Ipsos — and its predecessors
Markinor and Synovate — have been guiding car makers in what the market likes
most since the 1970s.
Busschau said such research,
which basically quantifies the passion we feel for our cars, is
extremely useful in shaping marketing campaigns, because most people buy cars not as functional tools, but as aspirational items.
extremely useful in shaping marketing campaigns, because most people buy cars not as functional tools, but as aspirational items.
But how does one put a measure to
something as subjective as pleasure of owning a new car?
Ipsos does this by calling lots
of people using call centres based in Johannesburg and Durban. Last year the
call centre operators spoke to more than 25 000 owners or drivers at key
junctures of their car ownership experience, asking the owners lots of
questions.
While the longest interview yet
at Ipsos was over two hours, most calls last only a few minutes, although
operators are ready to talk half an hour if the respondent feels like telling
all about their current and previous vehicles.
Empiric patterns of irrational feelings
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| The same bakkies, the BT50 and Ranger, score different, showing it is all about heart, not mind. |
By collating
the answers from these more than 25 000 car owners or drivers, the statisticians
Ipsos can see the patterns.
While the
results are very empiric and categorised in groups separated by a few percentage
points, each outcome is still based on vague, irrational feelings. Which is why
two owners of two bakkies that have the same panels but different badges, the
Mazda BT-50 and the Ford Ranger, delivered totally different scores on the
pleasure they get from their vehicles.
“It could be that Mazda buyers
are just a lot more critical, or that the Ford dealers who also service Mazda
did not make their clients as happy as they did the Ford clients,” said
Busschau.
Higher levels of
service
The Mazda brand
is next month separating from Ford’s embrace, but despite having been serviced
under a different brand in 2013, most Mazda owners felt very positive about
their cars. So did Chevrolet owners, whose happiness did not rate the Chev
brands at the top, but gave from cars to bakkies a consistent top five placing
in several categories. The Chevrolet Sonic did exceptionally well, outscoring by a mile the like of the Golf 7 anf
BMW 5-series.
Busschau said service at motor
retailers continued to improve in 2013, the period covered by the latest Ipsos
Quality Awards that was released in Johannesburg last week. The after-sales
servicing experience continued to improve for both car and LCV owners and for
the first time in a decade, the servicing experience for passenger cars (86.5%)
was higher than the figure for LCVs (86.1%).
“These very high levels of
service are a wonderful testimony to the dedicated manner in which the motor
manufacturers and their dealers continue to lift the bar through carefully
managed customer care programmes and staff training,” said Busschau.
Personal service is key
He told Wheels
customers value personal service above all else, and dealers would do
well to invest in
keeping staff who make for happy customers, be it in sales or
after-sales service.
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| A BMW 5-series not as nice as a Chev Sonic, really!? |
“Some of the comments that Ipsos
recorded summed this aspect up for instance one customer said: “They gave me
personal service. They took into account exactly what I needed. They went out of
their way to accommodate my requests and gave me a really good deal.”
Conversely, a customer who was
unhappy with the treatment received from a dealer said: “It was the worst
experience I have ever had. None of my requests were met and I was constantly
lied to by the salesman.”
Audi and VW tops
Audi took gold
awards in both sales and service in the passenger car segment, with Volkswagen
cars taking gold for sales and silver for service.
This was a
repeat of the achievement by Audi in the 2013 Ipsos quality study, while
Volkswagen collected gold for both sales and service last year.
On the light commercial vehicle
front Volkswagen took gold for both sales and service. (Gold awards went to
brands scoring between 92.6% – 94.6% for sales and between 82.5% and 88.7% for
service).
Lexus prevented a Volkswagen
Group clean sweep of the gold awards in the passenger car sales and service
categories by taking gold for service.
A number of brands collected gold awards in
both the sales and service categories in the light commercial vehicle section:
Isuzu, Nissan and Volkswagen all collected gold for sales while Chevrolet,
Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen rated gold for servicing.
Top three ways to make a client happy
• Offering a vehicle that suits the customer’s budget.
• Providing an exciting handover experience.
• Not establishing a lasting connection between the customer and
dealership.
• Not providing a vehicle free of faults at the time of
delivery.
• Not contacting the customer after delivery to check if s/he was
totally satisfied with the vehicle.
