2017 AMCI INSIDE TRUSTED AUTOMOTIVE BRAND STUDYSM REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

Car owners are so emotional 2

2 Executive Summary

Our hypothesis: Maybe we’ve been measuring the wrong things 4Trust is the right thing 5There is a lot of money being left on the table 6Trust is universal 7The good news: There’s something we can do about it 8

3 Detailed Findings

Let’s take a deeper look 10The drivers of trust 10Degrees of trust: Intensity 11Why rankings don’t tell you 12Even big brands need to act like a boutique 13Trust is universal across industries 14Dealer vs. OEM performance 15Gender differences 16Age differences 17

4 The Potential of Trust

The game has changed 19Now is the time: building trust from the inside out 19

5 Brand-Specific Findings

Trust opportunities for your brand 21

6 Methodology

Built on a trusted foundation 23

1

INTRODUCTION

2

In fact, recent research shows that, when companies deliver meaningful emotional experiences and demonstrate other, important consumer-intuitive brand behaviors (such as conveying empathy, sharing customers’ values and being authentic), they outperform their industry peers.

What’s really fascinating is how long it has taken most of the automotive industry to embrace this new business reality. Especially since now, more than ever, our cars are practically extensions of ourselves. The monumental changes happening in the automotive industry, spurred on by technology leaps like the “internet of things,” mobility and autonomous driving, are further deepening the psychological, physical and emotional connections between cars and their owners. Increasingly, we are putting our faith in our vehicles to think and respond for us. We connect with them and even connect to the world through their marvelous features. People truly love their cars.

CAR OWNERS ARE SO EMOTIONALMaybe that’s not such a bad thing, though. Strong brands like Starbucks, Apple and Harley-Davidson have known this for years. These companies know that, when customers have intense feelings about a brand, they pay more, come back, bring their friends and sometimes even tattoo a logo on their bodies.

1 IN

TRO

DU

CTIO

N

Given all of this, AMCI Inside had several questions:

• Why does the process of buying a car continue to have a reputation for being such a painful, disconnecting, soul-robbing experience?

• Why is our industry SO dependent on huge incentives to drive sales?

• Why is loyalty still at such relatively low levels?

Through our in-dealership experience and groundbreaking research, the answers became painfully clear.

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4

2 E

XE

CU

TIV

E S

UM

MA

RY

Despite the 30-year, relentless focus on customer satisfaction and the dramatic and overall improvements in automotive product quality, the industry has yet to crack the code on what matters most—customer loyalty and advocacy.

Based on years of working with dealers and OEMs to improve the customer experience, AMCI Inside knows that an automotive purchase, like many consumer behaviors, is largely an emotional decision. We began to suspect that the self-referential, closed-loop focus on customer satisfaction rankings and the minutiae of quality scores may have been the wrong things to measure all along. We believed that at best, they are necessary, but not sufficient.

Think about it: despite the 30-year, relentless focus on customer satisfaction and the dramatic and overall improvements in automotive product quality, the industry has yet to crack the code on what matters most—customer loyalty and advocacy. The key to inspiring customers to stick with an automotive brand for their next purchase and to recommend it to others remains a mystery.

AMCI Inside embarked on a national research study with a hypothesis that Trust was actually a fundamental driver of consumer car-buying behavior. To be specific, we wanted to test our theory that Trust (or lack thereof) has a direct, predictive impact on customers’ decisions around repeat automotive purchases and their willingness to advocate for a brand, or even to actively sabotage that brand.

The data was overwhelming. We were right.

OUR HYPOTHESIS: MAYBE WE’VE BEEN MEASURING THE WRONG THINGSFor more than 30 years, almost all of the consumer research done for the automotive industry has focused on rational measures like specific dimensions of quality satisfaction, and things gone wrong.

5

TRUST IS THE RIGHT THING

AMCI Inside’s Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report proved that, in the automotive business, similar to other consumer brands, there is one very highly reliable predictor of loyalty and advocacy—Trust.

The objective of our study was to help the industry find a more meaningful way to measure consumers’ feelings about automotive brands. AMCI Inside’s study built on C Space’s landmark “CQ” research with US and UK consumers. The C Space study used a company’s Customer Quotient (CQ)—how well customers feel a brand “gets them” or not—to predict advocacy, repeat purchase, revenue growth and return on assets. The 2017 AMCI Inside Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report leveraged this fundamental work and led to the creation of the AMCI Inside Trust IndexSM, which measures consumer trust of the brand and the brand’s dealers, as well as how much the consumer feels trusted in return. This more intuitive measure will allow the industry to focus on what is truly important to customers, and the true drivers of performance and growth—loyalty and advocacy.

The AMCI Inside Trust IndexSM has identified 10 “Trust Drivers” that, as a group, predict with more than 90% accuracy how much consumers trust a brand—and how trusted by a brand consumers feel. To create further clarity, survey respondents were asked to rate the brand as both a manufacturer and a dealer. This study takes you inside the heart and mind of the customer to reveal those all-important consumer emotions when it comes to car brands and uncovering nuances in feelings consumers may have about a manufacturer compared to their relationship with a dealer.

2 E

XE

CU

TIV

E S

UM

MA

RY

Trust is the glue that holds the service-profit chain together… customer, investor and employee relationships are all critically dependent upon trust to realize their potential.

– DR. LEN SCHLESINGER,

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL,

CO-CREATOR OF

THE SERVICE-PROFIT CHAIN

6

2 E

XE

CU

TIV

E S

UM

MA

RY

THERE IS A LOT OF MONEY BEING LEFT ON THE TABLE

The direct relationship between Trust and consumer behavior is startling:

• Our Trust IndexSM predicts how loyal your customers will be.

• Our Trust IndexSM predicts what percentage of your customers will be advocates for your brand.

We also discovered that there is enormous room for improvement. On a Trust IndexSM scale of 0–100, no brand scored more than 50.

What does this mean? It means that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue being missed each year. That’s not for the industry as a whole, but for nearly every automotive brand. Savvy brands that move quickly can improve their financial performance by making trust more central to their business.

Because we can calculate with high confidence how improving trust results in improving repeat and referral business, we can estimate how much this means in both increased revenue and reduced reliance on incentives.

For example, a typical mid-sized brand could expect as much as $100 million in increased revenue on improved customer retention on returning leases alone with just one point of improvement on the AMCI Inside Trust IndexSM.

A typical mid-sized brand could expect as much as $100 million in increased revenue with a one point improvement on our AMCI Inside Trust IndexSM.

7

TRUST IS UNIVERSAL

We have been operating in a time of great disruption and high-velocity change.

The monumental changes happening in the automotive industry driven by technology like the “internet of things,” mobility and autonomous driving are impacting the psychological, physical and emotional connections between cars and their owners.

We know, based on decades of working with dealers and OEMs to improve the customer experience, that automotive purchases are largely emotional decisions. It wasn’t a surprise that relying on traditional rational measures of satisfaction and quality was no longer sufficient in the automotive industry.

What’s really fascinating is how long it has taken for the automotive industry to embrace this new global reality. Strong brands like Starbucks, Apple and Harley-Davidson have focused on trust and emotions for years—with outstanding loyalty and advocacy results.

Focusing on trust will ensure that you have the lens and data to see your business in a way that will remain relevant regardless of what the future holds.

2 E

XE

CU

TIV

E S

UM

MA

RY

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is, it is what consumers tell each other it is.

– SCOTT COOK

8

THE GOOD NEWS: THERE’S SOMETHING WE CAN DO ABOUT ITIt begins by examining the three relationship dynamics that drive trust:

• OEM/Dealer to Customer

• OEM to Dealer

• Dealership Leadership to Staff

We look at it like this: When consumers trust your brand, you get loyalty and advocacy. When employees trust each other, collaboration and productivity improve. When your people trust management, great strategy becomes reality.

Over our long experience working with automotive OEMs and dealers around the world, five key areas have emerged that directly increase trust and trustworthiness in automotive retail:

1. Inspired Leadership: Inspired leaders have the vision and the skills to earn the trust of their teams.

2. Committed Teams: Motivated and engaged teams understand your goals and can be trusted to deliver results.

3. Build Competency: Providing a high-quality experience is the foundation for building trust.

4. Authentic Experiences: Customer experience has to genuinely reflect your brand values in a way that is honest and believable.

5. Consistency Over Time: Time is the true test. You must deliver consistently at every touchpoint over a long period of time.

Understanding not just how to build trust, but also how to evoke intense feelings of trust, is a core competency that will help automotive brands and their dealers achieve loyalty, advocacy and bottom-line financial results.

AMCI Inside’s understanding and experience makes us better able to solve these challenges, and our Trust IndexSM is a ready tool to know when it’s working.

2 E

XE

CU

TIV

E S

UM

MA

RY

3

DETAILED FINDINGS

10

THE DRIVERS OF TRUST

The Trust Drivers comprise an average of the 10 brand behaviors that were most predictive of trust as an outcome:

• Commitment to quality

• Authenticity

• I don’t feel ripped off

• I feel respected

• I feel proud

• Good use of my time

• Genuine dialogue

• “Gets” me

• Shares my values

• Better “intuition” than competitors

LET’S TAKE A DEEPER LOOKOur survey began with automotive brand owners rating both manufacturers and dealers on a range of brand behaviors. From these ratings, we created two measures to capture trust—both directly and indirectly—and to measure both polarity and intensity.

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

BRAND C

36% 50% 15%

DISAGREEOR NEUTRAL

STRONGLY AGREE

AGREE

BRAND B

26% 57% 17%

DISAGREEOR NEUTRAL

STRONGLY AGREE

AGREE

BRAND A

47% 31% 23%

DISAGREEOR NEUTRAL

STRONGLY AGREE

AGREE

BRAND D

57% 40% 3%

DISAGREEOR NEUTRAL

STRONGLY AGREE

AGREE

11

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

DEGREES OF TRUST: INTENSITY

Intensity measures the proportion of owners giving the brand the highest rating when asked about the statements “I trust this company” and “I trust this dealer.”

To capture the strength of consumers’ feelings (i.e., how intensely they trust) they were asked how strongly they endorsed the statement

“I trust this brand.” “Intensity” of Trust was then calculated as simply the percentage of top trust ratings for a given brand.

Though we combined Trust Drivers and Intensity in creating our Trust IndexSM, some interesting differences emerge when you examine these metrics separately.

Brand A’s Trust Driver score place it in the middle of the pack—looking purely at the drivers of trust—for non-luxury brands, has one of the higher Intensity scores. This brings it up to top of the pack.

By contrast, Brand B is middling among non-luxury brands for Trust Drivers, but has a lower Intensity score, which brings its overall Trust IndexSM score down relative to the segment.

Brand C is in the middle of the pack for luxury brands in this study, yet it has the lowest Intensity score for that category.

Within specialty brands, Brand D was already a category leader, but stands out for having not only a high Intensity score, but almost no owners who have low trust in the company.

12

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

SPECIALTY LUXURY NON-LUXURY

Minimum 39.25 28.30 18.20

Maximum 48.33 49.79 35.82

Median 43.71 35.72 24.06

Average 43.63 36.44 24.12

TRUST INDEXSM RANGES AND MEDIAN SPLITS

On a Trust IndexSM scale of 0–100, no brand—not one—scored more than 50.

WHAT RANKINGS DON’T TELL YOU

While the results of the 2017 AMCI Inside Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report research were being compiled, plans to announce a Ranking of the Most to Least Trusted Automotive Brands were taking shape. We predicted that automotive OEMs would be intent on finding out why they were ranked third instead of second, or who landed the top slot and how they got there.

When the results came in, what was most surprising was that the idea of sensational rankings offered little value. Why? Because on the 100-point scale, the differences in Trust Scores between the brands wasn’t what was most interesting or important. It turns out that the entire industry has enormous room for improvement. Here’s the most startling finding of all.

13

We believe the differences between automotive segments can partly be attributed to the idea that Trust is based in part on feeling like part of a special group and receiving personalized treatment. That is significantly easier to do in lower-volume, more specialized stores and is typically lost as dealerships get bigger and more diverse in their offerings.

Specialty or niche brands can also appeal to a particular sense of identity, set of values or lifestyle—driving a deeper, more intense, more emotional connection. This understanding is perfectly reflected in the Trust IndexSM chart above and indicates that, even as a brand grows, it needs to continue to strive for customer intimacy and a sense of belonging. That said, there ARE some brands that have cracked this code. Lexus, for example, has the second highest per-dealership through-put in the industry, yet finds a way to do an excellent job of making customers have a personalized experience and a sense of belonging.

EVEN BIG BRANDS NEED TO ACT LIKE A BOUTIQUE

AUTOMOTIVE SEGMENT

Specialty

Luxury

Non-Luxury

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52

DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES BY SEGMENT

AMCI TRUST INDEXSM

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

As mentioned above, the distribution of brands serves only to give a sense of relative position within the industry. More importantly, it shows that the entire industry has significant room for improvement, as the top brand only scores 50 on the Trust IndexSM on a scale of 100.

14

TRUST IS UNIVERSAL, ACROSS INDUSTRIES

One of the things we expected to find when embarking on this study was that the drivers of trust might look really different from industry to industry. In addition to the thousands of car owners that we surveyed for the main focus for this study, in an exploratory vein, we collected a series of data points from non-automotive brands. It was beyond the scope of this research to do a comprehensive study on every industry; however, we did get information from 24 brands in multiple industries so we could look at trust drivers in comparison to automotive.

We applied the same modeling procedure to the non-automotive brands that we did to our much more comprehensive automotive sample and found that the trust drivers were consistent and remarkably stable. Despite the automotive industry’s self-perception that it is unique and different, this research suggests that a lot of the emotional factors that drive trust, advocacy and loyalty are, in fact, universal. They are human factors. It also suggests that “trust is trust,”—regardless of context—and this will be the subject of further AMCI Inside research in the future.

The reality is, people don’t isolate vehicle purchases in a separate compartment of their life. All purchases are part of their personal world. Especially as mobility choices continue to proliferate, it’s not just about Car A vs. Car B, but the thought that, “If I go mobility, I have more money for my vacation.” Automotive brands are competing for dollars outside the category, so they must provide an experience that competes with those outside the category.

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

The reality is, people don’t isolate vehicle purchases in a separate compartment of their life.

15

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

DEALER VS. OEM PERFORMANCE

So, while AMCI Inside can’t say that dealers are unilaterally more trustworthy than OEMs (or vice versa), we did observe some interesting brand-level gaps for both the Trust Scores and Intensity:

• Kia and Chrysler stood out for higher trust in the dealer than the manufacturer.

• Acura, Jeep and Subaru, show more trust at the manufacturer level than at the dealer.

It should be noted that some of the biggest gaps favoring the dealer were seen in some brands with lower trust overall. Think about it—this

means that a dealer has the power to overcome some of the lack of trust in its manufacturer, and building trust at this level could actually lead to advocacy for a specific dealer despite lower trust in the manufacturer.

Rank Order Trust Drivers—OEM Rank Order Trust Drivers—Dealer

COMPARING OEMS AND DEALERS ON TRUST INDEXSM—RANK ORDER

QualityAuthentic I feel proudI feel respectedI don’t feel ripped offGood use of my timeCompany “gets me”Shares my valuesGenuine dialogueBetter intuition than competitors

QualityI feel respectedAuthentic Genuine dialogueGood use of my timeCompany “gets me”I feel proudShares my valuesI don’t feel ripped offBetter intuition than competitors

The automotive industry—and specifically its dealers—are quite often the target of pointing fingers regarding customer service, but we found that neither dealers, nor manufacturers, had an inherent advantage. In fact, for specific brands, AMCI Inside saw noteworthy differences between trust in manufacturers versus dealers, going in both directions. In addition, we did see different drivers of trust as relative strengths for each:

• Higher-rated trust drivers at the OEM level are related to quality, reliability, value and other elements of the product that may evoke trust more directly, as well as feeling proud to be an owner and not feeling “ripped off.”

• Higher-rated trust drivers at the dealer level speak to other trust-engendering behaviors mentioned earlier: Authenticity, creating a genuine dialogue (at point of sale and also ongoing service), showing respect and making good use of customers’ time.

When both the manufacturer and the dealer are aligned and exhibiting core trust behaviors at the same time, they create a dynamic brand that has the potential to dominate their respective segment.

16

Trust IndexSM scores for brands vary by gender:

• Tesla, Toyota, Subaru and Acura are more trusted by women

• Porsche, Hyundai, Land Rover and Infiniti are more trusted by men.

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

GENDER AND SEGMENT

FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALEFEMALE MALE FEMALE MALEFEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

80

60

40

20

0

SPECIALTY LUXURY NON-LUXURY

TRU

ST D

RIV

ERS

INTE

NSI

TY

SPECIALTY LUXURY NON-LUXURY

In general, this can be the source of tremendous opportunity when you consider that brands earn higher trust from men than women, because more women than men actually buy cars.

AUTOMOTIVE SEGMENT AUTOMOTIVE SEGMENT

GENDER DIFFERENCES

We saw differences between men and women in terms of how much they trust automotive brands and which brands they trust.

When asked directly, men were significantly more likely than women to trust an automotive brand and to feel trusted by it, and also had significantly higher scores for both Trust Drivers and Intensity. This trend was consistent across

both dealers and OEMs; it was also most notable in the specialty and luxury segments, while non-luxury showed no gender differences.

In general, this can be the source of tremendous opportunity when you consider that brands earn higher trust from men than women, because more women than men actually buy cars.

17

3 D

ETA

ILED

FIND

ING

S

18–29 30–44 45–64 65+18–29 30–44 45–64 65+18–29 30–44 45–64 65+

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

SPECIALTY LUXURY NON-LUXURY

AM

CI T

RU

ST IN

DEX

SM

AUTOMOTIVE SEGMENT/AGE GROUP

AGE DIFFERENCES

We also saw some interesting age-based differences around levels of trust, and which types of brands they trust. Specifically—the 30–44 age group has higher Trust IndexSM scores, particularly for specialty and non-luxury brands. For many owners, this age is a time when they are buying their first new car or their first car they bought for themselves. It can be a milestone and a point of pride and

this is reflected in a deeper, more emotional, more trusting relationship with the brand they ultimately buy. Specialty brands in particular were also more trusted by the youngest age group, 18–29-year-olds, indicating that niche brands are highly attractive to younger consumers looking to express their identity through their vehicle.

4

THE POTENTIAL OF TRUST

19

What matters most is how much better brands can get at building trusting relationships with savvy, demanding consumers who want to become emotionally attached—like they are to their favorite coffee shop or their favorite hotel. And now we know that not a single automotive brand is doing enough of that.

NOW IS THE TIME: BUILDING TRUST FROM THE INSIDE OUTFor automotive manufacturers and dealers, it is good news that customers are emotional, because it means there is something that can be done to measurably and predictably improve intent to purchase and advocacy. Based on the findings, if you are an OEM that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on incentives and tier-one advertising, but have customers that walk into a non-trustworthy, impersonal, inconsistent experience at retail, you have wasted that money. Even worse, those customers may not only change brands next time—but actively advocate against you.

On the other hand, there is great potential upside to improving trust. For example, based on the relationship we found between trust and intent to purchase, if 250,000 people are coming off of lease in a given time period, with just a one-point improvement in Trust IndexSM score (and a median price point of about $30,000), a manufacturer can realize an upside of nearly $50 million. Or, given the relationship between trust and advocacy, if there are 10 million brand owners, a mere one-point improvement in Trust IndexSM score translates into more than a million additional positive word-of-mouth (WOM) “impressions.”

This is information with exciting possibilities and direct predictive value. AMCI Inside knows from this research that the highest return on automotive branding spend can be achieved by working with retail partners, as well as customers themselves, to create authentic, consistent, trust-inspiring experiences. By doing this, any automotive brand can build loyalty and advocacy.

THE GAME HAS CHANGEDAMCI Inside’s research has shown that OEMs and their retail partners (dealers) are actually now playing in a global retail space where the winners of “heart share” are whoever is best at delivering a trustworthy, consistent customer experience. It really doesn’t matter how automotive brands rank against other automotive brands when it comes to trust.

4 T

HE

PO

TE

NT

IAL O

F TR

US

T

5

BRAND-SPECIFIC FINDINGS

21

5 B

RA

ND

-SP

EC

IFIC FIN

DIN

GS

• Detailed findings specific to your brand, including strengths, weaknesses and unique insights gleaned from the data, as well as your relative standing within the industry

• The implications the findings have for your brand, including financial opportunities based on your specific business parameters

• Recommendations for how to address the challenges impacting your brand’s Trust IndexSM and realize business performance improvements

If you are interested in scheduling an OEM-specific presentation of the Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report, please contact:

Dave White, President, AMCI Inside at dwhite@amciglobal.com or 310.765.4107.

TRUST OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR BRANDAMCI Inside can provide detailed findings for any of the 34 brands included in our Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report. We will do a custom analysis for your brand covering:

6

METHODOLOGY

23

6 M

ET

HO

DO

LOG

Y

It incorporates traditional measures of loyalty and experience, but uniquely reframes them from the customer’s perspective, not the company’s. CQ measures how customer-inspired companies across industries behave and how customers would experience and describe those behaviors. Through developing this research, C Space identified key brand behaviors that predict loyalty outcomes and that are clearly and consistently linked to profit and growth.

For this study, an online questionnaire was fielded in January 2017 across the US by C Space, with a total sample of 3,676 adults and 5,459 ratings:

• 2,508 respondents rated 34 automotive brands. Respondents were owners of the brand currently or in the past five years, and were asked to rate the brand as both a manufacturer and a dealer (if applicable), resulting in a total sample of 4,291 ratings.

• Another 1,168 respondents rated 24 non-automotive brands of which they were current customers.

Manufacturers and dealers were evaluated on a series of 17 behaviors based on the CQ methodology, two trust measures (“I trust this brand [dealer]” and “As this brand’s [dealer’s] customer, I feel trusted”), one measure of advocacy (“I have recommended this brand [dealer] to friends and family”), and one measure of loyalty (“I intend to purchase this

brand’s vehicles in the future” or “I intend to purchase products or services from this dealer in the future”), all on a 1–7 scale. We also asked respondents to explain their ratings in open-ended comments, with a particular focus on understanding the elements of the customer experience most related to trust.

From these ratings, we created two measures to capture trust both directly and indirectly, and to measure both polarity and intensity:

1. The Trust Driver score comprises an average rating of the 10 brand behaviors most predictive of trust as an outcome, converted to a 100-point scale:– Committed to the highest quality – I feel respected – Authentic—they mean what they say – I feel proud – I don’t feel ripped off – Good use of my time – Genuine dialogue – This company “gets” me – Shares my values – Better “customer intuition” than competitors

2. Intensity measures the proportion of owners giving the brand a top-box rating when asked about the statements “I trust this company” or “I trust this dealer,” expressed as a percentage between 0% and 100%.

We then combined these two measures into one overall Trust IndexSM:

Trust IndexSM = Trust Drivers * Intensity

BUILT ON A TRUSTED FOUNDATIONThe AMCI Trusted Automotive Brand StudySM Report built on previous Customer Quotient (CQ) research conducted by C Space starting in 2015. CQ rebalances how we understand customer experience by creating a framework that looks at companies’ behaviors through the lens of customers.

24

6 M

ET

HO

DO

LOG

Y

GENDER

Female 48.86%

Male 51.14%

AGE

18–29 18.56%

30–44 32.61%

45–64 33.21%

65+ 15.62%

HHI

< $50K 36.43%

$50–$99K 39.80%

$100K+ 21.49%

Prefer not to say 2.29%

GEOGRAPHY

Midwest 21.34%

Northeast 20.20%

South 35.33%

West 23.14%

ETHNICITY

Caucasian 74.95%

African American 9.49%

Hispanic 8.90%

Other/prefer not to say 6.66%

SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS

The Critical Performance MetricsIn two rounds of research with nearly 50,000 US and UK consumers, C Space linked these critical performance metrics— advocacy, repeat purchase, revenue growth, return on assets—to a company’s Customer Quotient (CQ): How well customers feel a brand truly “gets them,” or not. AMCI Inside has dedicated the last 10 years developing these core business results in automotive brands around the world.

Analyses conducted on this data set:

• Machine learning was used to understand the predictive value of the CQ items against the statements “I trust this brand (dealer)” and “As this brand’s (dealer’s) customer, I feel trusted” as binary outcomes.

• We also tested the importance of automotive OEM vs. automotive dealer and industry (automotive/non-automotive) in predicting trust statements.

• An expanded model was then used to understand the predictive value of the two trust statements against the statements “I have recommended this brand (dealer) to friends and family,” and “I intend to purchase this brand’s vehicles in the future” or “I intend to purchase products or services from this dealer in the future.”

• Ultimately, we switched from classification to regression because we thought it was more methodologically correct to consider trust as an ordinal scale versus binary. Using this method, we again examined the statement “I trust this brand (dealer)” against the CQ items. Based on the results, we identified the 10 items most predictive of trust.

• We undertook various traditional hypothesis testing on various demographic and brand attributes relative to Trust Drivers, Intensity, and the AMCI Trust IndexSM.

• We also performed text analytics on open-ended comments using commonality clouds to cross-validate our quantitative findings.

For more detail on methodology, contact C Space.