Toyota, Lexus and Buick Dealers Top Satisfaction Study

Customer experience can dictate whether or not a consumer returns to a certain brand, and car dealerships are on the front lines when it comes to delivering an enjoyable experience.

Toyota, Lexus and Buick dealers all scored on top of a new customer service survey, locked in a three-way tie. According to the new study undertaken by the Temkin Group, a firm specializing in customer service, each one of these three brands scored a 74 percent rating in the 2014 study.

The study surveyed 10,000 customers and included different types of businesses, including air travel, banking and even fast food chains. The three auto dealers that tied collectively placed in the 59th position out of 268 companies that were included in the study. This is Toyota’s second year with the highest rated auto dealers, while it is a first for Lexus and Buick.

At the other end of the spectrum, Chrysler scored the lowest among auto dealers, coming in the 256th position. Dodge and Kia are the only other two brands whose scores declined this year, and they now make up the bottom three along with Chrysler.

Rounding out the top 10 from best to worst are Subaru, Hyundai, Ford, Honda, Chevrolet, Mercedes and BMW.

Three different aspects are addressed in the survey. Customers are asked to rate the business’ functionality, accessibility and emotion, and then the three scores are taken and averaged.

Any score above 70 percent is considered good, while anything above 80 percent is considered excellent. Scoring under 50 percent is considered very poor, but not a single auto company scored lower than Chrysler, which was right on the line with 50 percent.

[Source: Ward’s Auto]