Chinese automotive giant Geely, which took over Swedish car maker Volvo in 2010, has come out tops in three out of four JD Power customer satisfaction survey divisions in its home country.
According to the recent 2012 China Customer Service Index (CSI) Study report released by J.D. Power Asia Pacific Inc., overall customer satisfaction for after-sales service with authorised dealers in China climbed steadily over the last six years and remained stable for 2012.
Geely SA, with 34 dealers in South Africa and expanding, markets the MK, LC and LC X on local soil. Geely International will in the near future assist its new acquisition to develop a new Volvo mini car to compete against luxury car makers such as BMW with its MINI.
Geely’s popular LC (Gleagle Panda in its domestic market), Englon (not in South Africa) and Emgrand (EC 7 to be launched in SA early in 2013) made a clean sweep and are respectively rated first, second and fourth, while most of China’s other homegrown brands have slipped back.
The authoritive JD Power CSI study measures satisfaction among vehicle owners between 12 and 24 months of ownership, including visits to an authorised dealer’s service department for maintenance or repair work. The satisfaction rate is closely related to the quality of service offered by employees of the dealers.
The three Geely ranges reached scores of 865, 861 and 850 respectively while the industry average was 832 points out of a possible 1 000.
Locally Geely SA has recently opened its own Research and Development centre at its head office in Midrand, Gauteng, to assist the Chinese automaker with changes needed for local conditions before the launch of new models for the 2013 South African market.
“The continued improvement in quality, safety and attitude towards an increasingly demanding buyer at home, benefits the brand globally,” said Henri Meistre of Geely SA. “This is proof that the efforts and enormous resources being ploughed back into the brand, along with the exposure through ownership of international brands such as Volvo, London Taxi Cabs and DSI (the world’s second largest gearbox manufacturer) are paying off,” he said.
“The future for Geely certainly appears to be heading in the right direction,” concluded Meistre.
