The new business rules - great customer outcomes as a differentiator matters

As the customer service experience enjoyed by its customers achieves national market-leading recognition, Managing Director, Karl Werner, calls for the dealer community to explore better ways of working to enhance customers ownership/usership journeys for the long-term benefit of all.

MotoNovo Finance has scored an impressive 86.4% approval rating in the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), a figure well ahead of the 78.8% - Banks & Building Societies Average.

It is a performance that should matter to all dealers with recent research reporting that:

• 74% of businesses see a direct link between customer service and business performance, with 
• 57% estimating that customer service has a positive impact on business growth
• 48% of UK consumers say that their customer service expectations have increased over the past year

Maria Parker, Head of Customer Service at MotoNovo, reflects;

“I’m delighted that our obsessive approach to customer care has seen us achieve market-leading recognition by the Institute of Customer Service, the UK’s leading authority on customer service. To shine against the backdrop of the pandemic with the team very largely working from home is a source of huge pride. It speaks volumes for the culture we have created and the broad choice of personal and digital service options we provide to make working with us easy.”

Reflecting upon the success delivered by Maria and her team, MD, Karl Werner, is clear that the accomplishment is not just good for MotoNovo, noting;

“Delivering an outstanding customer experience pre, during and post-purchase is set to be the new battleground for car sales and the increasingly critical matter of lifetime value at a time of accelerating change for motor retailers. While price is an important decision-making factor for consumers, a purely transactional relationship is a risk and underserves the relationship that people are seeking with the ICS noting that the number of customers who prefer to pay more for excellent service has grown.”

The ‘gain’ available from providing customers with an outstanding, long-term ownership journey can also help support dealers’ responsibilities under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) planned Consumer Duty. It is one where Karl is clear that better ways of working between dealers and lenders can benefit everyone, concluding;

“Customer experience, reputation and trust built over the long-term are currencies which can be leveraged to enhance retention and lifetime value. Finance is a continuous point of customer contact and, therefore, the experience. Selecting finance partners by assessing customer experience, alongside price and products, is an opportunity for all of us to realise better ways of working. 

The traditional turf war over customer ownership must end, replaced by long-term collaboration centred upon the role of service as a differentiator,  customer delighter and lifetime value opportunity, and as the independent evidence provided by the ICS’s demonstrates, MotoNovo is very good at it.”

Press release issued by MotoNovo Finance, February 2022