Track: Operations Research

Abstract

Automobile after-sales service Centers (AASSC) act as a crucial part in reinforcing the bond between the service centers and customers. There are various needs and expectations for the customers after the vehicle has been purchased. These various needs and expectations must be fulfilled by AASSC for making customers satisfied which in turn makes customers loyal to AASSC. In the present scenario, the needs or expectations of the customers are increasing, and it is changing rapidly. So, AASSC finds it difficult to identify and prioritize the factors that meet or surpass the expectations of the customers.

From the analysis of the literature it is observed that many factors have been identified in the developed countries that will influence customer satisfaction and customer loyal at AASSC. However, there are only a few factors identified in the developing countries, particularly in India. Further, there are no studies available to rank these factors using any Multi criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques.

Therefore, in this research, first, the various factors that could be responsible for achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty to AASSC were identified from the review of the literature as well based on the researchers’ perception. Second, the Best Worst Method (BWM), a MCDM technique, is applied to the identified factors for prioritizing and ranking them. The findings of the study show that there are ten unique factors responsible for achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty for AASSC. Out of those ten factors, the factor: Product Quality, Service Quality, and Belief are the most important factor for the AASSC to achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty.