Over the past decade JudgeService has been studying and reporting on how individual dealers are performing on their customer service.
This has provided us with a huge amount of data that we can use to make comparisons and understand greater trends rather than just individual performances.
One of the things we have clearly established over the last few years is the link between stock turn and customer satisfaction.
So, what are the “Top 3 smile drivers” for used car customer satisfaction?
If we explore more in depth by what is meant by “customer satisfaction”, we delve into granular aspects of what makes a customer happy.
For example, the cleanliness of the site, the attitude of the salesperson, the choice of vehicle, the explanation of finance, the attitude at handover, contact after delivery and more.
Pre-Covid
In “normal” pre-covid circumstances, the number 1 thing that made customers happy was the attitude of the salesperson.
This reinforces our continued narrative which is that “People don’t just buy cars, they buy people”, getting that right, will speed up the time it takes to sell a car on your forecourt.
On average, you will sell a car 5 days quicker than a dealership which ranks poorly for their “attitude of salesperson” question.
The second most important factor to get right is the “attitude of the salesperson at handover”, followed by the “explanation of paperwork”.
As of July 2021
To reflect the times we are facing, JudgeService added a number of extra questions to our customer satisfaction surveys, which focus on the health and safety aspects of buying a car – specifically including social distancing.
This resulted in a change to the “Top 3 smile drivers”.
Satisfaction with adequate social distancing measures now stands as the third most important factor to customers when buying a car.
As restriction ease it is crucial to remember that these health and safety guidelines have been at the forefront of car-buyers minds for the last 12-18 months and should not be abandoned with haste if you want to ensure solid customer satisfaction scores.
What else can you do to go the extra mile?
Our top recommendations for dealers, once they have nailed the basics, are:
- Signposting
- Contact after delivery
Signposting
At the end of the sales process, the customer should be clearly made aware that they will be receiving a customer satisfaction survey from JudgeService, because the dealer really appreciates their feedback.
This should be mentioned again at handover, whether that is in a form of a leaflet, a card, or a verbal reminder.
At this point, whoever is dealing with the buyer should say “is there any reason you wouldn’t give us a 9 or a 10?”, this helps to flush out any potential problems before the customer receives their survey.
Contact after delivery
A theme throughout all of our client base is the lack of contact after delivery. Contacting a customer after delivery has actually shown to increase the number of promoters and decrease the number of detractors a dealer has.
When the customer has been contacted after their delivery, this is the final opportunity the dealer has to fix any issues the customer might have before they receive their survey.
Customers that have had issues with their vehicles corrected quickly and efficiently often leave positive reviews and good testimonials for the dealership.
Our support team receive emails from customers on a regular basis who wish to change their survey answers because the dealership has since solved the issue. *
A perfect example of why signposting and contact after delivery should not be neglected!
For used car customer satisfaction, follow these tips and watch your scores sore!
*As per JudgeService's House Rules, we do not change survey answers once the survey has been completed.
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