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10 Jul 2023
The cup of success was overflowing for local truck maker Hino South Africa in July. Not only did it collect a Platinum Award for the fifth time in six years at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI) prizegiving, but it also placed first overall and first in the Sales and Parts categories in the Datatrack customer satisfaction survey for the second quarter of 2023.
“We are extremely thankful to our country wide network of Hino dealers for firstly ensuring our Hino customers enjoy the highest levels of customer satisfaction and also electing Hino SA as the Truck OEM of choice in Southern Africa” said Anton Falck, Vice President of Hino SA.
“We are particularly pleased that Hino dealers made us the only truck manufacturer or distributor in South Africa to collect a Platinum Award in 2022 this year. We take this DSI survey very seriously, as it is an important annual survey by NADA to measure the state of the relationship between the dealers and the manufacturer. Hino also won this award in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Our Hino network of 65 dealers – 21 independent Hino and 44 dualling with Toyota – is fully committed to using Hino’s international Total Support strategy ensuring the highest levels of customer satisfaction. The tested Total Support programmed involves building meaningful and beneficial relationships between Hino in Japan, the local subsidiary, and its suppliers as well as all the dealers and customers,” added the Hino Vice President.
The NADA DSI survey, conducted by Lightstone Auto, stretches back 27 years to 1996 and a Commercial Vehicle category has been included since 2008 when the highest overall average score by one of the local truck brands was 78%. Lightstone received responses from 181 commercial vehicle dealerships this year, which equated to a high response rate, underscoring the credibility of the research.
The Platinum Award for those brands with a score of 85% or higher was introduced in 2017 and both Hino and another European brand achieved Platinum that year, with Hino having a slightly higher score at 85.4%. Hino collected a Gold Award in 2018 with a score of 83.8% and then attained Platinum status again in 2019 with a score of 86.1%. The DSI survey did not take place in 2020 due to Covid-19.
Hino was back again with Platinum in 2021 with a score of 86,8%. Hino SA then took it to new heights in 2022, collecting its fourth Platinum despite all the challenges it faced, while scoring an all-time high of 89.9% and was the only truck brand to collect Platinum. This year Hino scored 86.7% and was again the only truck brand to collect Platinum.
Hino maintained its overall leadership in the Datatrack comparative truck study in the second quarter of 2023 with a combined average of 97.72. Hino was a clear leader in the Sales category in the Q2 survey, with a score of 97.72. The performance in Parts was also good, with a score of 96.25. Hino was a close second in Technical Service with a score of 97.50.
Datatrack has been conducting these independent quarterly surveys, compiled from customer interviews with fleet operators regarding the performance of truck manufacturers and importers in terms of service levels in sales, technical service, and parts, since 1989. The methodology has been adjusted over the years to ensure ongoing relevance for this credible benchmark for the truck industry.
“Hino South Africa’s long-running leadership in this benchmarking survey is a tribute not only to our dealer network, but also to the head office staff and the team at our huge parts warehouse in Atlas. They all play vital roles in Hino’s global strategy of Total Support to ensure our ongoing success in these measures of excellence,” explained Falck.
