Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018 - F27

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

FEEDBACK
Shops have potential for better word of mouth advertising

JAMES B. TREECE
jtreece@crain.com

ealership service departments receive a lot of personal endorsements from their customers - but
could get even more.
That's the takeaway from a survey conducted for Automotive News last month by DealerRater.com. When 17,382 consumers who recently visited a dealership were asked whether they had ever recommended that store's
service department to family or friends, 74
percent said yes.
And 18 percent said no only because they
had not used the service department. That left
only 8 percent of respondents saying no for
other reasons.
In an ideal world, all of a dealership's customers would recommend its service department. But if three-fourths said they would, a
service manager should still be pleased if the
rest said they had not, but only because they

hadn't used it themselves.
That would mean there is a
good chance that the remaining one-fourth could be
turned into happy customers
- and word-of-mouth advocates - if they could be persuaded to come to the dealership for service.
It's only a high score on the
"no, other reasons" response that's cause for
concern. These customers may have had a
bad experience with the service department.
Or maybe their relatives all live out of state.
Who knows?
Nissan should be pleased that, among
brands with at least 250 responses, it scored
higher than any other on the "yes" response:
79 percent of Nissan customers said they have
recommended the dealership's service department. Next were Mercedes-Benz, at 78
percent, and Toyota, at 77 percent.

At the other end was Mazda.
It tied with Subaru and Volkswagen for the smallest share
of "yes" responses: 69 percent. But it also has the most
potential. An industry-topping 26 percent of Mazda respondents said no because
they hadn't used the dealership's service department
themselves, while just 5 percent said no for
some other reason.
The implication: If Mazda dealerships can
get more of their customers to visit the service
lane, these folks are likely to be pleased
enough to recommend the store to their
friends and family when they need service.
For Subaru, the "no" responses broke down
into 24 percent of respondents who hadn't used
the service department and 7 percent who cited
other reasons. For Volkswagen, the figures were
23 percent and 8 percent, respectively. 

Positive responses

Q: Have you recommended this dealership's service
department to friends or family?
YES

All
Acura
Audi
BMW
Chevrolet
Dodge
Ford
GMC
Honda
Hyundai
Infiniti
Jeep
Kia
Lexus
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
Nissan
Ram
Subaru
Toyota
Volkswagen

74%
73
72
71
74
74
72
73
76
75
76
71
75
76
69
78
79
70
69
77
69

NO, BECAUSE I HAVEN'T
USED IT MYSELF

NO, OTHER
REASON

18%
18
19
18
20
16
20
20
16
17
18
22
19
17
26
15
14
21
24
16
23

8%
9
9
11
7
10
8
7
8
8
6
7
6
7
7
7
7
9
7
7
8

You can sell more tires
Quick Tread:
% Quickly captures tread info on all vehicle traffic
% Electronic and printed results in seconds
% Integrates with eMPI industry leaders

Source: DealerRater.com survey conducted Feb. 28-March 12; 17,382 respondents;
brands listed had at least 250 respondents

APRIL 2018

PAGE 27

http://www.Rater.com http://www.DealerRater.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018