Secret Shoppers rate Auto Dealers

[Bruce Nunnally]

If you've ever had the pleasure of working in retail or the service industry, you already know how much fun secret shoppers can be. (For the rest of you: not very.) Over the past four years, the folks at America's auto dealerships gotten in on the party, too, thanks to Pied Piper Management's annual customer experience study. Results from the 2010 survey have just been released, and while some of the findings were forgone conclusions, there are a few surprises on the list.

Read More: http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-blog/1047126_secret-shoppers-give-mercedes-benz-top-marks-for-customer-experience

[Cadillac Jim]

After reading the article, I'm very surprised that Buick dealers are elbow the industry average, and that Chevrolet is above the industry average. I'm pleased with the Chevrolet dealer rating. I was a Chevrolet man most of my adult life and always found it difficult to find a good dealer for anything except parts, where the majority of them were good to excellent.

IMHO, as someone who usually buys cars with experience, but who has bought a number of new cars over the years, that what a customer looking for a daily driver is interested in is the experience of the interior, and the feel of driving the car. Someone who has driven a Lexus for years but has never driven a late model upscale GM car will be much more receptive to owning a Cadillac if he drives one. If you want to increase market penetration, have a demonstrator ready to go at all times.

The emergence over all the rest of MB, Lexus, and, of all makes, Land Rover, tells us that we have a lot to learn.