale. Overall customer satisfaction averages 718 in 2011, an improvement of eight points from 2010.
Among the 12 brands included in the study, BMW ranks highest with a score of 804. BMW performs particularly well in the vehicle pickup and service quality factors. Mercedes-Benz (799) and Isuzu (770) follow in the rankings. Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz are ranked for the first time in this 2011 study.
The study finds the proportion of customers who indicate the dealer informed them that their vehicle was due for routine maintenance has increased notably to an average of 38 percent in 2011, compared with 16 percent in 2010. Among those customers who received advance notification about routine maintenance from the service dealer, satisfaction averages 21 points higher than the industry average.
“Initiating customer contact for routine maintenance is a value-added service that is increasingly being performed by service dealers,” said Mohit Arora, executive director at J.D. Power Asia Pacific, Singapore.
“Implementing processes that notify customers when service is due encourage them to make service appointments, allowing dealers to better plan service flow and resources. This customer touch point also contributes to higher levels of customer loyalty and advocacy to both the dealership and the brand.”
The study also finds that customers who say their actual service costs were the same or less than estimated are notably more satisfied (733, on average) than customers who either do not receive an estimate (683) or whose actual costs were higher than the estimate (657).
“In a competitive market such as Malaysia, it is especially important to provide customers with estimates at the time of service initiation and to ensure that these estimates are accurate,” said Arora. “In addition, dealerships must provide effective and timely communication in cases where initial estimates and actual costs are different.”
Rates of customer loyalty and advocacy intent for brands and dealerships are strongly affected by satisfaction with authorized service dealers. Approximately 42 percent of highly satisfied customers (service satisfaction scores averaging above 796) say they “definitely will” recommend their dealership to friends and relatives. Similarly, 40 percent of highly satisfied customers say they “definitely will” revisit their service dealer for post warranty service.
This study is based on the responses from 2,667 new-vehicle owners who purchased their vehicles between February 2009 and May 2010 and took their vehicle for service to an authorized dealer or service center between August 2010 and May 2011. The study was fielded between February and May 2011.
About J.D. Power Asia Pacific
J.D. Power Asia Pacific has offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok that conduct customer satisfaction research and provide performance analytics services in the automotive, information technology and finance industries. Together, the five offices bring the language of customer satisfaction to consumers and businesses in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Information regarding J.D. Power Asia Pacific and its products can be accessed through the Internet at
www.jdpower.com. Media e-mail contact:
sammy_arvis@jdpower.com.sg.
About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction. The company’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
About The McGraw-Hill Companies
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global financial information and education company that helps professionals and students succeed in the Knowledge Economy. With leading brands including Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates, the Corporation has approximately 21,000 employees with more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2010 were $6.2 billion. Additional information is available at
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.
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