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EV-Only Brands Lag Behind Rival Brands' Customer Service: Survey
July 2022
A recent survey by Pied Piper - a retail service tracking company - suggests that electric-exclusive automakers are lagging behind rival premium brands when it comes to customers' overall experience. The Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PVI) takes into account 70 "best-practice behaviors" to get a handle on the retail service performance of automotive brands.
According to Pied Piper, 60 percent of a brand's score comes from categories related to in-person services, and 40 percent is based on internet-response categories. The company looks at factors, such as how quickly dealerships respond to requests, the attentiveness of salespeople, and the availability of financing options. However, Pied Piper shares that it uses different factors for EV-only brands since their sales methods don't typically mirror those of traditional franchised dealerships.
Some EV-only and startup automakers don't yet have a notable network of physical locations, so their in-person scores were calculated via phone conversations. This was the case with electric pickup truck maker Rivian.
At any rate, based on Pied Piper's survey results surrounding 25 premium automotive brands, EV-only brands Lucid, Polestar, Rivian, and Tesla scored an average of 27 percent below the industry average. Moreover, these brands were all ranked in the bottom quarter of Pied Piper's PSI rankings. Tesla was the most successful, though it still ranked 21 out of 25.
