Dealers urged to speed up their customer service as competitors surge ahead

Many people think that by making an appointment with a dealership to get their car repaired or serviced they would save time, but a recent survey of more than 35,000 car owners in 71 Chinese cities by JD Power has proved otherwise.

Those who make an appointment have to wait an average of 23 minutes before getting their vehicle looked at, which is two minutes longer than those that don't make an appointment at all, according to the China Customer Service Index Study, whose findings were released last week.

The study, now in its 19th year, measures customer satisfaction in dealer servicing by examining five key measures: service quality, service initiation, service facilities, service adviser and vehicle pick-up.

"Reservations are designed by dealers to carry out various work and complete the service process as quickly as possible, but the customer experience reflects that the reservation system does not work perfectly," said Eileen Ren, vice-president of digital customer experience at JD Power China.

This matters for carmakers and dealers in China. JD Power found that 72 percent of people polled would make an appointment before visiting a dealership for a service or repairs.

The rest failed to make an appointment because of problems ranging from their preferred time not being available to the fact that the reservation system was difficult to use.

Ren said authorized dealers still need to focus on the optimization of resource allocation to deliver a seamless experience from reservation to service completion.

"Having a website, WeChat account and mini-apps does not mean you're digitalized. Instead, they should be helpful for customers," she said.

Lower-than-expected servicing of vehicles is also driving car owners to non-authorized dealers, including fast service chain stores and roadside mechanics.

This year's findings show that on average a car owner's first visit to a non-authorized dealership for a service or repair is in the 15th month of car ownership. It was the 17th month in 2017.

"Although authorized dealers display a remarkable advantage in service quality, the efficiency is one of the weaknesses," Ren said.

JD Power found that the percentage of customers who said that servicing began shortly after arrival at non-authorized dealers was 15 percent higher than customers at authorized ones.

Additionally, the overall time the service took at non-authorized dealers was 18 minutes less than at authorized ones.

"Improving reservation service and efficiency through the whole service process is likely to reduce the number of customers turning to non-authorized dealers," Ren said.

This is especially important when customers are cutting their driving time and visits to dealerships.

On average, the respondents' monthly driving mileage this year was 18 percent less than in 2018 and their visits to dealers fell 17 percent to 2.8 times this year from 3.4 times last year.

The decline was most notable among customers born between 1980 and 1984.

Ren also asked salespeople to be cautious when receiving visitors.

Recommending additional services is a sales tactic for dealers to increase revenue, but if the recommendations cannot meet the real needs of customers, customer satisfaction will be affected negatively, said she.