The Average NPS In Car Dealership And How To Improve It

What Is The NPS ?

The Net Promoter Score or NPS is a customer loyalty indicator invented in 2003 by Fred Reichheld (The One Number You Need To Grow). Why do we use it ? Because it is simple and synthetic. It includes two main questions:

1. What are the chances you will recommend this product/service to a friend/a relative ? (the famous out of ten score)
2. Why, or why not ? (this is the comment, or “verbatim”, as we say in the jargon).

We calculate the NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors to the percentage of promoters. So, the higher it is, the better the client satisfaction level is.

*Promoter: 9 or 10, Passive :  7 to  8, Detractor, less than 7 out of ten.

Why You Should Use The Net Promoter Score For Your Car Dealership Business

Firstly, because, measuring clients’ satisfaction allows to improve services, loyalty, and to attract more clients. But, moreover, we have proofs.

• According to a GT Motive study (2017), the average NPS in the car dealership ecosystem is on the rise : from 22,8 % to 33,5 %. What about yours ?
• On the other hand, a few days ago, the Journal Auto published an alarming article about the automotive sector, which is currently losing ground.

“2019 appears to be the end of a virtuous cycle for the automotive field”, they write. Why ? An unstable international commercial context, growing anti-pollution legal restrictions, a costly transition towards renewable energies… Not heartening at all. Clients will be more and more difficult to convince, and to keep !

So, what whould we do ? Improve our NPS of course. Be the best across the market, that is all.

Here is how.

How To : Create An Effective Satisfaction Survey

Evaluating clients’ satisfaction in the automotive sector is not easy.

• Visits are punctual, and on an irregular basis.
• The client rarely communicates about his level of satisfaction after the appointment. Except if he is invited to do so !
• After purchasing a car, it is hard to give immediate feedback (you need to wait and see how it works).

For those reasons, lots of car dealers choose to base their evaluation process on after sales service.

The most frequent NPS survey is the following :

• Which mark would you give to the after sales service of [compagny name] ? (out of 10, or 5 stars) ?
• Within a few words, tell us more about your opinion, your remarks and suggestions (free blank space with the possibility of adding a picture).

What our clients say about NPS

We can see on the following graph NPS variations (brown track) for one of our biggest clients. The survey is about after sales service.

What can we note ?

• A global increasing tendency
• The NPS is very volatile, that is also why it is so relevant as an indicator. It variates according to every small change you make in your business organization. For instance, we notice here than the NPS is dropping during holiday time (from the 17^th July to 30 July), because of a reduced workforce.

So, NPS is definitely a good way to follow your business evolutions, and to find out rapidly what is not working.

It is also allowed to add a commercial-oriented question in the satisfaction survey, such as : “do you plan to buy a new car in the newt 6 months?”. This way, you can catch every opportunity… Quality control and business go together in the agile companies!

3 steps to improve your NPS

1. The first one is quite obvious : keep track of its evolutions. In the first place, thanks to a dedicated software, then, by asking for monthly reports, as those I Feedback Now offers.
2. Adopt a constant improvement approach, and not fearing changing methods and processes. The verbatims (comments) give you precious information on what you have to improve, of modify. Too much waiting at your counter? Hire staff, or set digital solutions, as facility management interactive kiosks.
3. Share the results with your team! Following the NPS real time allows to motivate them, and/or make them understand a problem (if you get negative feedback), which either way is beneficial for your business.

If you want to know more, or are decided to improve your NPS immediately, please contact us here !