MG ranks highest in India customer service for second consecutive year

In this digital driven era, vehicle owners in India still place a great level of importance on proactive service advisor-led interaction during their service experience, according to the JD Power 2022 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study.

After a hiatus since 2021, J D Power has relaunched the India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study in collaboration with NielsenIQ. For the survey, focus was on communication from service advisors encompassing several elements like a thorough multi-point check; confirmation of service requests; review and explanation of work pre and post service; and regular status updates.

The study finds that satisfaction among customers who have received implementation of all interaction elements increases by 25 index points (on a 1,000-point scale) vs. among those who do not receive them (863 vs. 838, respectively).

“Clear, proactive and timely interaction from advisors demonstrates a clear commitment towards customer engagement,” said Sandeep Pande, lead of the automotive practice India at NielsenIQ. “Dealerships that are able to deliver both on quality of service and interaction can expect to achieve higher recommendation and retention levels.”

Following are additional key findings of the 2022 study:

• Quality of work remains critical for satisfaction: More than three-fourths (80 percent) of customers say that key elements of service quality were done, such as completion of all requested work; work done right the first time; and if the vehicle was cleaned. Satisfaction declines 22 points when customers say that even one of these elements was missed.
• Younger customers are harder to please: Millennials and Gen Z customers are the least satisfied among generational groups, with overall satisfaction of 822, which is 22 points below the average. They are significantly more critical of any omission in the implementation of both interaction and quality of service. In contrast, older customers over the age of 35 tend to be more forgiving and place a higher importance on the quality of service.

Study parameters
The study measures new-vehicle owners’ satisfaction with the after-sales process by examining dealership performance in five factors (listed in order of importance): service initiation (26 percent); service advisor (20 percent); vehicle pick-up (20 percent); service quality (19 percent); and service facility (15 percent).

This study examined aftersales satisfaction in the mass market segment only.

J D Power defines generational groups as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); Gen Y (1977- 1994); and Gen Z (1995-2004). Millennials (1982-1994) are a subset of Gen Y.

The 2022 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study is based on responses from 5,586 new-vehicle owners who purchased their vehicle from July 2019 through September 2021. From July through September 2022, NielsenIQ conducted face-to-face surveys in 25 major cities in India, asking 125 questions of vehicle owners about their experience with their most recent service done at their brand’s authorised workshop.

After conducting the surveys, the responses were cleaned for data quality and calculated. Brands included in the study are ranked according to aggregate score.