SUPPLY V DEMAND IN AUTOMOTIVE. HAS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE BECOME THE FIRST CASUALTY?

The number of people in the UK reporting poor customer service in the retail automotive sector has reached its highest level since 2009, according to new Institute of Customer Service (UKCSI) report.???

The UKCSI polls 10,000 consumers every six months to keep a handle on how the sector is performing – no bad thing for an industry where good customer service is intrinsically linked to success. Across the retail sector competition is rife, people vote with their feet.?

Forbes published an article last week on ‘customer experience’, explaining that “73% of consumers point to customer service as an important factor in their purchasing decisions”.??

And from a business perspective, the way people are handled in challenging times clearly has an impact on their lifetime value.?

We all know the situation. Demand is high but supply is low, but this won’t last forever. New car stock is hard to get hold of for a variety of reasons beyond the control of the retailer, and it would seem that this is having a negative impact on customer service. ?

But, does it need to????

There’s a gap, clearly, between what is expected of the retailer and what the customer actually gets.?

And, nothing damages the relationship more than nasty surprises.???

One of our clients recently came to us when we began drawing up plans for its customer magazine, the main online platform for communication to customers, and pushed onto me the importance of the messaging.??

“We need to tell people about the situation we are in, let them know that stock levels are low and that they may have to wait for their order.”???

This particular client influenced the narrative in a way unlike any previous campaigns, to ensure it wasn’t a scary message but an honest one. That stuck in my mind when I read the damning statistics from the UKCSI report.??

Communication, honesty, transparency. ?

As an industry, automotive talks about these things a lot, but does the recent decline in customer service simply indicate that not enough is being done to address the situation with customers? Are expectation levels being managed????

I’d love to hear from anyone in the industry on this and, perhaps more importantly, answer the question: What can you do about it??