2009 J.D. Power Customer Service Index (Lexus ranks #1)
02-25-09, 03:39 PM
#1
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2009 J.D. Power Customer Service Index (Lexus ranks #1)
J.D. Power and Associates Reports:
Exceptional Service Satisfaction Enhances Dealer and Manufacturer Profitability
Through Improved Customer Retention, Even as Vehicle Sales Decline
Lexus Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Dealer Service
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 25 February 2009 — In today’s tough automotive market, providing consumers with superior service experiences translates into increased profitability for dealers and automakers, with the highest-performing brands retaining more than 80 percent of their customer maintenance and repair dollars within their dealer network, compared with retention rates of less than 60 percent for lower-performing brands, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Customer Service Index (CSI) StudySM released today.
The study, now in its 29th year, examines satisfaction among vehicle owners who visit a service department for maintenance or repair work. The CSI rankings are based on dealer performance during the first three years of ownership, which typically represent the majority of the vehicle warranty period. Five measures are examined to determine overall customer satisfaction with dealer service (listed in order of importance): service quality; service initiation; service advisor; service facility; and vehicle pickup.
The study finds that although satisfaction with dealer service tends to decline as vehicles age—particularly during the fourth and fifth years of ownership—those automakers whose dealers provide the highest levels of satisfaction during the warranty period retain a greater share of future service visits at the dealership, even after the warranty period expires. Brands with dealers that achieve particularly high CSI scores (800 or higher) during the first three years of vehicle ownership retained 79 percent of dollars spent on maintenance and repairs during the first five years of ownership. In contrast, brands that attained CSI scores below 800 retained only 69 percent of customer maintenance and repair dollars.
Exceptional Service Satisfaction Enhances Dealer and Manufacturer Profitability
Through Improved Customer Retention, Even as Vehicle Sales Decline
Lexus Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Dealer Service
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 25 February 2009 — In today’s tough automotive market, providing consumers with superior service experiences translates into increased profitability for dealers and automakers, with the highest-performing brands retaining more than 80 percent of their customer maintenance and repair dollars within their dealer network, compared with retention rates of less than 60 percent for lower-performing brands, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Customer Service Index (CSI) StudySM released today.
The study, now in its 29th year, examines satisfaction among vehicle owners who visit a service department for maintenance or repair work. The CSI rankings are based on dealer performance during the first three years of ownership, which typically represent the majority of the vehicle warranty period. Five measures are examined to determine overall customer satisfaction with dealer service (listed in order of importance): service quality; service initiation; service advisor; service facility; and vehicle pickup.
The study finds that although satisfaction with dealer service tends to decline as vehicles age—particularly during the fourth and fifth years of ownership—those automakers whose dealers provide the highest levels of satisfaction during the warranty period retain a greater share of future service visits at the dealership, even after the warranty period expires. Brands with dealers that achieve particularly high CSI scores (800 or higher) during the first three years of vehicle ownership retained 79 percent of dollars spent on maintenance and repairs during the first five years of ownership. In contrast, brands that attained CSI scores below 800 retained only 69 percent of customer maintenance and repair dollars.
02-25-09, 04:01 PM
#2
Let me point out the obvious:
- Lexus has a comfortable lead over the #2
- Audi is tied with MB as last in the tier-one luxury brand category
- Honda barely made it above average
- Toyota and Scion are below average
- VW is below both Honda and Toyota
- Lexus has a comfortable lead over the #2
- Audi is tied with MB as last in the tier-one luxury brand category
- Honda barely made it above average
- Toyota and Scion are below average
- VW is below both Honda and Toyota
02-25-09, 04:58 PM
#5
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Great job Lexus! Keep up the great work. Now that more models are coming from Lexus we have a greater choice...I'm sure Lexus will also be the sales leader for 2009 in the U.S.
02-25-09, 05:13 PM
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well i find toyota dealers bland and cold and not up to par with other manufacturers. no loaners, and i know they have a drop off van but they never offer me to use it. its a shame.
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02-25-09, 05:54 PM
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honda and nissan don't have loaners too right? i think it's too much to expect loaners at dealerships of this league. drop off shuttle i think all you need to do is ask? i used it all the time back then
02-25-09, 05:57 PM
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Man, I am having a hard time figuring out exactly what is being surveyed here. J.D. Power obviously makes a lot of money doing surveys cause they survey everything under the sun. This is the Customer Service Index Survey. Can't say I have been in many other dealers for the last decade but one Lexus dealer near me does a great job and one is so so at best. But I believe if Lexus isn't number one, they would be right up there so the result isn't much of a surprise. Considering it is a 1 - 1,000 scale, all the makes being within 700 to 800 or so is interesting. Sure glad JDP told us why we should care about this survey with the owner retention numbers.
02-25-09, 06:00 PM
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Quick look, is it fair to say that very broadly those who offer loaners are in the upper half and those that don't are in the lower? Customer Service Index could be sensitive to that.
02-25-09, 06:40 PM
#13
i don't know about every brand, but i would tend to say yes. but again that's part of the customer service right? the ability of dealerships to offer loaners, that's service, i don't think scores should be adjusted according to that. at the same time we have brands like porsche, i am not 100% but i don't think they offer loaners (unless they have a line of cayenne waiting?), but their scores are pretty high, better than mb who is offering loaners
02-25-09, 06:43 PM
#14
Article
Dealers handling Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus vehicles do a better job than any others of keeping customers happy in their service departments, a new consumer survey has found.
But dealers handling less-expensive Toyota brand models score far below the industry average in the study.
The latest "Customer Service Index," which is updated annually by California-based market researchers J.D. Power and Associates, also found that vehicle price is no guarantee of top-flight treatment in a service department; while the highest scorers tend to be luxury makes like Lexus, Cadillac, Acura, Jaguar and Land Rover, dealers handling more moderately priced Buicks and Saturns kept their customers happier than those handling vehicles made by Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti, Power said.
The survey also threw cold water on the notion of Japanese cars and their dealers being better as a group than Detroit's Big Three cars and dealers; Nissan dealers scored third from the bottom. Nissan vehicles also have scored poorly in recent Power surveys.
A Nissan spokesman had no comment.
Suzuki dealers scored lowest, but Jon Osborn, research director at Power, says below average performance does not mean poor performance. "Some perform better than others," he said.
Osborn said the low ranking might be due partly to the brand's young and presumably less-affluent clientele, for whom a repair bill is more likely to be a budget buster than the same bill would be for a Lexus owner. "It's a bigger financial pain for young people," he said.
In a statement, Suzuki cited a "regrettable attrition of dealers and -- correspondingly -- reduced number of service personnel [which] puts stress on the service infrastructure and subsequent service satisfaction scores."
Dealers handling Toyotas ranked below dealers handling all of General Motors and Ford Motor Co. brands. Toyota spokesman Joe Tetherow in California said it is working with dealers to improve service and that dealers are investing billions of dollars in physical improvements. "We take it seriously," he said. "We don't like being where we are."
Osborn says top-ranked service departments excel at giving prompt appointments, greeting customers immediately when they arrive, offering alternative transportation, doing the job quickly and right the first time, and returning the car cleaner than when it arrived.
The new study is based on responses from 106,059 owners and lessees of 2004 through 2008 model-year vehicles.
