This is a good start for GM but when I worked for the company internal data showed it took ten years for a customer to even begin looking at another GM vehicle after a bad ownership experience. That's a long time between sales. Right now I'd look at other domestic brands before GM. They have a terrible service record and have not taken care of its customers for a long time.

In my book "Life inside the factory" I write about some of the more recent quality troubles that still plague the company.

May 17, 2013 at 1:00 am

GM works to wow customers; exec says repeat business target in sight

• By Melissa Burden
• The Detroit News
• 0 Comments

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In 2011, General Motors Co. North America President Mark Reuss announced a bold goal: He wanted the automaker to have the best customer service in the automobile industry.

Internally, the company has narrowed its focus to meet that goal. More resources — money and people — in the past few years have been devoted to wow customers, working with them to resolve conflicts and improve vehicle quality and service.

And last year, for the first time, part of the company's 27,000 U.S. salaried workers' bonuses were based on meeting a customer retention target — one it failed to meet, Reuss said in a recent interview. A percentage of GM salaried workers' variable pay is based on the company meeting customer retention thresholds for sales and service, he said.

"In all likelihood we will make it this year," Reuss said. "But last year we did not. So that's why it's there. It's not an easy hurdle that we set to meet."

GM's customer retention, or loyalty rates, slipped to around 35 percent before and after the company's 2009 bankruptcy, because the company had made "crappy cars," Reuss said.

Reuss said retention — the percentage of GM customers who come back to buy another GM product — has gone from "pretty dismal" to 51.4 percent in the first quarter; the figure is an internal metric but is based on J.D. Power & Associates' data.

"We've got a long way to go, but there's some big improvements happening," he said.

GM's rate of customer retention is close to average of its main competitors, the automaker said.

In September 2012, GM's U.S. vice president of customer experience, Alicia Boler-Davis, said Toyota Motor Corp. had the top retention in the industry at 58 percent. She said the U.S. industry average then was 52 percent or 53 percent.

Improving customer loyalty means big money.

Last year, GM's global product development chief, Mary Barra, said that gaining one percentage point of customer retention equals about 25,000 new vehicle sales and $700 million in revenue a year.

The automaker's customer retention improvement comes from better-quality vehicles, improved dealerships and better service, Reuss said.

"It's sort of one customer at a time," he said. "I don't think anyone underestimates that here."

Reuss even established a new award, called the Mark of Customer Excellence, to help motivate and empower the company's U.S. work force.

"It's like a Stanley Cup trophy," Reuss said, adding that senior leaders choose the winner from nominations.

"Whoever wins it, gets to stand on stage and be recognized and they take the big trophy to their workplace for a quarter until the next person (wins)."

Going the extra mile

The first recipient, given the metal and granite trophy earlier this month during an internal earnings broadcast for employees, was Fred Draska.

Draska, a senior project development engineer and 25-year GM employee, learned of a customer's vehicle problem and took the initiative to drive from his home in White Lake Township to Randy Wise Chevrolet near Flint to fix the customer's Chevrolet Malibu. He works at GM's Milford Proving Ground.

"It doesn't sound like a lot, (he) doesn't get paid to do that, but that's the point," Reuss said. "It goes a huge way and that kind of behavior is what we're trying to model. That's how we picked it."

Draska said a quality director at GM's Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan., included him on an email regarding the unhappy customer.

Draska met with the dealership service adviser and they discovered the vehicle issue was in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

The dealership's service manager declined to comment.

"It was just a (small) issue and they were able to replace the part, and everything went back to the way it should be and the customer was extremely happy with the car," Draska said.

Draska said he was happy to help the customer and was surprised to win an award."It's an honor and there's a lot of people at General Motors who do great things every day."

The automaker also is focused on helping its dealers with service retention.

Last November, GM's Cadillac brand was named third among 11 luxury brands for satisfaction with the new vehicle shopping experience, behind Lexus and Infiniti, according to J.D. Power & Associates.

Strong showings in rankings

Among the 20 mass market brands, Buick was second, GMC third and Chevrolet fifth.

In J.D. Power's Customer Service Index, which measures customer satisfaction with dealer services and was released in March, Cadillac placed second among 11 luxury brands, trailing only Lexus. Of mass market brands, GMC was No. 1, followed by Buick, third and Chevrolet was fourth.

"We do know from our research that there is an extremely high correlation between sales and service satisfaction and retention," said Mike Battaglia, director of automotive retail for J.D. Power & Associates.

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From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130517/AUTO0103/305170323#ixzz2TXeqM8qD