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Your dealer network is the human face of your brand. If it is truly professional, it helps to support your brand and drive your business. Car manufacturers must therefore do all possible to ensure that their dealers actively support and respect the brand and all that it stands for. Large and expensive communication campaigns intended to build a particular brand image may fail, if discrepancies arise during the sales/after-sales service processes.
SGS Covert Brand Protection Audits protect, maintain and build brands by auditing whether your dealers comply with the internal code of conduct for sales/after-sales processes and generate a report of the results. Our audits uncover any problem areas within your network with regard to dealer compliance with your company standards for quality and after-sales service so that you can take appropriate action to protect one of your most valuable assets – your brand.
Covert Brand Protection Audit is all about:
Dealer Assessment
Brand protection audits supplement the classic two-party audits which are conducted in accordance with your general quality requirements. In addition, they also provide clear results which help to ensure that your dealers comply with the current strategic guidelines.
To optimize the effectiveness of Brand Protection Audits, SGS engages professional auditors for its covert audits who play the role of a customer. Using a pre-agreed set of criteria, they visit a car dealer and play the role of a potential customer and report back on the service elements which an everyday customer would notice. This can vary from the general appearance of the showroom and personnel to how long they had to wait before being served. They also address details such as whether the employees are courteous, suitably dressed and wearing an identification tag. Each audit is tailored to individual brand needs.
SGS also performs Brand Protection Audits at competitors’ dealers to provide you with useful information about the behavior, strengths and weaknesses of the competitive dealer networks.
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Preparation of the Brand Protection Audit
SGS will work with you to design covert audits which fulfill your specific objectives. We determine together which role the auditor is to play (gender, age, occupation, car type), the focus of the audit and which details are important. Finally, we agree how the results of the covert audit are to be classified so that you receive clear, consistent and actionable final results.
In addition, we determine the number of auditors required considering that the same auditor cannot visit the same dealer twice, and that multiple visits to several different dealers may be necessary to get a clear overall picture.
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Managing Your Data
The best results can be achieved using an Internet-based database enabling auditors to directly input their results. SGS has the experience and expertise needed to set up such a data management system. At any time during the project, such a database can provide information such as dealer assessment results, local statistics, and global trends regarding compliance of your dealers with the quality and after-sales service standards of your company. The result is a real-time overview of how the brand is respected and used at individual locations, in regions and in geographical areas.
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Making the Most of Brand Protection Audits
Brand Protection Audits are an investigative tool which ensures that your dealers comply with your company standards and continue to do so in future. They are designed to focus on specific criteria which everyday customers notice – general appearance, sales processes and the way your brand is presented. The results give you a better understanding of where and how you could improve the customer perception of your brand. Dealers can optimally support your brand only after a common understanding has been reached of the standards you expect. Brand Protection Audits also help to further develop the quality and uniformity of your dealer network which will enable you to earn the respect of your customers, shareholders and other dealers.
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Why SGS
At SGS, we know what the automobile industry is all about. In addition, we are ready to serve you immediately and that at a fraction of the cost to conduct an equivalent audit with your internal resources.
Our experience with and our understanding of the complex and diverse needs of our customers is based on expertise we have developed in the auditing, certification, checking and verification of companies and in successful corporate partnerships over the last 125 years.
Our global corporate brand is supported by our subsidiaries in 75 countries and by more than 80,000 audit certificates worldwide. SGS is the world’s leading certification body for a broad range of standards such as ISO 9001:2000, ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001 and SA 8000.
Audits are a tool which help you to improve the efficiency of your processes. Audit services are not just a measurement instrument but also a building block within your continuous improvement system. They identify past achievements, document progress which has been made to date and provide tangible motivation within your company to further improve and grow your business. The SGS auditing concept is transparent and logical. That’s why we’d like to become your partner to help you further improve your processes and meet your business objectives.
Our auditors have been thoroughly trained in the “SGS methodology,” they listen closely to customers, are objective and strictly comply with ethical principles.
Our global team of auditors ensures a professional performance of the audit to help you achieve your business targets. The consistency of our global auditing concept ensures that our auditors also determine, in a consistent way, which Corrective Action Requirements (CAR) must be addressed.
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