Car dealerships in China are losing customers' loyalty for after-sales services, with many drivers inclined to choose other providers, a study released on Thursday showed.
Only 22 percent of 18,577 car owners surveyed between October 2015 and May 2016 said they "definitely will" return to dealerships for post-warranty maintenance and repairs, 12 percentage points down from 2015, showed the study from US-based market research company J.D. Power and Associates.
The average frequency of service visits to dealerships in the past 12 months declined to 2.9 times in 2016, down from 3.4 times in 2015, according to the study.
The decline took place mainly because other providers offer lower costs and more -convenient times, factors that are -important to 80 percent of car owners, Mei Songlin, vice president and managing director of China operations at J.D. Power, said at an event to release the study on Thursday in Beijing.
Service costs at dealerships have remained fairly stable, with the average cost so far in 2016 being 660 yuan ($99.12), compared with 642 yuan in the previous year, according to the study.
There is a gap between customers' perceptions of reasonable prices and the actual price paid, Hu Xiaolong, general manager of auto services and loyalty at J.D. Power China, said at the event.
Hu said dealerships must make sure their charges are transparent and advise customers on the services they need to gain trust and improve satisfaction among car owners.
The decline in customer loyalty for dealerships came even though the car market in China continued to grow in the first half.
During the period, sales of passenger cars grew 9.23 -percent year-on-year to over 11.04 million units, 4.43 percentage points higher than the pace in the same period of 2015, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on July 11.
