Dealership service departments narrow key gaps with independent providers — study

Dealership service centers have gained ground over third-party providers in a new study examining service customer satisfaction.

Driving the news: In its latest service study, CDK Global spoke with roughly 2,000 consumers who recently had repair or maintenance work done on their cars.

• Dealers’ net promoter scores (NPS) improved by 14 points over last year, hitting a score of 59.

• However, independent repair facilities continue to outrank dealers overall, although the gap has shortened from 11 points to seven.

• NPS measures the likelihood of a customer recommending their provider to someone else, making good ratings crucial for business growth.

Zooming in: Several factors continue to impact dealers when it comes to service satisfaction and efficiency.

• Phone calls remain critical to the overall customer experience, especially for Gen Z, who set up service appointments by phone 65% of the time (more than millennial and Gen X consumers). Callers waited an average of 8.2 minutes on hold when calling to book an appointment; those forced to wait had significantly lower NPS ratings (39.7) than the average.

• Artificial intelligence may help improve dealer NPS in this area. Around 31% of customers prefer to schedule service appointments through an AI assistant, especially among younger generations.

• Warranties are still one of the biggest contributors to NPS rankings. Customers currently under warranty had an above-average score of 63.9. Those no longer covered by their warranty ranked at 52.8. This underlines the importance of selling high-quality F&I products.

• Pricing transparency is more essential than ever for receiving good NPS ratings. Dealers with lower scores may be able to drive substantial improvement and better compete with third-party providers by introducing clearer explanations for service costs.

Bottom line: CDK’s research once again shows that getting a high NPS from a customer greatly increases the odds they will return for future service visits, making them a critical component of retention. While dealers face challenges in certain areas, this year’s improvement shows that dealers are prioritizing their service experience and making impactful changes. This will prove invaluable as the market continues to normalize.

Become an automotive insider in just 5 minutes.

Get the weekly email that delivers transparent insights into the car market.

Join 81,000 others now, it's free:

Gain a Competitive Edge with Overfuel

Overfuel helps car dealers build modern websites designed to win customers and drive business.

Whether you're a franchise or independent, Overfuel.com offers a major advantage over outdated website providers; unlocking the latest SEO strategies and meeting Google's performance standards (a key metric most dealer sites fail.)

That's why Overfuel has been proven to boost website visitor conversions by an average of 49.3%.

Take the lead over your competition. Sign up for a free website audit at Overfuel.com/audit.