Melbourne, Dec 8 (ANI): New car buyers are being out off by rude, pushy and unethical sales staff, a new study has revealed.
A survey of car dealers has uncovered a raft of customer complaints such as vehicles taking up to four months to be delivered, problems with accessories, and customers being pressured into accepting another vehicle because the wrong one was ordered, News.com.au reported.
The RACQ survey revealed that just over one in four customers (27 percent) indicated that they needed to return their car for follow-up fitment of dealer added accessories, warranty related faults or to have a concern checked.
However, the survey also disclosed that 85 percent of first-time customers to a dealership said they would buy again from the same dealer while 95 percent of repeat customers said they would return.
Motor Trades Association of Australia spokesman Colin Duckworth said that pushy car sales people were 'dinosaurs on the way out'.
"The average dealer principal these days goes out of their way to keep customers," he said.
"They really don't make a lot of money out of selling a car - bugger all. Their main profit centres are finance and insurance, and the ongoing service of the vehicle."
"I don't deny that there are the odd ones that are pushy and try to upsell customers but I wonder how much of that comes from the suppliers who instruct them to push customers into higher-spec vehicles.
RACQ spokesman Steve Spalding asserted that respondents' comments about car dealership staff included that they were rude, far too pushy and too busy, lacked interest once the contract was signed and did not care whether 'I bought there or not'.
Others said the manager was 'quite unethical' and the purchasing process was 'generally unpleasant'.
Mr Spalding said the survey showed that dealers had improved their customer satisfaction ratings, but still had a lot of work to do.
"Overall, dealers generally met buyer's expectations in how well they performed although they need to improve their performance in responding to customer's enquiries and reduce their tendency to pressure the customer when dealing with them," he said.
"Dealers could also work to lift their performance in how they communicate with their customers and follow up by ensuring they do as promised.
"If dealers lose the confidence of a customer shortly after purchase they are potentially missing out on that customer's business for ongoing servicing work, which can amount to several hundred dollars a year. Worse still, that customer will tell others about their bad experience," he added. (ANI)
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