Lincoln, Mercedes And Buick Buyers Are Happiest With Their Experience At The Dealership

Khodrocar - The people who sell cars will be happy to know the study shows that they are still relevant to the sales process in this day of doing everything online. The study finds that the pre-purchase interaction with the salesperson leads to high sales satisfaction – as long as it goes smoothly.

The study, now in its 31st year and redesigned for 2017, measures satisfaction, on a 1,000-point scale, with the sales experience of new-vehicle buyers and "rejecters"—those who shop a dealership and purchase elsewhere. This year’s study is based on the responses of almost 29,000 buyers who purchased or leased a new vehicle in April or May of this year.

It provides dealers with insights into customer needs and expectations with a comprehensive analysis of the new-vehicle purchase experience and measures customer satisfaction with the dealership selling them their vehicle. The study also measures satisfaction with brands and dealerships that were shopped but ultimately rejected in favor of the selling brand.

In order of importance, buyer satisfaction is based on four measures: working out the deal, salesperson, delivery process and facility. The satisfaction of rejecters is based on five measures: the salesperson, fairness of price, negotiating experience, facility and inventory variety.

"Over the last five to ten years the customer purchase experience has consistently gotten better. But in the last couple of years we’ve seen it flatten out a little bit,” said Chris Sutton, vice-president of the automotive retail practice at J.D. Power in a telephone interview.