While overall customer satisfaction with the new vehicle sales process in Malaysia improves in 2013, the gap in satisfaction between local and foreign brands has widened, according to the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2013 Malaysia Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study that was recently released.
Now in its 11th year, SSI examines seven factors that contribute to overall customer satisfaction with the new vehicle purchase experience. In order of importance, they are delivery process, sales initiation, salesperson, paperwork, delivery timing, dealer facility and deal. Performance is reported as an index score based on a 1,000-point scale, in which a higher overall score indicates greater satisfaction.
Overall sales satisfaction in Malaysia averages 798 in 2013, an increase of 17 points from 2012. Overall satisfaction improves among all factors when compared with 2012, with dealer facility (+25) and delivery process (+20) showing the largest improvements.
While overall sales satisfaction has improved in 2013, the gap in sales satisfaction between local and imported brands has widened to 30 points from 11 in 2012. Contributing to the gap are lower scores in the sales initiation and salesperson factors. “Salesperson-centric qualities, such as fulfillment of commitments, focusing attention on the customer, and thoroughness of following up on customer requests, are key areas for improvement,” said Rajaswaran Tharmalingam, Malaysia country head at JD Power Asia Pacific.
The study identifies 19 sales standards that enhance the overall customer sales experience. When shown the list of 19 sales standards and asked to identify which ones their salesperson followed, 72% of new vehicle buyers in 2013 say their SA followed at least 14 standards, an increase from 70% in 2012.
Improvements in overall sales satisfaction are also attributed to external factors, such as the stabilisation in the supply chain for popular models. “Natural disasters such as the Japan tsunami and Thailand floods in 2011 caused inventory shortages in 2012, which affected deliveries and customer satisfaction,” said Tharmalingam, who also noted that Bank Negara guidelines that made it more difficult to obtain loans in 2012 have eased somewhat this year, making credit more easily available.
“Continuous product training for the sales team helps ensure they achieve a meaningful discussion with product-savvy new-vehicle buyers. Exceeding buyer expectations creates a notably positive experience. Following up with buyers after the sale goes a long way to improving satisfaction,” he added. Presently, only 67% of buyers are contacted after delivery to ensure they are satisfied.
Among the 12 brands included in the 2013 study, Toyota ranks highest with a score of 826. Toyota improves across all factors, with the largest year-over-year improvements in salesperson, deal, paperwork and dealer facility. Nissan ranks second with 823 points, followed by Suzuki (821), Mazda (813) and Ford (812). Suzuki is the most-improved brand with a 61-point increase from 2012.
The 2013 Malaysia SSI Study is based on responses from 2,622 new-vehicle buyers who purchased their vehicle between August 2012 and April 2013. The study was fielded between February and June 2013. J.D. Power released the 2013 Malaysia Customer Service Index (CSI) Study in August, which you can read about here.
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lol….No Peugeot at all? Kia at 11th? proves that Naza is a terrible company still…damn crony
where is merc…Bmw…audi…
Toyota oso crony..nissan oso crony too…all those mention above r crony related company..suppose u said d*** all crony company
You own a Proton kah? Kesian low life loser lah you!
so wat…im driving saga blm..i don want to buy other car for now..i wanna buy house
aerro = kadajawa = butthurt proton basher. Even billionaire has proton in the stable, lol. You are still living in denial/
Which stupid billionaire owns a Proton that he buys himself?
y u dont read and read? talk like shits.
Lol…why suddenly Proton come out. Nothing better to say eh?
How ‘lucky’ for P to be in the list. With the highest fuel consumption in every class. Can it sustain the ranking in the near future….?
this is about “after sales services”, it has nothing to do with the car fuel consumption or the technology behind it!
Ha…ha…ha…!
Gotch…. The FC is my question to P technical personnel after retest my P with handling problem. It takes them 6 SOLID WEEKS just to confirm the steering rack problem.
Thats after 15+ times of complaining and a mail to VP.
They dont even borther about what customer need.They just count on your monies.
Isnt that what customer satisfaction all about….
max, this survey is not on after sales BUT new car sales satisfaction index.
for after sales survey, if not mistaken for last year result Toyota is no.6, while BMW and VW ranked top 2.
then P1 no.120?
Can you believe this? From ranking#2, BMW & VW in 2012 to bottom/out of range ranking in 2013? LOL
Only 50% accurate as most MY car buyers are biased and blinded by loyalty , price and herd mentality not to mention arm twisting by the authorities and cronies. 2622 participants !!
vw scored above industry average? you must be joking. check at vw malaysia facebook first
Cannot say like that. FB page of a car company is often an avenue for people to let go of anger. That’s why you see a lot of complains there. It’s the same as forum. People who has problems use forum to solve their problems. Same like hospitals. Are you going to say that the health of our people is going down the drain when you see many people at the hospitals?
your hospital analogy doesn’t make sense. e.g. if there are 1000 dengue cases in hospitals in 2013 compared to 500 in the previous year are you just going to keep quiet and pretend nothing happened? of course not. same goes to the FB and forums where is there’s a common problem that many users face, then its gotta be a defect or something..
totally agree with Yoyo. if there is no complain, customer wont post it on fb, somemore it’s the same dsg prob and attitude of the SA in service center.
First of all, the hospital analogy makes sense. If you look at the complaints forum, all you will find are complaints. There is no 100% problem free car model in the world. There is no car brand that can provide all its customers with 100% satisfaction.
Second of all, your 1000 dengue cases vs 500 dengue cases is irrelevant when you cannot gauge how many satisfied customers vs how many unsatisfied customers they have. You don’t know if the ratio is increasing or decreasing.
LOL~~Proton and Perodua bellow average~Shame on you.
Mitsubishi is dead last and worse than the national brands? Back in 2009 when I purchased my Triton the purchasing experience at my dealer can certainly be improved but still considered acceptable to me. Certain dealers must be dragging the brand down.
this is SSI. it is about Ssles experience (from visiting the showroom to have the car delivered)
Please read CSI August 2013 which to me is more meaningful as it measure the after sales service.
As for why no Peugeot (also no BMW, & Mercedez if you notice) , there was a note missing from the graph but is in the full JD power report
“BMW, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot were also included in the study but results are not shown due to the small sampling size.
TOP 4 all JAPANESE! I think it will take more than 60 years for the Koreans to catch up with the quality, affordability, comfort, equipment and safety of the Japanese! Japanese FTW!!
Hidden due to lowcomment rating. Click here to see.
How can korean car be for youngster? Korean car’s driving dynamic sucks. It’s like a girl that can act cute only.
You should go watch TV7 news every night and see what car brand/model gets bashed up most on road/highway accidents. See if that is related to car driving dynamics that sucks or the driver or both? I bet you will see those Lotus tuned aka Protons without fail!
dat low comment rating. bashed into the ground. *moment of silence*
Honda are no more the glory days,because of the crony DRB management! All the quality,services of the car are damm Suck nowadays even the infamous Mazda seems improved a lot than Honda.
Toyota oso crony..nissan oso crony maa…all those mention above r crony related company..suppose u said d*** all crony company
The survey is more on sales related activities up till vehicle delivery. No wonder merc. & beemer not in the list
It is a surprise to see ford ranked 5th eventhough many customers complain bout this brand
that’s not the ranking, that’s just some of the statistic shown. There are more not shown or haven’t been surveyed.
proton and perodua who have advantage because of G policy also cannot be above industry average. i know its about SSI but still P1 and P2 cannot get a good result? they just play around while working?
At least Nissan only the car company not owned by bn crony ! Proton,Perodua,Toyota,Honda,Mazda,Mitsu, Hyundai/inokom, kia/naza,merc,bmw are owned by crony
Pls lah, ask anybody who works there. Who is the top management’s best friend? Almost every single one of them is a crony company in one way or another.
Glad to hear this report. Dealer should make their customer satisfaction increase as buyer using their hard earn money to buy car. Most Malaysian served 7 to 9 yrs for their car. In order for that, they should learn from P2 for 3 yrs servicing free include parts n labour. For the first 3 yrs ppl will be happy to send their car for servicing. Still acceptable as we all collect for a period of time for downpayment of the car. With such saving, they will regained back some money in next 3 yrs after P2 plan is reach.
The graph clearly shows non-crony related are at the top half while those crony-related occupy the second half.
Is it any wonder?
At least Nissan are not owned by Bn crony,Toyota,Honda,Mazda,Mitsu,Hyundai,kia,Peugeot,Merc,BMW are the crony
Interesting list indeed. Does Toyota also include Lexus? Cos if it does, it surely explains the lofty #1 position. Ditto for Nissan (perhaps includes Infiniti?)
I think read somewhere that the luxury brands & Pug not in the list cos not enough sample. Which is strange cos there are a lot of new Mercs & BMWs on the road. Guess their minimum sample is very high. Either that or the luxury brands were just not interested in taking part.
Big boss wont bother to do the survey lah.
Sa told me if score < 800, whole company got to go for re-training (no need to work, yeah!).
Not surprised that KIA is way way bottom on the list, when you look at the car (or junk) they produce, you will know how much effort they will put on the customer service team as well.
There is only 1 simple reason to this.
The customer service personnel is too embarrass to face their own customers knowing that they are representing KIA, a lousy and ‘all show’ only car manufacturer. Kudos to the customer service team to at least ‘try’ in their midst of misery and miserable company environment and work ahead of Proton and Mitsubishi, but that’s not saying much either.
KIA should just close its shop and stop the eye sore of its cars to the public and working stress/unsatisfactory/depression to their employees.
It goes to show that you do not know the difference between the actual KIA car manufacturer of Korea nor the non-competent Bumi company (NAZA) who is representing KIA of Korea giving the customer service here in Malaysia that generated these rankings in JD Power survey. Check JD Power survey of other countries like USA or Singapore, if you don’t believe me. The customer service rendered to new car owners here are all Malaysian representatives with lousy customer service attitudes, not the Japanese, Korean, German, French car manufacturers; except for Proton & Perodua. Go figure!
well, we can clearly see here almost all is Japanese car fan, when people comment good to Korean car will get a lot of dislike, while people praise for japenses can will get a lot of like
That’s why Sushi have great RV …..
It’s cruel but it’s true, most Japanese brands have improved except Honda and it almost falls below the industry average, borderline ! Btw, i’m driving a Honda……
Is JD Power founded and based in Malaysia?
You know lah, Front Wheel Drive, Maju Ke Depan, konon.
Well Toyota really has improve. Not only the. Cars are better , Service has improve. Honda also catching up and poor Europien Car fail to catch up, VW has a letter Sucess. , I guess Aftersales is a big factor when a normal person buys a Car …
Its the locally assembled Honda’s that have poor quality.
The imported ones like Civic Hybrid, Jazz Hybrid, Insight and Odyssey are comparable in built quality with Estima/Alphard/Harrier
when everything got N-Ah-Za involved, will drop..
same to Honda..LOL
They just want to sell locally and make money, services, export out of Malaysia, Sorri, not my duty…and I wonder how much tax they pay yearly..
A study on Customer Satisfaction should really take into account the prevailing natural bias against the brand.
Have they?
why i am not surprised that Proton’s ranking is so low……oh ya, some of the staff really suck in attitude! even dare to shout to the customer and show all kinds of attitude, just to demand the customer to lower his/her voice when the customer is only chit-chatting with a sales! Talking about unbelievable rudeness….
Salesperson in Proton thinks they are impeccable like those in BN when they are only low worker where even customer shout at u, u listen! No wonder Porton will never be on top. Ppl buy proton just because they are poor, cant afford a better car yet and fresh grad. Those who have made it will ditch their proton for better car.