(February 26, 2010) Despite a 21 percent decline in new-vehicle sales in 2009 from 2008, mainly due to historic economic challenges during the year, overall customer service satisfaction improved by 6 points in 2010 to 767 (on a 1,000-point scale) from 761 in 2009, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Customer Service Index (CSI) Study.

A few study highlights:

• This year’s higher CSI score marks the 10th consecutive year of industry-wide improvement in customer service satisfaction measured in this study, which examines satisfaction among vehicle owners who visit a dealership service department for maintenance or repair work during the first three years of ownership, when vehicles typically are still under warranty.

• This year, there are small gains in all five measures that make up the CSI, which is based on responses from more than 114,200 owners and lessees of 2005 to 2009 model-year vehicles.

• Two of the five factors — service facility and service quality — achieve important gains.

• The outlook for auto dealer service volumes and customer spending appears challenging, with current decreases in service business brought on by depressed auto sales in 2008 and 2009 projected to continue for several years.

• Dealer service traffic volumes are expected to decline by nearly 20 percent between 2009 and 2013, resulting in a 25 percnt decrease in service dollars from owners of late model-year (2005 to 2009) vehicles.
 
Implication: Over time, many vehicle owners gradually defect to non-dealer service facilities for repair and maintenance needs, particularly when the warranty period expires. With service customer retention becoming more crucial than ever during the next few years, dealerships must focus on not only providing superior levels of customer service, but also on enhancing convenience for vehicle owners and providing pricing that is more competitive with non-dealer facilities.

—Jon Osborn, research director at J.D. Power and Associates