With the announcement of the 2021 winners of the EchoMBR Ranking Awards still fresh in the minds of industry movers and shakers, it is nearly time for the 2022 winners to step up to the proverbial podium.

In June, the overall winners, as well as the category-specific winners, were announced, and now Lightstone Auto, which is the driving force behind the awards, has indicated that the 2022 winners will be announced in January 2023.

Lightstone Auto says it prides itself on how it “has been measuring customer satisfaction in the motor body repairer (MBR) industry for more than a decade and is currently the trusted partner for the MBR industry in terms of managing customer satisfaction feedback relating to service delivery”.

Lightstone ranks the top performers nationally and by province, as well as the winners in categories such as the most likely to be ready on time, most likely to offer quality repair, most likely to keep customers informed, most likely to be recommended and friendliest staff.
The rankings were informed by data collected through customer feedback from approximately 85,764 customers during 2021, representing 702 qualifying MBRs.

Lightstone applies the Bayesian statistical method and multi-level models to identify the MBRs that perform well, along with those that are most likely to perform well. As the ranking uses this predictive model, those at the top are recognised as consistently scoring high with their customers. According to Lighthouse Auto, “these results provide the South African consumer with trustworthy choices during an inherently difficult period after a motor accident”.

“In a nutshell, we found that while, understandably, the perceived quality of the repair held a high level of importance in terms of its contribution of a 10-point increase of variable on the Advocacy Score, Staff Friendliness featured almost equally, with being kept informed next in line,” said Bernard De Vantier-Strydom, Head of Projects and Research at Lightstone Auto. “So for a 10-point increase in Repair Quality, we see an average increase in Advocacy score of six points. We see a similar impact as well for a 10-point increase in Staff Friendliness (also just under six points). These two factors are by far the most predictive of Advocacy.”

“This analysis was interesting as it shows the ‘levers’ an MBR can pull on to significantly improve customer satisfaction. We can also deduce that in most cases the customer is more likely to perhaps “forgive” not being ready on time and even not fixing it right the first time, if the customer is treated well by the MBR and kept informed of the repair process, which are logically some of the easiest levers to pull.”