Lexus keeps luxury customers happiest

The luxury brands Lexus, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW were scored out of 1000 in a study which measures the satisfaction of customers since they have purchased their cars.

The study is based on responses from 518 luxury-vehicle owners who bought new cars from August 2011, through September 2016, and took their vehicle for service at an authorised car dealership from August 2015 through September 2016.

Lexus (852) was the highest ranked of the four brands tested, with Mercedes-Benz second (828), Audi third (826), and BMW missing out on a podium (811). The Bavarian company also fell short of meeting the luxury average (824).

Land Rover and Volvo were included in the study, but not ranked due to small or insufficient sample sizes.

The study found more than 1 in 3 customers say they are “delighted” with the courtesy of their service advisor in 2016, an increase from 24% in 2015.

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“Service advisors are vital to the success of service centres across Australia,” said Mohit Arora, executive director at J.D. Power

“Customers’ interaction with their service advisor needs to be professional, transparent, trustworthy and, most importantly, enjoyable. A happy customer is one who will return for future work when the car warranty expires and will recommend your services to others.”

The survey company says companies which maintained contact with customers often ranked better in their results.

“While all dealers across the network mention how difficult it is to make contact with their customers, those that are successful in doing so reap the benefits of happier customers,” said Loi Truong, senior country manager of Australia at J.D.Power. “Contacting customers and asking about their service experience—and measuring this performance with a view to continually improve—is the key to success.”

Five different factors compromised the overall satisfaction ranking with different weighting on the final results. These were, service advisor (20-percent), Vehicle pick-up (20-percent), service quality (25-percent), service facility (17-percent), and service initiation (18-percent).

J.D. Power is a customer satisfaction researcher, and their annual surveys are well-respected in the automotive industry.