The rising sales of the import brands in Korea can be explained with this high product satisfaction rate. (image: Kobiz Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – As the market share of imported cars in the Korean automobile industry approaches to 15 percent, consumer satisfaction on the imported wheels are much higher than that of Korean-made ones. The only weakness of the imported cars was after sale services.
Marketing Insight, automobile specialized research firm, released its study results on the Korean automobile market interviewing 101,821 car owners in Korea recently.
The evaluation of customer satisfaction rate by the research firm was divided into three categories, sales service satisfaction (satisfaction rate on the customer relations management during and after the car purchasing), product satisfaction (assessment of function, performance and design of the purchased cars) and warranty service satisfaction (degree of satisfaction on vehicle check-up and maintenance).
On 1,000 point scale, the sales service satisfaction of imported cars marked 766 points slightly higher than that for domestic ones. In the product satisfaction category, foreign cars overwhelmed Korean cars with 646 points. Domestic cars only earned 576 points and the gap widened almost twice over the last year’s survey (by 38 points).
An official at the market research firm said, “Among other indexes, the product satisfaction is closely related to the real car purchasing. The widened gap indicates that how much Korean cars are behind the import cars in terms of product competitiveness. The rising sales of the import brands in Korea can be explained with this high product satisfaction rate.”
However, in the warranty service satisfaction category, Korean cars (792 points) outpaced foreign ones (773 points). The Korean cars turned the table in 2012 and extended their lead annually. Especially, the average points of European cars were less than the lowest Korean model in the sector.
Marketing Inside commented that “The after sale service is the major factor making Korean customers hesitate purchasing foreign cars. If there is a brake for the high-speed driving of the imported cars, warranty service will be the largest obstacle.”
By John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
