Customer Satisfaction - Honda 2nd

Ford, Holden fail satisfaction survey
STEVE COLQUHOUN
August 3, 2010 - 3:43PM

Ford and Holden both score a minus ranking for customer satisfaction according to survey.

Local car makers score negative results in new owner satisfaction survey that reveals Subaru has the most loyal following.

Subaru owners are the most loyal of the country’s top car brands, according to a new survey.

Brisbane-based consulting firm Engaged Marketing surveyed 1720 car owners to rate their ownership experiences.

Subaru was the clear winner with a customer experience score of 35 per cent, indicating owners were almost twice as likely to recommend it to friends and colleagues than second-placed Honda (19 per cent) or Toyota (13 per cent).

Holden and Ford were among three of the nine top-selling car companies in Australia included in the survey to score a minus ranking (Holden -3 per cent, Ford -13 per cent), indicating that owners made more negative than positive comments about their experiences with the brands. Only Mitsubishi fared worse – at 18 per cent.

Engaged Marketing chief executive Chris Roberts said the scores showed that some companies had huge potential to grow simply by focusing on improving their customers’ experiences.

“There has never been a more critical time to go back to basics and focus on the customer. The continued strong utilisation of social media injects an additional element of urgency because everyone knows word of mouth is the most effective marketing channel available to customers,” he said.

The report said recommendations from family or friends remained the greatest influence on car purchasing decisions, with 45 per cent of consumers saying word of mouth from a trusted source was more persuasive than other factors such as price or marketing.

It also said that for every negative comment heard by a consumer about a car or a brand, it took another five positive referrals to reverse that perception.

Car customers’ brand rankings*:

1. Subaru 35%
2. Honda 19%
3. Toyota 13%
4. Mazda 12%
5. Hyundai 3%
6. Nissan 1%
7. Holden -3%
8. Ford -13%
9. Mitsubishi -18%

*Source: 2010 Engaged Marketing Benchmarking Survey

Good result for Honda!

That said Subaru is quite far ahead. To be honest I'm not too surprised about Holden and Ford but I am a bit surprised about Mitsubishi.

Good find Peter.

I was always Honda and will stay HONDA!! yey.

mitsubishi is rock bottom dang..

imsuprised that there arent any euro brands in that list ie. volkswagen - as theey are becoming very popular, peugeot too

Hyundai over Nissan thats GOLD!

Im surprised that Toyota isnt over Honda, as they make fleet vehicles and Honda does not

Im keen to see how the coming years revolve as it's still cheaper for me to keep a corolla running than a civic, something I wish the parts guru's in Thailand should be working to solve

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Originally Posted by hitoriko

mitsubishi is rock bottom dang..

imsuprised that there arent any euro brands in that list ie. volkswagen - as theey are becoming very popular, peugeot too

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Arn't they like euro type cars or something? From the list that the OP gave only Australian brands came up so I think the surveyers did only Australian spec'd cars.

It does look pretty accurate too because I've experainced Nissan and Mitsu dealers, 65% of the Nissan Patrols have faulty engines and the rebuild cost is over $15,000.00 and Nissan won't replace it.

Mitsu has more faulty body work problems and common things like body starts to crack.

Both dealers are pathetic from my experaince.

Nissan stands by a lifespan of 100,000kms that's it

they actually told my mate at his engine replacement warranty claim for his z car that they're only good for 100,000kms what do you expect

we told them, a fk load arsehole as its roughly an 80k car, it's meant to not fail before 100,000ks

the power seats stopped working - warranty claim
timing belt fell off on the freeway thanks to them not installing it properly and a pulley falling off - warranty claim, missed plane to airport
then they had to rebuild most of the engine under warranty as it developed a buzzing sound at a certain rpm costing them 20k all up in parts and labour, there were two in there getting new motors from overseas in one workshop

and those navaras, dont go near them hey as everything will fail (oil circulation as per normal like patrols lol), wish they had lemon laws in oz, one day lol

one guy parks his in mt gravatt outside of Nissan with stickers all over it saying what Nissan wont replace and how often things break

Engaged Marketing are supporters of the Net Promoter score, which is a terrible indicator of customer satisfaction.

The likelihood to recommend questions is flawed, because people dont buy cars just because you recommended it, they choose cars based on brand, as proven by the significantly proportion of sales made by Holden and Ford. I.e. despite a Honda fanboy recommending a Honda to a friend, it is unlikely to cause a change purchase decision.

Also, likelihood to recommend is not a measure of customer satisfaction, it appears they have excluded companys with small sample size in the study, such as BMW and Audi owners. Just because you're more likely to recommend, does not mean that you're satisfied than owners of other brands, you're just more likely to own a vehicle that has larger appeal to the people around you. E.g.If you're a tradie and owned a Holden V8 ute, you're not going to be recommending it to your friends that live in the surburbs with 2.5 children. Suburus as a brand are catered to a specific market, passenger vehicles at all points in the round life cycle, which is the main set of buyers, which are the people that you're most likely to have friends with. So there is an inherent flaw with the question used, when used as a measure of satisfaction.

i reckon this survey is crap because what, 19% of honda owners give a positive rating, so over 80% have negative ratings yet own the cars?

this is what i love about statistics, it's complete crap.

also the demographic of who is involved is probably never disclosed. i always prove stats wrong because in my business i've had to nail sales people trying to get multimillion dollar contracts based on "statistics"

for example, perhaps most old people buy mitsubishi and honda, seems to be a trend i've noticed if you go outside of the performance cars, but focus on the most popular selling cars and then who buys those ones new, old people wanting something reliable. then say the survey asks "how happy are you with servicing costs" some old person, moaning about the economy, has a weak pension and then has a biased negative view because their service costs $500 and that is too expensive because they are poor, yet they paid $20k for a car with cash. this then brings the overall customer feedback low. yet they may like the car in general and the money point of view has clouded their judgement.

how come no brands ranked over 50% which should be easy if most people originally picked a brand of car that they like, say me for example, i find honda is a good brand, i would have rated them quite high. compared to an old person, i'm young, earn good money, have a good life, car's been reliable, sure pay a bit for stuff but the reliability is there, i'd give them 80% easy in feedback. my next car will easily be a new bmw or something, but this stage in life the honda has served me well.

make a real survey with real results to get any recognition.

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Originally Posted by blasdf

i reckon this survey is crap because what, 19% of honda owners give a positive rating, so over 80% have negative ratings yet own the cars?

this is what i love about statistics, it's complete crap.

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NPS is made up of promoters and detractors. The question used is likelihood to recommend on a scale of 0 to 10, 9 and 10 are promotors, 0-6 are detractors. The 19% is a result of % promoters minus % detractors. So it would be something like: out of the Honda owners that replied: 30% promoters minus 11% detractors.

I agree with you, when the survey design is crap, the resutls are crap. NPS is failure, this question used for this measurement is failure. But dont ever knock statistics as a whole, statistics is a powerful tool to model and predict, so long as the guy designing the tool does it right.

Also, in fact older people have a tendency to use the higher end of the bracket, i.e. 9s and 10s, people over the age of 60 dont have the concept of a 10 point sentiment scale. So in actual fact, if your customer base was swayed more towards the older age bracker, it actually helps you score higher.

surveyed 1720 car owners . wow whats that like 1% of all aussie car owners.

I wonder what suburu have over us........A performance road car. Shame we lost the real Type R's and NSX's for luxury and comfort

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Originally Posted by j_g

surveyed 1720 car owners . wow whats that like 1% of all aussie car owners.

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Oh well, atleast it gives us an idea where dealers are at. These surveys help us.

7120(car owners)/9(Types of makes)

So like 191 cars were tested out for only 1 make, which is a lot. Testing everycar in Australia will like take a light year :p

LOL what a joke...shame on you H&F

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Originally Posted by timofytit

I wonder what suburu have over us........A performance road car. Shame we lost the real Type R's and NSX's for luxury and comfort

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Turbo's and 4WD ...A lot of people here like to go to the snow and beach and although hondas are great on the street and roads, 4WD just has that extra edge i suppose... and well turbos..

Plus Sub and Mitsu get good publicity with Top Gear.

i reckon the reason holden and ford scored so low was mainly because theres SO MANY OF THEM more ppl can talk about them..

I see about 15 commodores and falcons from my house. and only 3 honda's about 1 subaru liberty i think. and the other majority are toyota camry's.

I think holden and ford do i have moronic features though. Power windows still optional .. AMAZING how they still give that as an option. Petrol guzzling for non Eco-Tech models. Eco-tech models head gasket issues. The only thing good about holden or ford is pricing.

They are very good value for money.

i'll put this out there, I've owned both a Subaru Liberty AWD Turbo and now a Honda Accord Euro,

by FAR, the Honda service has been a lot better than Subaru,

Collins Honda Rockdale : +10 points
Tynans Subaru Kirrawee : -infinity x 12 points.

I think Honda couldn't give two hoots about this survey. They used to be number 4 in Australia for sales volume. They are now number 8. That's what they really care about.

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Originally Posted by xxb4xx

i'll put this out there, I've owned both a Subaru Liberty AWD Turbo and now a Honda Accord Euro,

by FAR, the Honda service has been a lot better than Subaru,

Collins Honda Rockdale : +10 points
Tynans Subaru Kirrawee : -infinity x 12 points.

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Woo go subaru! (i work for them), and woo goo honda (i own one), anyway with that aside i dunno about services for honda but different areas can be better or worse for subaru such as glen waverly, and mentone are very good servicing departments, as compared to docklands which is a great setup but has shit as mechanics....not all of them but some, and then there is the advisors.....