3 Min Read • October 17, 2024
Service Shopper 4.0: Dealerships Gain Ground
Fixed Operations continues to be a major profit center for car dealerships. And the competition from independent repair facilities and car chains remains … but in terms of driving positive sentiment, dealers are gaining ground according to the CDK Service Shopper 4.0 study.
CDK surveyed over 2,000 customers who had car maintenance and repairs to learn where dealerships stand. The results, which were mostly positive, revealed dealership service departments’ Net Promoter Score (NPS)— a satisfaction score based on a customer’s likelihood to recommend a business — jumped 14 points to 59. While still behind independent shops score of 66, the gap of seven points is narrower than in 2023 when it was an 11-point difference.
Service Shopper 4.0 looks at warranty customers, dealership revisits, the top reasons customers choose dealerships versus repair shops, the importance of online reviews and ratings, what’s contributing to a decline in types of services, and AI’s impact on the customer phone journey.
This is the first year CDK looked at the integral role phones still play when it comes to booking an appointment at the dealer. A majority of customers (64%) use the phone to book their service appointments and they often run into issues that can impact their likelihood to recommend a dealership. Those who were put on hold had far lower NPS results, nearly 20 points lower than the average. That’s even less of a surprise considering the average hold time was over eight minutes.
Even though dealerships scored better this year in many areas, there’s always an opportunity to boost this momentum and gain more maintenance and repair business. Key takeaways include:
Price
Don’t shy away from being transparent about service pricing. This is one area where customers expressed a lot of negative sentiment. Dealers have a huge opportunity to improve this and market routine maintenance and service into customized specials.
The Lounge
Since more customers prefer to wait while their vehicles are serviced, a comfortable customer lounge is really important. Think snacks, Wi-Fi, lighting temperature — all the things to make the waiting area as comfortable as possible because customers now expect it.
AI
AI is no longer a conversation because it’s happening across the auto industry. More dealerships are turning to AI to manage everything from answering phones, responding to online chats, reporting and more. If you’re not using AI in your operation, it’s time to take it seriously.
Offers and Discounts
For the first time since we’ve been doing this survey, personalized offers and discounts broke into the top rankings at number two as something customers want from their auto service provider. This is another good example of how a digital tool like AI can be leveraged to develop customized specials and coupons that customers expect.
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