Porsche 2011 Annual Report Download - page 80

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in
the Volkswagen group
The satisfaction of its customers has the
highest priority for the Volkswagen group. That’s why
Volkswagen's sales activities are always driven by the
goal of increasing customer satisfaction. With this
claim in mind, the Volkswagen group once again
implemented measures and introduced processes in
2011 that further increased the satisfaction of its
vehicle buyers and customers in the after-sales area,
as well as that of its dealership partners.
The individual brands of the Volkswagen
group regularly measure the satisfaction of their
customers in their respective markets. Special survey
techniques focus above all on product quality and
service. From the results they gather, the brands
derive measures to further increase customer satis-
faction.
In terms of customer satisfaction with prod-
uct quality, the Audi brand occupies a leading position
in the core European markets in comparison to both
other group brands and its competition. However, the
other brands in the group also stand out with overall
satisfaction scores just as high or higher than com-
peting brands.
The Volkswagen group's customers are loyal
to its brands because they are satisfied with its prod-
ucts and services. The extent of customer loyalty in
the Volkswagen group's brands is impressively illus-
trated in the loyalty figures: the Volkswagen passen-
ger car brand, for example, has maintained a high
level of customer loyalty in its core European market
for several years in a row. The loyalty of ŠKODA
customers has likewise kept that brand in the upper
rankings in a competitive comparison for several
years.
Professional service
The programs for continually improving ser-
vice processes at Porsche Centers led to excellent
results again in 2011. Porsche ranked best German
manufacturer in ADAC automobile club's 2011 cus-
tomer satisfaction survey in the workshop, brand and
vehicle categories. Service and maintenance pack-
ages are being introduced in selected markets to
maintain the high degree of customer satisfaction
with service work, while improving customers' per-
ception of maintenance cost. Sales of the new service
product were highly satisfactory almost immediately
upon its introduction. Preparations for the introduction
of the revised Porsche program for parts logistics in
China were completed for the most part in 2011. This
places Porsche Service in a good position to secure
and further improve customer satisfaction in the
future in the fast-growing Chinese market.
Customer satisfaction is not created by prod-
uct appeal and reliability alone; it is also determined
by the Volkswagen group's activities in the area of
service. Raising service quality worldwide is therefore
another goal of the Volkswagen group's customer
satisfaction program. As the direct interface with the
customer, the starting point in customer satisfaction
is the dealership operation, as it is with after-sales
business. Quality Assurance maintains close contact
with the dealers in order to improve customers' per-
ception of service. Deficiencies that may be revealed
in the emotional moment of vehicle handover can be
recognized early and corrected systematically.
The main task for Quality Assurance in the
area of service in 2011 was to standardize the proc-
esses between market and manufacturer. Here, the
goal was to anchor the optimizations achieved indi-
vidually to a common structure in order to offer the
best service to customers anywhere in the world.
Close integration with the dealer partners is a central
element in this. It improves the ability to meet market-
specific customer requirements in the future. Its
scope reaches from optimal market and dealer sup-
port for repairs down to customer-oriented solutions
for warranty-related issues.
GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT80