retaining automotive servicing customers

The OEM client was looking for insights that could help it develop a stronger dealership servicing proposition in order to help it retain service customers as their vehicles move out of manufacturer warranty, including the perceived value and impact of capped price servicing and warranty on their decision making.

A ten-minute online survey of consumers who owned vehicles from the client that were up to 10 years old. ​The core sample consisted of 1,000 consumers sourced from an online panel, and screened to ensure they owned an appropriate vehicle. This was then boosted with a further 1,030 consumers from the client’s online research community.

The boosted sample was useful to increase subgroup size, and allow for more granular analysis, but it did also mean that we had a cohort of consumers who were automatically more engaged with the client brand.​ Care needed to be taken in the analysis to ensure that we allowed for this and didn’t present a biased view of consumer attitudes or behaviours.

The research uncovered insights into the underlying factors driving customer defection, providing clear guidance to the client around the existing issues with service quality, pricing and customer communications, as well as recommendations around the steps it could take to mitigate these.

The insights from this study have empowered the client to work with its dealerships to improve the quality of service being delivered to clients, increasing the likelihood that they remain loyal service customers following the expiry of their capped pricing servicing and manufacturer warranty periods.