CUSTOMER IMPORTANCE RATING
OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS
FOR AUTOMOBILE SERVICE
SATYENDRA SHARMA
Ph.D Scholar, Bhagwant University, Ajmer, India / Asst. Prof SVCE, Indore
satyendra.sharma09@yahoo.in
DR. JAYANT NEGI
Professor, Mukesh Patel Technology Park, NMIMS University, Shirpur Campus
jayantnegi@gmail.com Abstract :
Customers are the center of an organization’s universe: they define quality. They expect performance, reliability, responsiveness, competitive prices, on-time delivery, service, clear and correct transaction processing and more. Customer satisfaction/Service quality management has become a strategic imperative for most firms. In the present circumstances, it is vital to measure customer perceptions and how well the company delivers on the critical factors/dimensions of the business. The main objective of this paper is to be acquainted with customer importance rating of service quality dimensions or Voice of Customers for an Automobile service centre. A questionnaire has been used for the purpose.
Keywords: Quality; Reliability; Perception; Questionnaire; Service Quality. 1. Introduction
Design of Service Quality has become the most critical task for any company. In present competitive scenario, it is essential to provide quality service to retain their customers’ base. The service sector is going through a revolutionary change, and the future of economy depends on the growth rate of service sector. Customer satisfaction is at the core of human experience, reflecting/liking of a company’s business activities. High levels of customer satisfaction are strong indicators of customer retention, customer loyalty, and service quality. Competent organizations focus on creating congenial experiences so that they might keep hold of existing customers and add new ones. Customer demands are not utterly related to product issue; therefore, services are conveniently designed to go with customer desires and exceed primary expectations to make confident clients remain loyal to the brand. The measurement of service quality performance plays a significant role in each quality improvement attempt. Measuring service quality is another challenge because customer satisfaction is a function of many intangible factors. A product has physical features that can be independently measured (e.g., the fit and finish of a car) and easily manageable, on the other hand service quality contains many psychological features (e.g., the ambience of customer waiting lounge/room. Applying measurable functions in their operations and practices, service industries are able to evaluate and improve the service quality.
This article mainly focuses on understanding customers’ perspective about the quality of service provided by after sales service department in automobile industries. This has been achieved through rank service quality dimensions as per the customer’s importance. A questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL model has been designed for collecting the required data. The key purpose of this paper is to substantiate the importance of ranking of service quality dimensions or Voice of Customers. The obvious next stage is to measure service quality performance of the service provider.
2. Literature Review
service quality, as each organization is unique and as a result, altered practices are employed. Christian Gronroos, (1984) gave a three-dimensional model of Service Quality. It was similar to the idea proposed by Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) [Kang and James (2004)].
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry developed the most popular instrument for measuring service quality named SERVQUAL [Parasuraman et al.(1985)]. Initially they identifies ten dimensions regarding service quality in their model, however these were reduced to five dimensions namely: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness [Parasuraman et al.(1988)]. Katarne, Sharma & Negi measured service quality of an automobile service centre in an Indian city. In that research, satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the customers, and its reason(s) had been evaluated by applying root cause analysis [Katarne (2010)]. In the continuation they did further research to assess impact of service quality strategies made on the basis of earlier suggestion in the same service organization [Sharma (2011)].
3. Service Quality Dimensions
Researchers have used various dimensions to define service quality. Combining the research by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (PZB), it was agreed that service quality of business support services should be evaluated using five service quality determinants as defined below for an Automobile dealership:
Reliability (Promised delivery): Dealerships are known to contact the customer promising that the vehicle will be ready for delivery at a specific time. It is the most important dimension of service quality. (Probability to deliver in time)
Assurance (Confidence and trust): At dealership, the main source of assurance is with the service adviser, their knowledge and manner of interaction with the customer inspires trust in the organization.
Tangibles (Physical cues): Tangible cues that form part of this dimension include the signage, parking and layout of the dealership itself.
Empathy (Importance): In the case of dealership, this can be seen in the interactions between the organization and the customer, and the nature of this interaction.
Responsiveness (Willingness to serve): This refers to the changes that have been observed in service hours from just being weekdays to include weekend and night services, due to the changes in the needs of customers.
4. Methodology
4.1. Development of questionnaire
Questionnaires are the most frequently used technique intended for evaluating any service program. In this process various information are required to collect from service applicants. Questionnaires are designed based on the evaluation requirements of a specific program. A general method used in the development of questionnaire is shown in figure 1.
4.2. Data collection
Fig. 1: The steps preceding questionnaire design [Crawford (1990)]
Least Average Most Important Important
Fig. 2: Likert scale
This make possible in obtaining average score for the entire group of every question. This will facilitate in knowing the customers’ preference on five dimensions of service quality. For this purpose, each dimension of quality has been divided into five factors. The questionnaire is shown in Table 2. From the 25 questions Q1, Q6, Q11, Q16, Q21 & Q26 belong to Reliability VOC. Similarly, Q2, Q7, Q12, Q17, Q22 & Q27 belong to Empathy, Q3, Q8, Q13, Q18, Q23 & Q28 belongs to Responsiveness, Q4, Q9, Q14, Q19, Q24 & Q29 belongs to Assurance and Q5, Q10, Q15, Q20, Q25 & Q30 belongs to Tangible VOC. The Grouping/Categorization of Questionnaires as per Parameters is shown in Table 1
Table 1. Grouping/Categorization of Questionnaires as per Parameters.
Group No.
Question number Service Quality
Dimension or VOC
1 Q1, Q6, Q11, Q16, Q21 & Q26 Reliability
2 Q2, Q7, Q12, Q17, Q22 & Q27 Empathy
3 Q3, Q8, Q13, Q18, Q23 & Q28 Responsiveness
4 Q4, Q9, Q14, Q19, Q24 & Q29 Assurance
5 Q5, Q10, Q15, Q20, Q25 & Q30 Tangible
4.3. Data Interpretation and Analysis
The customer importance rating for each of the VOC has been calculated using below Eq. (1). The results are exhibited in the Table 3. It is clear from the table that Reliability has got the highest rating; hence it will be the most important VOC for automobile service center. Empathy and Responsiveness are the other two VOCs rated with more than average weights.
(1)
Here,
CI – Customer importance
Qg – Questions group.
N – Total number of service dimension or Vocs.
Table 2. Service Centre/Customer Rating Form.
Please rate importance of following factors on the scale of (1 - 5)
S.No.
Question 1 2 3 4 5
Q1 On-time Vehicle delivery
Q2 Effort to understand the problem
Q3 Knowledge of staff
Q4 Flexible service hours as per customer requirement
Q5 Equipments at SC
Q6 Error free service
Q7 Sensitivity of staff/ courtesy / Attentiveness
Q8 Trustworthiness
Q9 Prompt service to customer
Q10 Proper signage board/charts
Q11 Consistency in performance
Q12 Attitude of staff
Q13 Honesty
Q14 Readiness to provide service by employees
Q15 Layout of SC/ Infrastructure
Q16 Loyalty in handling customer’s service problems
Q17 Prior booking -
Q18 Confidence ability
Q19 Willingness to serve
Q20 House keeping
Q21 Carry out service right the first time
Q22 Post service feedback
Q23 Approach of staff
Q24 Respond Quickly as customer arrived
Table 3. Customer Importance Rating.
Voice of Customer Customer Importance Rating
Reliability 5
Empathy 4
Responsiveness 3
Assurance 2
Tangible 2
5. Conclusion
The primary aim of this research was to be familiar with the weightings of voice of customers’ for an Automobile service centre. A questionnaire based on SERVQUAL has been used for this purpose. The data interpretation and analysis show the customer importance ratings of Voice of Customers. The results reveal that the principal substantial VoC to be considered is Reliability. The other VOCs in ranking are Empathy, Responsiveness, Assurance and Tangible. Now this can be used to measure service quality level of any automobile service centre.
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