TORONTO -

As vehicle product quality continues to improve across the board, dealers must look to other areas of their stores to differentiate themselves from competitors.

In J.D. Power and Associates' May Automotive Analyst note, for Canada  Virginia Connell cites a “remarkable shift in the automotive market that squarely hands the advantage to consumers.”

Connell, automotive account analyst for Canada at J.D. Power, contends that while product quality is becoming “increasingly uniform” dealers still have an opportunity to get ahead of competition by focusing on their service department.

Breaking the numbers down, the gap between the highest and lowest-performing non-luxury brands on J.D. Power's Quality Index has decreased drastically (2009 had a 113-index-point gap, while 2012 had a 66-index-point gap, on a 1,000-point scale)

With this in mind, J.D. Power contends dealers have the chance to leverage their service environment as vehicles are playing on a more level field these days.

But Connell says there are two obstacles standing in the way that dealers should focus on when attempting to ramp up their service centers: “a dealer’s inability to provide a service appointment on the day desired, and customers who leave with the perception they were not given helpful advice.”

On top of tackling these two issues, Connell explained that making your service department stand out doesn’t just rely on the quality of repair.

“On average, 92 percent of non-luxury service work is done right the first time. To truly excel, dealers must educate their customers and demonstrate the value of the work completed, not just that it was done correctly,” Connell said.

Also, on top of standing out from the competition, ramping up a service department can lead to improved customer loyalty.

Connell cited some statistics to back up this assertion.

“A service experience rating of 10 out of 10 also has the potential to retain that customer, with more half (52 percent) indicating they ‘definitely will’ repurchase the same make, with only 14 percent of those who rate their experience an 8 saying the same,” she added, stressing that customer retention may be directly related to service center operation.

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