J.D. Power and Associates Certifies 'Best' Car Dealers
3 September 1997
J.D. Power and Associates Certifies 'Best' Car Dealers
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Sept. 3 -- The auto industry now will
have its own gold seal of retail sales satisfaction. J.D. Power and
Associates, the "voice of the consumer" is launching its Certified Retailer
Program this month to help consumers identify remarkable new-car and truck
retailers across the country who consistently offer an outstanding sales
experience.
"The concept for our program has been in design and development for nearly
a decade. However, now with all the whirlwind changes in the automobile
retail environment, dealers more than ever need a means to differentiate
themselves in the marketplace," said J.D. Power III, founder and chairman of
J.D. Power and Associates.
Certification programs already exist to evaluate the quality of products,
but there are no credible independent programs to measure the car shopping
experience, according to the project's director Linda Hirneise, who is also a
J.D. Power and Associates partner. She said that this program is the first to
certify dealers who have reached and will maintain top levels of customer
handling during the new-vehicle buying experience.
One of the earliest certified dealers, John Bergstrom, whose Neenah,
Wisconsin, Driver's Mart store garnered above-benchmark sales satisfaction
scores from car buyers, also points out that "the program is the first to be
done by an independent third party with a high level of consumer brand
awareness to measure and monitor the car buying experience." On a recent
Louis Harris poll, J.D. Power and Associates was recognized by over half
(55 percent) of car buyers surveyed.
The high level of credibility that J.D. Power and Associates has
established as a quality information source, also was recognized by 76 percent
of auto consumers surveyed in that same Harris poll. A New Jersey retailer,
who has applied for dealer certification backed this up when he said,
"spending this amount to set myself apart from the rest (of dealers) -- that
is less than half of my gross on one vehicle -- let's do it!"
Certification consideration is open to all dealers, Hirneise emphasizes,
although she said it is expected that the best of the best will most likely be
fewer than 5 percent of all new-car and truck dealerships. After selection,
Certified Dealers will receive licensed rights to use J.D. Power and
Associates name along with special marketing kits and ads to support their top
ranked performance, and let consumers know of their outstanding sales
satisfaction standing as reported by consumers themselves.
J.D. Power and Associates is an international firm best known for its
marketing information services in key business sectors including market
research, forecasting, and customer satisfaction. The firm's quality and
satisfaction measurements are based on actual customer responses from more
than a million consumers annually. With its headquarters in Agoura Hills,
California, the firm also has U.S. offices in Torrance, California; Michigan;
and Connecticut. Its international locations include Japan, Korea, England,
Canada and Brazil.
J.D. Power and Associates can be accessed through the World Wide Web at
http://www.jdpower.com. Email: info@power.com.
No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in
this release or J.D. Power and Associates survey results without the express
prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates.
SOURCE J.D. Power and Associates