Star treatment that makes the difference

“Depending on the product category, customers may have distinctly different and varied perspectives of brand involvement, importance and performance.

“This is driven by their individual needs and motivations and is often even more powerful than understanding some of the subtle differences we see between age, race and gender.” So says Ipsos business director Patrick Busschau in its recently released report for 2014.
Now, considering that Ipsos is one of the world’s largest and most respected research companies, this is a mouthful and certainly worth analysing.

For its 2014 study Ipsos interviewed 25 000 customers representing 85% of new vehicle sales via the dealership channel in SA. It identified and recognised an improvement in both sales and service operations. The sales or buying experience (passenger cars) had improved from 90% in 2004 to 95% in 2014. In terms of light-commercial vehicles the score moved from 89% to 92%. The score in terms of the servicing experience
had improved from 78% to 88% for cars and from 78% to 88,5% in terms of commercial vehicles.

That all important follow-up call after delivery or servicing proved to be a sure driver for the improved results. Customers demand a more personalised experience these days and they expect problems to be fixed first time round. Another important element is the transportation of the client to his/her next point of business.
SA customers do not engage with service providers if they are unhappy. This is often because of indifference or just a sense of helplessness because of service providers not being genuinely sympathetic to the customers’ needs.

Then of course, customers vote with their feet – they simple change brands. The study also indicates differences in the customer experience from region to region. It is interesting to note that both the sales and servicing experience in Mpumalanga does not rate that well at all.
Although many brands are excluded from the research, and there are a number of reasons for this such as costs, smaller brands feeling that they cannot compete and so forth. It is quite clear though that participation from both small and large brands and the value they can extract from this survey, makes participation a no-brainer.

Busschau confirmed that their methodologies were such that even smaller brands could score as high as any large brand. After all, the first-time buyer of an entry level car expected five-star treatment as much as the customer who bought a top-end luxury vehicle.

And there were those smaller dealerships and brands that delivered exactly the latter – five-star service that gained lifelong customers.
Audi was the only brand to win gold in both the sales and service-experience index, and for the fourth year in a row. Says Paul Samson, head of Audi South Africa, “Audi
is focused on delighting SA customers.”

Autodealer Lowveld has often suggested that doing your homework when in the market for a new car, includes studying and analysing the Ipsos (previous called Synovate) surveys, the Kinsey Report and buy accordingly.

To study the report in more detail, visit the Ipsos website. They do not consider themselves game changers for nothing.