FCA US Announces First Dealerships to Earn Customer First Award for Excellence

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

• 124 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and FIAT dealerships have earned the inaugural 2016 Customer First Award for Excellence
• Consumers will recognize these elite dealerships as providing the best sales and service experience
• Dealers may use inaugural Customer First Award for Excellence logo in all advertising and marketing efforts

An inaugural group of 124 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and FIAT dealerships have earned the 2016 Customer First Award for Excellence.

By achieving this elite status, these FCA US LLC dealerships will be recognized by consumers as leaders in customer sales and service experience.

FCA US created the Customer First Award for Excellence with its dealer partners and J.D. Power to elevate customer satisfaction with the dealerships with a specific focus on the sales and service experience, employee training and facility condition.

Dealers in this initial group completed all of the required program goals from Jan. 1 to June 30. A second group of award winners will be announced in early 2017 when they complete their certification requirements.

"We are extremely impressed with the accomplishments these 124 dealerships have been able to achieve in a short amount of time," said Al Gardner, Head of Network Development, FCA – North America. "We gave our dealer body the challenge to join us in focusing on increasing our customer satisfaction, loyalty and service retention and through the core pillars of this initiative, these dealers have shown that it's achievable. These dealerships will be able to proudly differentiate themselves as elite stores by being winners of the inaugural Customer First Award for Excellence."

The Customer First Award for Excellence initiative was rolled out to dealerships in October 2015. Dealers participated in cross-country workshops where they learned of award requirements and dealership best practices. Some have worked with independently contracted Customer Experience Specialists in order to seek the highest levels of process and procedure improvements to ensure an increase in customer satisfaction.

All 2,600 FCA US dealerships were eligible to pursue and earn the inaugural award certification. Dealers must achieve goals in five core "pillars" to earn the Customer First Award for Excellence designation:

• Facility – Customers consistently find dealerships to be clean, convenient and comfortable. Facilities are certified every six months
• Customer Processes – Dealer consistently executes processes for key customer interaction points, such as sales negotiation, delivery and follow up
• Performance – Dealer achieves required high level of satisfaction in customer sales and service satisfaction surveys
• Employee Survey – Survey employees annually, share findings with employees, and act on the feedback and results
• Training Certification – Dealership personnel meet minimum training requirements for sales, service, parts and technical staff

Since program rollout, national Sales Advocacy scores, Fixed First Visit scores and Service Advocacy scores have all risen to the highest level in our history. All of the tools and goals within the program are designed to focus on building a relationship with the customers.

Head of Parts and Service (Mopar), FCA – Global Pietro Gorlier explains, "the Customer First program has enabled our dealers' focus to be drawn to the customer experience. The program sheds light on customer touch points throughout the service experience at the dealerships and enables dealers to exceed our customers' expectations." 

"Creating advocates for all of our brands is the key to long-term success," said Reid Bigland, Head of U.S. Sales. "These dealers have shown leadership in that effort and will benefit from their customer-focused approach." 

The 124 dealerships will be able to use the inaugural Customer First Award for Excellence logo in all advertising and marketing efforts. They will receive a plaque, executive acknowledgement letter, differentiated search results on brand websites, a dealership-wide award luncheon and a host of other marketing press materials.

About FCA US LLC
FCA US LLC is a North American automaker with a new name and a long history. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, FCA US is a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) family of companies. FCA US designs, engineers, manufactures and sells vehicles under the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and FIAT brands, as well as the SRT performance vehicle designation. The company also distributes the Alfa Romeo 4C model and Mopar products. FCA US is building upon the historic foundations of Chrysler, the innovative American automaker first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925; and Fiat, founded in Italy in 1899 by pioneering entrepreneurs, including Giovanni Agnelli.

FCA, the seventh-largest automaker in the world based on total annual vehicle sales, is an international automotive group. FCA is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FCAU" and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario under the symbol "FCA."

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