Competitive Prices, Comfortable Lounges Win Service Customers

Dealership service departments are gaining ground on independent repair shops as an option customers would recommend to their friends, the recently released Service Shopper 4.0 Study from CDK Global finds. As they make gains, service departments can take specific actions to keep that attractiveness rising. 

“The big takeaway (in this year’s study) was the big improvement dealers made with service customers,” David Thomas, director of content marketing and auto industry analyst at CDK Global, tells WardsAuto. “They closed the gap.”

In the study, conducted with 2,000 customers from July 22 through July 28, dealerships earned a net promotor score (NPS) of 59, 14 points higher than in 2023. Independent repair facilities earned an NPS of 66, only ten points higher than a year earlier.

A Net Promotor Score is a measure of how likely customers are to recommend a business to their friends.

Dealerships should maintain or improve their NPS because the higher the score, the higher the likelihood customers will return to the dealership for service, says Thomas.

Two important areas dealerships should focus on if they want to keep that score rising are transparent pricing and an attractive waiting area, says Thomas.

Price has traditionally been a sore point for dealership customers, who rightly or wrongly perceive that dealership service departments are more expensive than independent repair shops.

This year, however, price wasn’t the main reason a customer would choose an independent repair facility, the study finds.

“While shoppers didn’t link a low price to why they would visit a dealer, it fell from the No.1 reason to choose an independent in 2022 to fourth this year,” says the study.

Greater price transparency at all service providers is likely why customers now understand they won’t save much on basic maintenance such as oil changes or tire rotations by going to an independent rather than a dealer, says the study.

Dealerships have adopted practices such as large menu boards showing the prices of various services and sending coupons for oil changes, telling consumers how much they will be paying, says Thomas.

Some even have signs comparing their prices to independent repair facilities, he says.

“Transparency on pricing is really a big deal,” says Thomas.

Above-Par Lounges

Another area dealerships should focus on to boost their NPS is the waiting area, the study says. Some 76% of respondents say they want a comfortable lounge while waiting.

Dealerships need to make sure their waiting area is “above par,” says Thomas.

Preferred service waiting amenities are:

A kids’ play area also comes up a lot as a desired amenity, says Thomas.

Artificial Intelligence for the Win

The call answering system is one function where the study finds dealerships could use a lot of improvement. While a growing number of customers make appointments online, a phone call is still the way 65% of respondents make service appointments.

Those put on hold stayed there for an average of 8.2 minutes, and those customers hated it. Their NPS plunged to 39.7, a significant drop from the average of 59.

“Those NPS scores we track, they fall hard if someone’s put on hold,” says Thomas. “The relationship to the phone experience and those scores was really something else.”

Technology can help in the phone area. There are numerous artificial intelligence platforms that answer calls for dealerships, and they should be considered.

“It’s time to take AI seriously and see where it can address real challenges impacting your bottom line,” says the report.

Another area where artificial intelligence can help is using predictive maintenance to create specialized service offers for customers. Personalized offers are popular, says the study.

Predictive maintenance uses artificial intelligence to comb customers’ records for data on when they might be due for oil changes or other routine maintenance. The dealership can then create personalized marketing for those services.

In this year’s study, personalized offers and discounts broke into the top five for the first time, landing at No.2 in a list of what features customers would be pleased to have offered or would be upset if absent from the service experience.

“As AI becomes a more common tool across technologies, customers could expect this tailored type of outreach to become more prevalent,” says the study.

Highlighting Expertise

Dealerships’ specialization is appreciated and should be marketed. Knowledgeable service staff is a top reason why customers go to a dealership for service.

The top reasons customers choose dealerships for service are:

An encouraging study finding is that consumers are becoming more interested in auto maintenance. The percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement “I do everything I can to keep it in pristine shape” rose to 27%, up four percentage points from last year.

That trend is likely because vehicles are becoming more expensive, says Thomas. Interest in keeping their cars in good shape “is a positive thing to see,” he says.