WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -

With vehicle technology advancing at a rapid pace — growing more complex with every year — the role of product specialist in dealerships is becoming more important and playing a larger role in the sales process.

This assertion was highlighted in the 28th annual J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index Study results, which were released Thursday.

It seems automakers are rising to the occasion — tackling technology head-on — as overall sales satisfaction improved by 13 points year-over-year to 686 in 2014 from 673 in 2013, on a 1,000-point scale.

In this high-tech environment, judging from the responses of the 29,805 buyers who participated in the study, Mercedes-Benz was found to be No. 1 in sales satisfaction among luxury brands, with a score of 761, on a 1,000-point scale. The automaker was also the most improved for premium brands from 2013, with its score rising 33 points.

And for the fifth year in a row, Mini ranked highest among mass market brands, taking home a score of 727 — a 9-point increase from 2013.

For mainstream brands, Buick improved the most, bumping up its score by 32 points from 2013, moving up to 9th place.

The study measures buyer satisfaction based on four factors (in order of importance): working out the deal (17 percent); salesperson (13 percent); delivery process (11 percent); and facility (10 percent).

Those who chose not to buy, or rejecter satisfaction, is based on five factors (in order of importance): salesperson (21 percent); fairness of price (8 percent); experience negotiating (8 percent); variety of inventory (7 percent); and facility (7 percent).

The Role of the Product Specialist

On top of ranking the automakers, the study also found that dealers are turning more and more to product specialists to ramp up the new-vehicle sales process.

These employees work to improve the sales process by demonstrating vehicle features and technological innovations and may also play a follow-up role in buyer education.

According to the study, 15 percent of customers said they worked with both a salesperson and a separate product specialist when shopping for their vehicle.

Premium buyers tend to use product specialists slightly more (19 percent).

Regardless of market segment, sales satisfaction was higher among buyers who worked directly with a product specialist as well as a salesperson — 856 versus 853, respectively, for premium; 809 versus 806, respectively, for non-premium.

"With such tech-heavy vehicles today, introducing product specialists into the sales process helps improve the delivery process and customer understanding of how to operate key features," said Chris Sutton, vice president of the automotive retail practice at J.D. Power. "Dealerships need to be mindful when dividing a customer's time between a salesperson, product specialist, and the finance and insurance representative. That's a lot of customer touch points. Adding more time to the sales process usually has a negative effect on sales satisfaction; thus, dealers need to ensure an integrated approach that respects a customer's time."