applying process efficacy principles for sustained improvement in customer experience at automotive...
DESCRIPTION
Customer satisfaction measurement and improvement has always led to divided opinions in automotive OEMs where customer experience monitoring is taken with a lot of seriousness. Almost all global OEMs now have very robust C-SAT measurement surveys that provide measure of customer experience at their dealerships. While the importance of this activity is beyond debate, OEM managers always seem to be grappling with this question - how do they improve customer experience at their dealerships without appearing to ‘actively managing’ the scores?TRANSCRIPT
PERFORMANCE INSIGHTSAPPLYING PROCESS EFFICACY PRINCIPLES FOR
SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT AUTOMOTIVE DEALERSHIPS
September 2014
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SCENARIO
APPROACH DEPLOYED FOR THE TASK
IMPLEMENTATION
RESULTS
CONCLUSION
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4
6
7
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Customer satisfaction measurement and improvement has always led to divided opinions in automotive OEMs where customer experience monitoring is taken with a lot of seriousness. Almost all global OEMs now have very robust C-SAT measurement surveys that provide measure of customer experience at their dealerships. While the importance of this activity is beyond debate, OEM managers always seem to be grappling with this question - how do they improve customer experience at their dealerships without appearing to ‘actively managing’ the scores?
Sewells Group works very closely with leading automotive OEMs and has evolved its proprietary methodology to work with dealerships and help them improve the customer experience. We deploy scientific approach to ensure that we not only work towards improving C-SAT scores, they really are a result of on ground changes that lead to improved customer experience. Only when we work on the processes that drive experience, we help dealers improve their scores and sustain it over a long period.
This Sewells Group Performance Insights report gives an overview of a successful process improvement initiative completed for a large global OEM in India that led to nearly a 30% improvement in overall national customer satisfaction scores for their network. This improvement was accomplished through Sewells Group’s proprietary methodology of application of their Lead-LagTM model and performance improvement initiatives through on-ground intervention at the dealerships.
01 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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APPLYING PROCESS EFFICACY PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT AUTOMOTIVE DEALERSHIPS
sewellsgroup.com
02 BACKGROUND AND SCENARIO
Sewells Group works closely with the subject OEM in various spheres of dealer performance improvement. Customer experience & customer satisfaction have always been an important metric to monitor network performance.
PROCESS DESCRIPTION
C-SAT MEASUREMENT METHODOLOGY
• The customer experience gets captured by with the aid of third party C-SAT survey agency.
• The process to capture customer experience through C-SAT survey is separate for sales & service domain.
• The process of capturing customer experience via C-SAT survey is a global process & covers entire dealer network for this OEM in India.
• The overall sales satisfaction is measured for every dealership & represented via C-SAT score.
Exhibit 1 C-SAT score measurement done by the subject OEM
This analysis of 3 Month Average C-SAT Score is completed for all the dealerships. Dealerships are then ranked in descending order of
their C-SAT score
The analysis of 3 Month Average C-SAT score is done for every dealership on the last day of the month.
Feedback is gathered from a pre-determined number of respondents every month which leads to a computation of
monthly C-SAT score.
The Survey is administered through various means like e-mail, telephonic survey & in-person feedback.
As is the norm in the industry, this OEM has a comprehensive mechanism to monitor customer satisfaction for both sales and service customers at their dealerships. The exhibit 1 shows the process followed by this OEM to monitor C-SAT score through third party survey.
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The exhibit 2 shows the C-SAT score trend for this OEM for the period preceding Sewells Group interventions.
3M ROLLING C-SAT SCORE
APR-13 MAY-13 JUN-13 JUL-13 AUG-13 SEP-13 OCT-13 NOV-13 DEC-13
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
The OEM was grappling with a scenario where the internally monitored C-SAT score was continuously declining over a six month period.
During an internal review, it was identified that the gaps in processes were leading to inconsistent customer experience at the key interactions like demo, test drive and car delivery.
To address the reasons behind declining C-SAT scores, the OEM developed a mechanism to monitor C-SAT performance of dealerships in the bottom quartile. The philosophy adopted was to work with bottom performers and help them improve their scores. It was expected that this would in turn help OEM improve their national average scores.
The OEM requested assistance from Sewells Group to bring improvement in overall C-SAT score for the market by working with bottom quartile dealerships.
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APPLYING PROCESS EFFICACY PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT AUTOMOTIVE DEALERSHIPS
sewellsgroup.com
03 APPROACH DEPLOYED FOR THE TASK
It was agreed that the approach to focus on the bottom quartile dealerships was appropriate and that would give measurable and noticeable improvement in C-SAT scores.
Our team worked with the OEM to develop a comprehensive on-site intervention plan. This plan covered structured process review of various dealership activities and aligning them to recommended processes to get the desired improvement in customer experience. The intervention plan also included activities aimed at improving specific skills of role holders involved in delivering desired customer experience.
Exhibit 3 shows the framework adopted for driving C-SAT score improvement at the dealerships.
C-SAT SCORE IMPROVEMENT
The C-SAT Score Improvement is carried out by Sewells Group in
periodic counselling visits.
The duration of each counselling visit depends upon the step of dealership
C-SAT Score Improvement.
Each counselling visit is followed by designing of a customised action plan to
improve upon all the pain areas.
The counselling visits are completed in 3 months at regular intervals.
The weekly follow-up of dealership on progress on implementation of action
plan, current trend in C-SAT Score is also an important activity.
The counselling visit involves in-depth analysis of pain areas related to poor
C-SAT Score.
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04 IMPLEMENTATION
Sewells Group team worked with the dealerships identified in the bottom quartile as per the approach outlined in exhibit 4. Interventions were carried out by Sewells Group’s certified process coaches using a structured solution package.
Sewells Group process coaches carried out in-dealership interventions as per the defined agenda. The process improvement action as led by application of Sewells Group Lead-Lag Model of performance management.
Sewells Group Coaches carried out in-depth analysis of dealership processes and recommended process corrections. These process corrections were compiled in an action plan and dealership team commitment to execute them was obtained. Dealership action plans were rigorously implemented and monitored leading to remarkable improvement in C-SAT scores.
Exhibit 4 shows the outline of solutions package
SOLUTIONS PACKAGE
The solution package involves analysis of periodic trend of all main parameters and sub-parameters affecting CVP Score.
The identification of main concern areas is followed by locating the influencers with the particular concern area.
This analysis leads to identification of main concern areas.
This overall process leads to formation of action plan on each concern area affecting CVP Score.
The checkpoint related to each CVP influencer is also defined as a guideline during the process.
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APPLYING PROCESS EFFICACY PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT AUTOMOTIVE DEALERSHIPS
sewellsgroup.com
05 RESULTS
The on-site implementation by Sewells Group Coaches has delivered spectacular results for this OEM. By purely focusing on driving improvement at the bottom quartile dealerships, national C-SAT score at this OEM moved by 30% over span of 5 months.
Exhibit 5 shows movement in national C-SAT score after Sewells Group intervention.
Exhibit 6 shows improvement in C-SAT scores at some of the individual dealerships.
3M ROLLING C-SAT SCORE
3M ROLLING C-SAT SCORE
APR-1
3
MAY
-13
JUN-1
3
JUL-1
3
AUG-13
JAN-1
4
SEP-1
3
FEB-
14
OCT-1
3
MAR-
14
NOV-13
APR-1
4
DEC-1
3
MAY
-14
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
Location Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14
Bangalore 30 35.2 42.3 69.5 64.7 59.1 66.3 66.9
New Delhi 33.3 18.2 58.7 66.8 73.2 75 67 75.6
New Delhi -26.1 -29.2 -27.3 -14.3 10.5 33.9 53.8 70.4
Ludhiana 31.7 23.5 10.9 6.9 16.7 48.3 65 69.6
Kota 45.7 49.3 56.8 55.6 46.4 53.6 66.7 77.3
Mumbai 29.7 25.6 26.1 40.9 63 70.8 73.7 72.3
Bhopal 17.3 8.3 -17.5 -5.3 22.5 51.8 96.4 85.7
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06 CONCLUSION
Improving customer experience and achieving higher customer satisfactions scores is a science. At Sewells Group, we understand this science and are able to consistently demonstrate this to our clients. At the core of this science lies Sewells Group approach of ‘Lead-Lag’ model where we recommend working on ‘lead’ performance metrics so as to cause desired change in ‘Lag’ measures. In this case, our team worked on improving all input parameters that led to desirable customer experience and positive feedback. Application of sound performance management principles coupled with our ability to do effective on-ground implementation helped us in demonstrating measurable performance improvement to our client.
We would be happy to help you to achieve similar results with your C-SAT scores. Drop a line to us today.
• Buy-in & Active involvement of DP
• Focus on Delivery Process management
• Enhancing Sales person Knowledge
• Strengthening customer contact process through CR department
• Robust monitoring of concern resolution process
• Focus on improving customer feedback rate to C-SAT surveys
6 KEY FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO C-SAT IMPROVEMENT
Exhibit 7 shows factors that contributed to this phenomenal improvement in C-SAT scores.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT SEWELLS GROUP
ABHIJIT JOSHI
Group Practice Head of Process Efficacy
Abhijit is involved in developing and implementing several process improvement initiatives for Sewells Group clients. Abhijit has over 20 years of experience in Automotive retail covering all functions like Sales, After Sales and Network Development. He is actively involved in solutions designing activities at Sewells Group and has a keen interest in learning the principles of dealer performance management and applying them for solving on ground challenges at the dealerships.
To know more about Sewells Group Process Efficacy solutions contact Abhijit at [email protected]
Sewells Group is a global consulting and outsourcing firm which specializes in the automotive retail industry. Our very reason for being in the business is to improve the performance of individuals and organisations in the automotive retail industry. We operate across the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East regions.Our in-depth subject matter expertise in this area and our deep engagements with many leading automotive brands make us a leader in our business. Our Integrated Dealer Performance Management Model has delivered exceptional success to leading OEMs across the world. Through our business management, competence development and process efficacy initiatives, we contribute meaningfully to our clients’ businesses.
To know more visit www.sewellsgroup.com or write to us at [email protected]
© 2014 Sewells Group
Disclaimer: The information in this brochure is correct at the time of production. Sewells Group reserves the right to make changes at its sole discretion.
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