Satisfaction for Cadillac

[jfnz24]

Cadillac sits atop survey for luxury brand satisfaction

Thursday, July 05, 2007
By Don Hammonds, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Cadillac, once known as "The Standard of the World," may want to dust off that old title.

When it comes to customer service, a Business Week survey put the company third in a group of 25 "luxury or specialty" brands or companies, including those not in an automotive-related business. When it comes to cars, Cadillac outranked stalwarts such as Lexus and Porsche.

Business Week supplemented 2006 data from J.D.Power & Associates with a survey of about 3,000 Business Week readers who were asked to nominate three companies that offered the best customer service.
In the end, Cadillac was outranked by only insurance company USAA and the Four Seasons hotel chain, beating firms such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton and Southwest Airlines.
"The fact is that most people in America wouldn't believe that an American car company would place that high. But these are people whose perceptions of our quality are based on 10, 20, 30 years ago, when frankly we weren't doing that great a job," Cadillac spokesman Kevin Smith said.

Moreover, the Business Week study isn't the only feather in Cadillac's hat. In a survey done by the Luxury Institute, wealthy customers rated Cadillac, Lexus and Acura as the three luxury auto brands that delivered the best customer experience in 2007, with Cadillac topping the list.


"It's significant to see American icon Cadillac rise solidly to achieve the No. 1 rating with highly discerning wealthy owners in our impartial surveys," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. He said the brands that were rated in the survey included Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes and Volvo.

What's Cadillac doing right?

Giving dealers lots of authority to get things done, and not being hidebound and rigid when it comes to pleasing customers, for one thing.
"What Business Week found were a lot of good comments from dealers talking about how they now have what they need the most: lots of latitude to do whatever it takes to please customers no matter what," said Dave Caldwell, Cadillac communications manager. That even includes the ability to honor a warranty that has expired.
"An important part of the luxury component is the experience part of it, it's not just about the business. The reason that brands like Ritz Carlton or Nordstrom did well on the survey is because those brands pay attention not just to the tangible elements, but to the intangibles, and so does Cadillac," Mr. Caldwell said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07186/799174-97.stm

[Joevette]

great job, now it wont be long until they are number one for everything as soon as the new models start arriving

[likearock00]

Great to see GM finally getting some positive attention at Cadillac. Now they need to use this in marketing as well as they did with the Motor Trend awards.

[MrJamesMc]

Yeah I agree, Cadillac needs to mention in commercails how they beat Lexus at this sort of thing!

I will be so happy the day when Cadillac out does Lexus, if they do that is.

[GMusa]

Thats nice to hear!!

This should get on the TV!

It would be a good commercial for Cadillac!

[mcool]

Good to hear. My father-in-law has purchased 3 Caddies (and a GMC work-truck for his business) from 1 Cadillac dealer that he swears by thus far. He was looking to get an STS-V8 at another dealer near his work and had an awful experience there. Hopefully Cadillac can streamline the great experience-laden dealers with the ones that could use some work.

[rsbaker]

It was is and will always be good to be the Cadillac, "Gentlemen"!

[KAH24]

Yea Caddy does a lot or it's consumers, i had a Friend that his northstar was burning more than a quart of oil every change and they asked him if they could keep the car a week longer to do an engine change on the car. i was shocked when i heard they offered it to him, i have been a gm guy since birth and i didn't know caddy was doing this. amazing that it has taken this long to get the notoriety since that was 5 years ago, but I'm glad they are getting the praise they deserve.

[mkaresh]

Originally Posted by jfnz24

Giving dealers lots of authority to get things done, and not being hidebound and rigid when it comes to pleasing customers, for one thing.
"What Business Week found were a lot of good comments from dealers talking about how they now have what they need the most: lots of latitude to do whatever it takes to please customers no matter what," said Dave Caldwell, Cadillac communications manager. That even includes the ability to honor a warranty that has expired.

This is very good to hear. Not doing this is exactly what got GM into it's current situation.

[mikesright]

Originally Posted by KAH24

Yea Caddy does a lot or it's consumers, i had a Friend that his northstar was burning more than a quart of oil every change and they asked him if they could keep the car a week longer to do an engine change on the car. i was shocked when i heard they offered it to him, i have been a gm guy since birth and i didn't know caddy was doing this. amazing that it has taken this long to get the notoriety since that was 5 years ago, but I'm glad they are getting the praise they deserve.

Northstar's are imfamous for burning oil. Unless there's another problem with the engine I don't know why they'd do that.

[THE_SMURF]

Originally Posted by GMusa

Thats nice to hear!!

This should get on the TV!

It would be a good commercial for Cadillac!

James Earl jones

"In a recent poll, business people were asked to rate the top companies who gave the best customer service. The top 5 firms represented several types of businesses...and only ONE auto manufacturer

Cadillac...The Standard Returns"

[Driveshaft]

Originally Posted by MrJamesMc

Yeah I agree, Cadillac needs to mention in commercails how they beat Lexus at this sort of thing!

I will be so happy the day when Cadillac out does Lexus, if they do that is.

Like the Edge commercial with the 2 guys repeating each other every other line at how much quieter the Edge is than the Lexus RX350?

[ByTheLake]

Good news for sure! GM needs to take care of all of its customers, not just with Cadillac. Still, this is a significant step ... taking care of customers that you already have.

[t-rex]

One simple fact makes this "poll" suspect....... an insurance company appearing ANYWHERE on this list!

Now if GM can only get Cadillac's actual, real-world reputation up to where it ranked on this list...

[ZHDesign57]

Originally Posted by Driveshaft

Like the Edge commercial with the 2 guys repeating each other every other line at how much quieter the Edge is than the Lexus RX350?

NO.