After ranking the Highest in JD Power’s 2017 After Sales Service Satisfaction Index Study, Honda Cars Philippines (HCPI) has now garnered a double-win for itself. The Japanese carmaker has been ranked First among 11 mass market brands in JD Power’s New-Vehicle Sales Satisfaction Index Study for 2017.

Doing particularly well in Sales Initiation and Salesperson factors, this is the first time Honda has made it to the top spot since 2012. In second place is Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP), who did excellently in Dealer Facility and Delivery Timing Factors while Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI) is third, outperforming other brands in both Deal and Delivery Processing Factors.

The study, which is based on responses from 1,650 new-vehicle owners who purchased their vehicle between August 2016 and April 2017 and fielded between February and June 2017, takes into account 6 factors that contribute to overall Customer Satisfaction with the new vehicle purchase experience. In order of importance, they are: Sales Initiation (20 percent); Delivery Process (18 percent); Delivery Timing (18 percent); Salesperson (17 percent); Dealer Facility (15 percent); and Deal (12 percent).

However, despite new-vehicle buyers visiting authorized showrooms more frequently during their purchase experience and an increasing number accepting delivery at the dealer premises, satisfaction with Dealer Facilities and the Delivery Process is declining according to the study.

Overall satisfaction with the sales and delivery process stands at 740 (on a 1,000-point scale) in 2017, down from 758 in 2016. Satisfaction decreases across all 6 SSI. Most noteworthy is the decline in satisfaction with Dealer Facility, covering the interior and the exterior layout as well as in the accessibility of authorized dealerships, down 32 points to 735. Delivery Process registers the second-largest decline, down 20 points to 746, as the time to complete the vehicle handover process increases notably: nearly three-fourths (72 percent) of customers said the process took more than two hours, up by almost one-quarter (23 percent) from 2016.

“Pressure is mounting on dealers to upgrade their existing facilities and/or open new facilities to accommodate the influx of new car buyers,” said Loïc Péan, senior manager at JD Power. “Accessibility is a common issue in urban areas, but improvements may also be required within showrooms, such as improving the display of models to offer a better shopping experience as well as the efficient and timely delivery of the vehicle. In addition, the test drive experience needs to be enhanced and better organized as it currently does not seem to have the expected positive effect on customer satisfaction.”

Customers who performed a test drive are overall less satisfied than those who did not (734 vs. 747, respectively), confirming the trend already observed in 2016. Test driving is currently found to be the least effective method of explaining features and benefits, behind verbal-only explanation.

The study also finds that dealers fail to follow up sufficiently with prospective buyers, both before and after purchase. Indeed, one in four (25 percent) of new-vehicle buyers say that the salesperson did not call back after their first visit to dealership, up from only 5 percent in 2016. Moreover, the same proportion also say they were not contacted to ensure everything was satisfactory after the vehicle delivery, up from only 6 percent in 2016.

When demand increases, following up with prospective buyers naturally becomes more difficult; however, it is also critical to ensure a positive customer experience and continued positive word of mouth, notably for the dealers themselves. Furthermore, it is key to increasing sales ratios as new-vehicle shoppers in the Philippines rely more and more on recommendations from friends and salespeople, cited as the second most important purchase reason after vehicle performance, up 10 percent from last year (49 percent versus 39 percent, respectively).

In addition, customers provide higher ratings regarding their salesperson’s knowledge about vehicles as compared with 2016 —the only satisfaction attribute to improve from last year.