The automotive brands with the best long-term service satisfaction in Mexico 2023

The consulting firm JD Power carries out for the fifth time the Long-term Service Satisfaction Study 2023 -CSI-LT 2023-in which he analyzes customer satisfaction with the maintenance and repair services offered at his authorized dealer or independent workshop.

This research explores customer satisfaction with their dealer or independent repair shop, based on: Service Quality (33%), Vehicle Delivery (19%), Service Advisor (18%), Service Initiation (15%), and Service Facilities (14%).

This study is based on the evaluations of 3,409 interviews with owners of new and used vehicles that are between three and 12 years old, in the period from October 2022 to February 2023, while satisfaction is calculated on a scale of 1,000 index points.

As drivers reach pre-pandemic levels of displacement in Mexicothe business of services and regular maintenance of vehicles shrinks.

The total amount that customers are spending on maintaining their vehicle during the year is down 27% from a year ago and the reduction in overall spending is influenced by an 11% decrease in the total number of visits to the service centers, reaching 3.17 visits per year compared to 3.41 visits in 2022.

The CSI 2023 yielded the following results:

50% of vehicle owners do not show loyalty to authorized dealers or independent workshops, which presents a market where everything is at stake.

These vehicle owners alternate between the two automotive service providers, however, the percentage of business from authorized dealers increased 3 percentage points year over year.

According to the type of service they need, the owners show a preference to visit the authorized dealers for more complex jobs such as heating/ventilation/air conditioning (11.3% of distributor jobs); review calls (10.4%); collision repair (6.9%); and audio/entertainment system (5.1%).

Owners who alternate service providers choose to take their vehicle to independent workshops for more basic repairs, such as lubricant/oil/filter change (65.5%), tire change (21.3%) and tire repair (16.2%).

Vehicle owners are more satisfied when alerted to vehicle maintenance needs

A notification from the dealer informing the owner of their upcoming service improves satisfaction by 28 points compared to the owner reviewing the schedule for scheduled maintenance.

Currently dealers only offer this type of advice 16% of the time.

Satisfaction improves when making an appointment through an application

Offering the option to make a service appointment through a mobile messaging app instead of a phone call can help dealers improve customer satisfaction by 25 points.

Offering transportation alternatives is important

Distributor customers are 32 points more satisfied when they are offered transportation, but this only happens 42% of the time. When transportation is offered to independent garage customers, satisfaction increases 29 points, but transportation is only offered 27% of the time.

Areas for improvement in satisfaction

When a service advisor is focused on a customer’s needs – which happens 94% of the time – satisfaction increases by 71 points.

This indicator is the only factor that has appeared in the top 4 KPIs in the last four years.

Other areas in which satisfaction has improved notably are offering internet (+49 points); the cleaning of the facilities (+16); and the offer of amenities (+15).

Below we present the Ranking of the volume brands with which customers are most satisfied in the distributor’s service:

Next, we present the ranking but in the independent workshops: