Last year, the American Customer Satisfaction Index shared an interesting finding: The difference between luxury and mass-market automobiles is disappearing.
ACSI has surveyed U.S. consumers across a variety of industries for decades. Now, it appears, in the eyes of consumers, most cars are safe. Reliable. Drivable.
And higher-end features–the latest technology–might just debut in the mass-market vehicles instead of their luxury cousins.
What is a mass-market vehicle, anyway? I have a colleague who looks at the new F-150s and Explorers with the comment, “Ford is a luxury brand. Prove me wrong.” The price tags and the features make it hard to do so.
Two thoughts:
- It’s anybody’s game and always has been. One firm’s next innovation could make its product exclusive again. For a while.
- Quality is the price of entry to the American car market. They are all good quality vehicles. Which means we are back to talking about customer experience as the differentiator.
If I can get a certain car brand anywhere, why should I get it from you?
If I can go through the purchase experience online, what do you bring to the table that’s better than a website or app? (This applies to service, too. Kiosks automating the service advising experience have in some cases outsold humans!)
If you assume that we might be hitting the bust part of a cycle soon, there is no better time to re-invest in your customer experience.
When consumers can be choosier, make them want to choose you.