Automotive Case Studies

√ Situation

 A dealer group with 20+ franchises in three states needed to: 1) evaluate how effectively its salespeople discuss  the dealer’s unique no-haggle pricing policy to prospective customers; 2) ensure compliance with the company’s performance standards and policies; and 3) meet ISO 9001 certification requirements.

 
√ Situation

A top-35 dealer group selling eight makes across three states was concerned about how its sales staff was handling customer inquiries about the effect of the Japan earthquakes on inventory and pricing. PPQ was already managing a monthly mystery shopping program at 15 of its stores that had become a valuable training tool for managers.

 
√ Situation

Porsche N.A. needed to know how its dealers’ maintenance and service recommendations (and pricing) compared to the manufacturer’s recommendations.  The client also wanted to know what  service and maintenance recommendations one of its competing manufacturers’ dealers were quoting, so it could determine how a customer might calculate the total cost of ownership for the makes/models in question.
 

√ Solution

Since 2004, PPQ has managed a comprehensive mystery shopping program to evaluate the performance of the sales associates and managers, and has delivered more than 2,500 mystery shop evaluations conducted at the client's stores in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

√ Solution

Within 2 days, PPQ designed a phone shop scenario and questionnaire that would collect the information the client needed, and had lined up evaluators to make 40 calls over the next 10 days to the client’s showrooms.

√ Solution

PPQ trained a group of our highest-quality evaluators to role play as would-be buyers researching ownership costs.  We designed a phone shop questionnaire with the client and launched the project in less than a week from inception.  We had two weeks to call 200+ Porsche dealers and 200+ nearby competitors.

√ Results

Focus on customer experience has generated customer loyalty and earned the company sterling reputation and numerous consumer advocacy and business ethics awards.  The group won an arbitration case in 2010, in large part because customers wrote hundreds of letters of support and many drove great distances to testify on our client's behalf. 

√ Results

Within two weeks of bringing this problem to PPQ, the client’s president had 40 completed phone shop reports, and a detailed report in front of him outlining what his salespeople have been telling customers, and which ones needed additional training on the company’s discussion points. 

√ Results

Three weeks, and about 450 phone calls later, we delivered a report to Porsche N.A. breaking down the results of our research.  We sent the client the data in Excel and included an executive summary of the results.