Auto dealers’ service drives advanced over the past year when it comes to customer satisfaction, but multiple areas offer room for improvement.

They could learn from the likes of Porsche and Mini, which bested luxury and mass-market brands for satisfaction, respectively.

J.D Power surveyed more than 50,000 consumers who visited franchised dealers and after-market shops last year for maintenance or repair of 1- to 3-year-old vehicles. It was the study’s 46^th year.

The survey found overall satisfaction with dealer service drives rose three points to 868 on a 1,000-point scale. Luxury vehicle owners and lessees expressed notably higher satisfaction, boosting that score eight points to 886.

Despite the improvements, J.D. Power analysts found there’s much opportunity to further boost satisfaction and therefore customer conquest and retention, which can lead to more vehicle sales.

• One such area lies in how long service visits can take. The study found that maintenance jobs, which comprise the bulk of dealer service drive visits, can delay the mass-market customer by a little more than an hour and a half on average. The average premium customer can wait about 2½ hours. After-market shop visits, by contrast, typically take less than an hour for 62% of customers for similar jobs.
• Adding mobile and valet service could woo more customers, especially those who’ve become accustomed to such perks from direct-to-consumer brands, such as Rivian and Tesla, according to J.D. Power. It said luxury-vehicle consumers switching from a DTC brand to a traditional auto dealership had an overall satisfaction score 29 points lower than the mass-market average.
• In another new twist, many of today’s consumers say they want photo or video documentation in addition to multipoint inspection results, though just 26% of mass-market and 44% of luxury customers say they receive it. Consumers particularly value getting such documentation early in the service process.
• Foundational aspects still figure largely in service customer satisfaction, including being greeted upon arrival and work being completed correctly the first time. Just 26% of survey respondents said they experienced nine or 10 of those key performance indicators. But when all 10 KPIs are fulfilled, average satisfaction hits 979, while it sinks to 632 when just three are met.

“Ensuring all are completed is essential to optimizing satisfaction, as scores among customers who experienced seven or eight KPIs are still 63 points below completing all 10 KPIs,” J.D. Power said.

After Porsche and Mini, brands making high marks with service customers are:

Infiniti, No. 2 in the premium segment with a score of 912, followed by Lexus at 900

Subaru is second for mass-market brands at 886, followed by Buick at 882.

Other vehicle category rankings can be found on J.D. Power’s website.

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