Whilst this might sound rude, in fact it relates to a twice yearly survey that’s carried out by The Institute of Customer Service.
The UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) awards marks out of 100 and takes its survey from more than 6000 people and asks them to rate 12 key public sectors based upon consumer priorities such as professionalism, complaint-handling and the competence and friendliness of staff.
Unsurprisingly for any of us that work in the sector, the Automotive Industry scored an excellent 75 average putting it in second place in the research.
The survey showed the car industry as within the top 5 for helpfulness, staff competence and loyalty and with an impressive score of 71 for the way it dealt with complaints, putting the automotive sector way ahead of everyone else, so it seems that if you’re going to moan, the best person to do it to is a car dealer if you’re looking to get a satisfactory outcome.
Of course, the 75 figure was spread across the industry and some scoring higher than others. Audi, scored top points with an impressive 87, whilst Mercedes Benz scored 82 in second place with BMW / Mini scoring 80 and making it into third. Its slight worrying however, for some franchises that the top 3 spots were all taken by German manufacturers.
Despite this, the Automotive sector scored consistently well across the board, with customers thinking highly of all aspects of it. In fact, even the lowest scoring organisations within the automotive sector, still scored higher than the best scorers in some of the other sectors.
In the past 10 years or so, the motor industry hasn’t just smartened up its act, it’s changed its act completely and now employs some of the most hi-tech and sophisticated methods and comprehensive training programs to ensure that customers are treated in a way they deserve. The industry wants its customers to feel special and to feel valued and it’s clear from this survey that it’s working.
Once upon a time, being in the motor trade was something you wouldn’t shout about (remember the Beatles song “She’s Leaving Home”, where she was “meeting a man from the motor trade”), but today that’s different as some of the smartest and cleverest young people are choosing the motor trade as their careers. Yes we are involved in the trade, but its about time the hard work and commitment to customers was publicly recognised and we thank both the Institute of Customer Service and everyone who took part in the survey.
Of interest, it was the services sector that scored best, and it was made up of small and medium companies and enterprises, such as plumbers, hairdressers etc and jointly, they made it into first with just a one point advantage at 76.
The lowest scoring sector was Local Government which scored 58. No surprises there then!
