Ford Truck Owners Aren’t Happy With Dealer Service: Study
J.D. Power’s latest CSI Study found that Ford truck owners aren’t pleased with the customer service dealers are giving them.
Following the onset of the pandemic, essentially every industry faced a new, stark reality, and that was especially true of the automotive world. A few weeks of production shutdowns quickly sent the industry into a downward spiral, with inventory levels hovering near record lows, a broken supply chain making it difficult to meet demand, and even resulting labor shortages that persist to this day. Many of these problems trickled down to dealers, who not only have had little inventory to sell, but also, have had a hard time procuring parts to complete repairs and even recalls. Thus, it isn’t terribly surprising to learn that Ford truck owners, specifically, aren’t exactly satisfied with the state of customer service at Blue Oval dealerships right now.
This revelation comes to us from the recently-released J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, which aims to measure customer satisfaction with service completed at franchised dealers or aftermarket service facilities pertaining specifically to the owners and lessees of one- to three-year-old vehicles. J.D. Power looks at five categories, specifically, to come up with these rankings – service quality, service advisor, vehicle pick-up, service facility, and service initiation. This year’s CSI Study was derived from the responses of 64,781 owners.
In that regard, Ford truck owners, specifically, rated Blue Oval dealers below the mass market segment average of 843 with a score of 827 out of 1,000 possible points. Making matters worse, Ford dealers ranked only above one other brand – Ram – while the rest of its rivals, including Nissan, Chevrolet, Toyota, and GMC – all ranked higher than both Ford and the industry average. Even as a whole, Ford dealers fared poorly in the latest version of the CSI Study, finishing with a score of 835 points, which was good enough for 14th place among 19 brands, as well as below the segment average of 848.
As for what’s driving this downward trend, J.D. Power found several key points that are making for one frustrating customer service experience at auto dealerships right now, in general. For starters, wait times are significantly higher than pre-pandemic times, as the owners of mass market vehicles waited 5.2 days on average for an appointment this time around, up from 4.8 days in 2023. Those customers are also spending more time waiting for service to be completed, and the cost of that service has risen by 30 percent year-over-year, too. Many of these problems can be blamed on parts and labor shortages that continue to perpetuate, it seems.
“It’s encouraging to see an improvement in service satisfaction but, unfortunately, the capacity and wait time issues have gotten progressively worse since the pandemic and show no immediate signs of easing up,” said Chris Sutton, vice president of automotive retail at J.D. Power. “Excluding Tesla owners, the service experience for BEV owners is underwhelming. As sales of BEVs continue to grow and the industry moves out of the early-adopter phase, the typical owner will not be as willing to tolerate a less-than-stellar service and ownership experience. On the manufacturer side, a higher rate of BEV recalls is also contributing to an inconsistent experience. This is an area that automakers and dealers need to address now to help make the transition to electrification as pain-free as possible for owners in the future.”
Photos: Ford, J.D. Power
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