Professional Care to boost Holden

HOLDEN has launched its new after-sales and service program, Professional Care, in an effort to boost customer satisfaction following poor results in JD Power’s Australia Customer Service Index (CSI) study.

The announcement of the Professional Care program comes after Holden’s new managing director Gerry Dorizas outlined his bold aim in April to take back the number-one spot in the sales charts from Toyota by 2020.

During his address Mr Dorizas pointed to Holden’s poor performance in the CSI study and stressed the need to improve customer service by re-invigorating the dealer networkThe independent CSI study, which ranks customer satisfaction of after-sales service in the automotive industry, saw Holden fall to second last in the annual results published in December, 2013.

The launch of Holden Professional Care marks a rebranding of the company’s after-sales and service business under the new banner and Holden says it is spearheading the new Professional Care program with its capped-price servicing scheme.

Prices are fixed for the initial four services in the first three years or 60,000km and the company will also extend its five-year warranty/three-year free servicing offer until the end of August.

While the capped-price servicing scheme is not new, the rebranding of the after sales business as Holden Professional Care and the extension of the free servicing offer is the first tangible evidence that Dorizas has set the company on the road to customer service recovery.

“We are striving every day to become the most customer-focused and customer-centric brand in the country,” Mr Dorizas said. “Everything we do must be driven by our customers. Professional Care does this by giving our customers outstanding value and peace of mind.

“Only Holden technicians have access to our rigorous training programs and can provide superior servicing to customers. Holden technicians are also backed by our Technical Assistance Centre which gives our customers an added level of expert assistance.

“We’ll be there for our customers well beyond the initial purchase and our various programs like Capped Price Servicing provide exceptional value and transparency. We want customers to walk into a dealership knowing exactly what they’re paying for and to have total trust that their Holden is being looked after by the absolute best and using only genuine parts,” Mr Dorizas said.

While Holden certainly has much ground to make up before being in range to knock Toyota from the top spot, the latest sales results released this week show that the local car-maker’s sales are improving.

Year-to-date to the end of July, Holden has sold 65,763 vehicles, which is a 6.6 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, with the company sitting in second place behind Toyota, which has seen a 4.8 per cent dip in sales in that period with 117,591 units shifted.