J.D. Power President Finbarr O'Neill presents the prize to Dongfeng Citroen General Manager Chen Xi at a ceremony held in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, Aug 28, 2014. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Dongfeng Citroen has been awarded the No 1 Sales Satisfaction Index prize in the Chinese car market by J.D. Power on Aug 8, in Chengdu city, Sichuan province.

J.D. Power President Finbarr O'Neill handed the award to Dongfeng Citroen General Manager Chen Xi at a ceremony held a day before the Chengdu Motor Show got underway.

The Sino-France joint venture received 772 points out of 1,000 in the SSI research, 101 points higher than the average.

Dongfeng Citroen's 898 points in Customer Satisfaction Index placed it in the third rank, making the company the only car brand figuring among top 3 in both SSI and CSI for two consecutive years.

The carmaker has made a great leap in the SSI rank, compared with the fourth in 2012 and third in 2013.

Hubei headquartered company said in a statement that it has been aiming to "set a new benchmark in customer satisfaction" in their service. The company has been working "to give customers homely care," and has made efforts to elevate the service quality.

O'Neill said the prize represents the customers' reorganization, and the results are due to Dongfeng Citroen team's effort and inputs into customer service and satisfaction.

J.D. Power SSI research

The SSI research focuses on six aspects: overall satisfaction, purchase experience, sales person, dealership facilities, deal making process, and delivery process.

It was conducted among 15,388 car owners who bought their cars during the period from July 2013 to February 2014. The data was collected in 51 cities from January to April this year.

J.D. Power is a customer satisfaction research company, under McGraw Hill Financial Group, specializing in car manufacture, banking and finance, and information technology industries.