Japanese brands slip on sales satisfaction index as Audi best
Print Edition
China’s car owners are getting picky about after-sales services at authorized dealerships, with Japanese brands experiencing the biggest decline in customer satisfaction among all foreign carmakers, an industrial report showed.
The surprisingly lax after-sales performance of Japanese automakers comes in the aftermath of the Diaoyu Islands dispute that triggered nationwide consumer antipathy towards Japanese goods last year.
According to the JD Power Asia Pacific 2013 China Customer Service Index (CSI) Study released yesterday, the overall reading for the industry dropped to 815 on a 1,000-point scale in 2013 from 832 in 2012 “largely due to rising customer expectations toward the service experience.”
Based on a survey of customers who were in the first 12 to 24 months of car ownership and had visited an authorized car dealership for maintenance or repair work during the past six months, the study took into account service quality, service facility, vehicle pick-up, service advice and service initiation as key factors in determining customer satisfaction.
Japanese car brands that once aced the customer survey turned out to be a huge disappointment with their average satisfaction reading dropping to 831 points from 860 in 2012.
Tony Zhou, director of automotive research at JD Power China, attributed this mainly to the political turmoil last year, saying it “undermined the reputation of Japanese brands”. He also noted that consumers have complained about Japanese dealerships being pushy — trying to make them spend more.
According to JD Power Asia Pacific, the after-sales service is a cash cow for car dealerships, bringing in 50 percent of their profits. And customer satisfaction has a direct impact on the service volume as those scoring 831 points and above average 14,692 service visits by customers per year per dealership, compared with 11,224 service visits among those getting 773 points and below.
Audi ranked highest in the luxury segment, scoring 880 points while Dongfeng Peugeot led the mass-market brands with 882 points.
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