Honda claims top rank for 2017 J.D. Power PH After-Sales Service Satisfaction

The results for the 2017 J.D. Power Philippines Customer Service Index (CSI) Study revealed Honda as the highest-ranking brand for overall service satisfaction, where it topped all 10 mass market brands. 

The CSI study, which is now on its 17th year, measures vehicle owners' satisfaction with regards to the quality of services provided by authorized dealer centers. The results are made up of scores from 5 different factors: service quality (29%); service initiation (26%); vehicle pick-up (17%); service facility (14%); and service advisor (14%). In addition, the scores are capped on a 1,000-point scale. 

Honda, who performed well in all 5 categories, received a score of 803. Hyundai ranked 2nd with a score of 798, whereas Mitsubishi who was only down by only 1 point, came in 3rd.

The scores from this year's study came from 1,951 new-vehicle owners from February 2015 to May 2016, who took their units to an authorized service center between August 2016 and May 2017. The study took place between February and May of 2017.

On a much larger scale, however, overall satisfaction for the local automotive industry sloped down by 29 points. This year's score was brought to an average 793 points from the 822 points of 2016. Customer's satisfaction dropped down on all 5 factors, with service initiation and vehicle pick-up scoring the lowest, which is 787 for each.

Even more, with increase in the percentage of service appointments from 40% to 47%, the time required to schedule an appointment also inflated. In fact, 72% of the participants states that it took 2 or more days to secure an appointment. In addition, 41% of these customers claim to have waited for 30 minutes for the vehicle handover process to be completed, which is double from last year.

Additional insights from the studies are as follows: 

• More vehicle quality issues and repairs: the rate of disappointed vehicle owners with the quality of their units increased to 17% compared from the 9% of 2016. This was due to the number of customers who experienced problems with the vehicle they purchased in 2016 grew 3 times than in last year. 
• Fewer commitments on service time: 12% say that dealerships could not make it to their promised schedule regarding when the vehicle would be ready for release. 8% revealed that they had to check the dealer to know when their vehicle would be ready. 
• More customers are paying higher service fees: 13% state they had to pay more than what was initially expected. 
• Longer time to finish paperwork and vehicle pick-up: 24% say it took more than 20 minutes to complete payment and vehicle pick-up after the service. 

The 2017 CSI study result has the lowest point in a span of 5 years. J.D. Power country manager Sigfred Doloroso said that there will be more pressure placed upon dealer facilities and staff as a consequence of the drop in the customer satisfaction.