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Pied Piper, a sales consultancy company out of Monterey, California, released results from a survey that showed Lexus and Mercedes treated car shoppers the best while visiting showrooms, whether they bought a car or not. They were followed by Jaguar, Saturn, and Land Rover.

Fourteen brands were ranked below the industry average. This included all three Ford brands: Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. As well as all three Chrysler brands: Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge. This is contrasted to three of the four brands that GM is said to be keeping as part of their “new” company, which all scored above the industry average: Cadillac, Chevy, and GMC.

Perhaps this could mean that GM is making a mistake by selling off Saturn instead of Buick because of the higher  number of customer satisfaction at the dealerships. Or maybe they should look into doing what the sales staff at Saturn is doing and incorporate it in all of their dealerships; not just Buick. Perhaps Saturn’s no haggle pricing policy is what makes the company rank so high on the list. However, Toyota’s Scion brand ranked below average and has a similar pricing policy, but because the brand is new many sales associates don’t assist customers enough with those brands.

Three of the four brands that GM is getting rid of fell below average: Pontiac, Saab, and Hummer.

Study author and president of Pied Piper, Fran O’Hagan said the survey was important because up to 90% of shoppers leave without buying, and in a declining market, satisfaction with the dealership is very important.

The Pied Piper study is based on the results from 3,531 researchers that are paid to pose as car shoppers and rate their experiences. They must rate dealerships on the qualities that real car shoppers have said are important to them. Pied Piper has major automaker clients: Honda and Volkswagen.

Jeremy

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