Carried out by SGS, the survey on Automotive Dealers Satisfaction with the new Contracts, Standards and Bonus Schemes follows the introduction of the new European Union Block Exemption Regulation (BER) for the Automotive Segment on 1^st June 2013. The research found that only 2% of dealers surveyed show dissatisfaction with their new contracts. Premium dealers are the most satisfied of all. SGS added that its survey shows attitude towards service contracts mirrors that of the overall agreements.

The study, conducted during March-April among more than 1,300 automotive dealers covering 17 brands in France, Germany, Italy and the UK, also shed a very consistent light on insights and expectations on the level of bonuses and incentives. These are still assumed to be too low in relation to market needs and are expected to rise further across almost all brands.

‘With the help of the data, manufacturers can gain insights in their competitive positioning regarding the dealer satisfaction with the new contracts, standards and bonus schemes,’ said Roland Gagel, SGS global sector manager, automotive and initiator of the study. ‘While SGS will not reveal the brand-specific results to the public, each OEM will get a mind-opening picture on where they stand by looking at their own specific data.’

Concerning the requirements for future improvements, most of the dealers interviewed in the research indicated that the bonus and incentive administration needs to be further simplified. ‘The level of satisfaction in this area is only at half compared with that of warranty administration,’ concluded Mr Gagel, referring to the 2012 international SGS research on Dealer Satisfaction with Warranty and Policy Administration. 

The study results, excluding the brand-specific data, are published in a complimentary white paper on “European Dealer Satisfaction Survey: Contracts, Standards and Sales Incentives”, available at www.sgs.com/whitepapers.