Chapter - 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1. Introduction

The literature has been reviewed from the reputed journals of both National and International

Journals pertaining to Customer Relationship Management, Automobile Industry and Service

Market and its related issues. The literature has also been reviewed from Text Books, Magazines,

& Websites.

2.2. Automobile Industry Insights.

Abhijeet Singh and Brijesh Kumar (2011) has mentioned that Hero Honda Motors Ltd, is

running a program called Good life Passport to Relationship Reward, with an objective to create

an innovative environment for interaction between Hero Honda and its customers. Members of

this program are given a magnetic card in which all information is stored and this card is swiped

when using any service at a showroom or workshop and it works like a loyalty benefit card.

Abhijeet Singh (2011) has mentioned that Tata Motors uses tools such as CRM along with tools

like dealer management system which integrates and coordinates the leading applications in the

automobile industry, connecting more than one thousand dealers across India and moreover

CRM DOS has helped the company to improve its inventory management, tax calculation and

pricing and moreover this system has also proved to be beneficial to dealers because it has

reduced their working capital cost.

Ajita Shashidhar (2006) has quoted that Ford India has started the program by the name of Ford

Car Gainz, in this Programme the company rewards the after sales service of cars along with the

purchase of spare parts from authorised dealers or service centers of the company. The company

used to give some extra bonus points to the customer on follow of the maintenance schedule

prescribed by ford. These bonus and loyalty points earned could be redeemed in return of

exchange for a new model of ford.

Amrit Raj (2012) has reported that Hero Moto Corp Ltd is a focusing on technology revamp by

having tie ups with US based EBR racing and with Austria based engine maker AVL these

moves are with an ultimate aim to extend arm in R&D as the company has decided not to run the

existing brands on Honda engines.

According to Arvind Saxena (2010), no company in automobile sector can fight competition on

price. Companies need to have the right product, distribution, CRM and after sales service

network to grow.

Biswajit Mahanty and Virupaxi Bagodi (2008) has mentioned that it is an era of customer

delight for the two wheeler industry and the conventional measures implemented by the service

organizations tend to be inadequate to attract customers persistently.

Anjan Ghosh and Subrata Ray (2011) has quoted in the report Two-Wheeler Industry: Growth

Drivers Intact that in future, ICRA expects that there will be more intense competition in the

segment of Executive bikes as companies such as Honda Motorcycles and Suzuki have made

announcements to launch new models in this segment. The major reason for the growth of

competition was due to the continuous growth of sales in this segment. Thus the competition

cannot be based on the pricing strategy, thus the spending on the marketing to build brands

would rise and will have a long term benefit for the companies in coming years.

Authr (2012) states that do not buy a vehicle model that is about to be discontinued as it can

regret the buyer when looking for the spares and this also leads to a decline in the sale value of

the vehicle. The researcher also agrees to the same as availability of spares and after sales is

crucial for the vehicle and its resale value.

According to Biswajit Mahanty and Virupaxi Bagodi (2006) in country like India the two

wheeler companies through after sales service can get the competitive advantage, which is

necessary to survive in cut throat competitive markets and two wheeler companies need to

continuously upgrade their capacity along with the skilled workforce and focus on CRM so that

they could maintain customer satisfaction.

The study by G Syamala (2010) about the growth of auto component industry an overview

concludes that, the auto component industry is an integral part of auto industry and has emerged

as a major industry, with market so large and with diverse activities to accommodate buyers

needs and having its own global mark this sector has become very competitive and with the

increasing demand for domestic and international auto components this sector is the fastest

growing manufacturing sector in India.

Chanchal Pal Chauhan (2012) has reported that, in Indian every carmaker has been involved in

anti-competitive practices and has been charged by the Competition Commission of India. The

automobile companies swell their profits by devising ways in which they mislead their customers

in all possible way, one of the ways is by destroying the supply of all substitute element in

market and at the same time prevent spare part manufacturers from selling the spares to retailers,

this practice of the automobile companies leave customers with almost no alternatives for their

maintenance need, thus the customers are force to come to the exclusive dealer for their needs

and they are charged exorbitantly high prices...

Gordon Fullerton (2006) has mentioned in the chapter “Putting relationship in CRM”, that

worlds known automobile company Daimler Chrysler, has served a model example of CRM

program in its division known as Jeep, the company has designed a program for jeep owners

which gives value to the customers and the firm more over the company has managed to foster a

community which is meritoriously committed to the product, the brand and the customers.

Sector analysts at India Info line Ltd Joseph George (2012) is of the opinion about the hero tie-

up with Engines Engineering to improve design that while hero needs good research and

development support, it should ensure it finds right partners, unlike Bajaj and TVS who pursued

in house research and development, hero seeking outside help is fraught with risks as it could be

tough for hero to synergize diverse inputs from variety of partners.

Kelly Hlavinka (2006) has mentioned about Jaguar marketing team , that For several years they

have been collecting self-reported owner data through a series of exclusive meet and greet

events, the strategy adopted to collect the data is with the help of soft benefit experiential reward

, the impact of this activity has been that the company has stopped the typical generic

communication and has intensely changed the way of communication jaguar now does with its

esteemed customers, the company no delivers the correct message to the correct customer at

correct time about the correct jaguar model, all this is possible with the use of predictive

modeling design of a series of event. This data leveraging has changed the way the company it

interacts with its customers and dealers.

Kevin Keller (2012) has mentioned that Caterpillar Company has set an example with the

effective use of CRM the company has managed to become the leading company in its category

by take full advantage of the total customer value. The company with the best after sales service

and trained dealer today command a premium price of 10% to 20% higher than competitors such

as Volvo, Komatsu etc.

Mahantesh Sabarad (2012) has argued in context to Hero moto corps move to replace all

Honda products and not brand names, that Indian consumers tend to be quick in noticing any

difference between the current and past variants of motorcycles they buy and any product

shortcoming would be at the Hero moto-corps disadvantage. The researcher agrees the same.

In their study Michael Cusumano, Steve Kahl and Fernaando Suarez (2008) a theory of

services in product industries, have concluded that in today’s time it is the service component

which is important even in the product industries one classic example for this is the automobile

industry where in all car manufacturers are earning revenues from the service activities related to

their products. Now a day a large amount of revenues in the automobile industry comes from

other product-related service activities such as insurance and after sales. The authors argued that

despite the seeming importance of services, there is not much theory to help researchers or

practitioners explain the conditions under which services matter in product industries. The

general view that emerges from the services literature is that services tend to become important

for manufacturing firms once their industries reach a mature stage.

GM-Marketing, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Milind Bade (2011) has mentioned that Bajaj Auto Limited is

currently trying to move the industry from a commuter to a biker mindset and at present the

focus of the company is on keeping the sub brands and the mother brand different and the main

motive behind establishing individual brand is to create differentiation which would help Bajaj

auto, as an organization to develop relationship easily with its customers.

Mona J Fitzsimmons (2010) has concluded that the profitability of automobile manufacturers

depends on exploiting value added services for instance automobile manufacturers have

discovered that financing and after sales service can achieve significant profits.

Oyama (2012) has quoted that Honda Motors as a company has a vision for 2020 that the

company wants to be number one position in the Indian market and moreover the company is

preparing for 30% of Honda’s global sales to come from Indian operation, the author believes

that the same vision can be achieved if they could solve the issues related to production in the

past which led to the longest waiting period for the company’s most of the products in the Indian

market, the effect of this was visible in company’s less penetration in the rural market, which

now stands at is less than a third of Hero Moto Corp.

Pawan Chabra (2011) has quoted that the dominant position of Bajaj auto limited can be seen

through the sales of premium segment where in every second bike sold is pulsar., one major

reason for this was the company’s ability to constantly focus on R&D with regular alterations to

make the motorbike look fresh at all times as a result and as a result of this today Bajaj has

almost more than fifty percent market in the premium segment (for FY 2010-2011) which is

followed by Honda Motorcycle & scooter India with a nineteen percent market share.

Pawan Chabra (2011) has mentioned that in December 2002 Bajaj officially discontinued with

the production of its flagship brand Chetak , this was done with the aim to become a credible

motorcycle brand manufacturer and for this the company invested huge amount in R&D, but the

company faced an unexpected challenge from its dealers regarding the sales of motorcycles as its

dealers had little idea as to how to sell motorcycles, so the company had given a sales training to

entire dealership network.

According to CEO and MD of Hero Moto Corp Ltd Pawan Munjal (2012) the company has tied

up with Italian two wheeler design house Engines Engineering to improve its in house

technology and design capabilities , this tie up is done with keeping in mind the vision of having

multiple centers of excellence located strategically across the globe.

Philip Kotler (2012) has mentioned that Harley Davidson has a policy where in its dealer’s staff

ranging from the CEO to the sales representative upholds personalized relationships with

customers which include face to face and social media contact. This helps the company to know

its customers as individuals and helps the company to conduct ongoing research to keep up with

their changing expectations and experiences which is of use to company in defining the

customers’ needs better.

The study by S.Saravan, N Panchanathan and S Pragadeeswaran (2009) concluded in their

research paper “Markets and Consumers- Consumer Behavior Towards Showroom Services of

Two-Wheeler with reference to Cuddalore District” that students and employees are more

satisfied about showroom service and age of consumer is an important factor while choosing the

brand of bike and all the consumers give importance all factors relating to buying a vehicle.

Shashank Srivastava (2012) GM Maruti Suzuki believes that the consumer is price conscious

and the brand loyalty is diminishing because of the number of options in each segment moreover

the customers are ready to experiment today.

According to Steve Kahl and Fernaando Suarez (2008) in their research paper Product,

Process, and Service: A New Industry Lifecycle Model, has concluded that the existing models

of industry lifecycle evolution tend to focus on changes in the products along with the change in

processes but it largely overlook the dynamics of services, but here is a trend that there is

increase in revenues of firms because of sales of services rather than products.

Susan Suffes (2006) Audi (UK), a leading manufacturer in the prestige automobile market

implemented CRM successfully and this helped Audi to develop a model to drive evolution and

engineer a dramatic turnaround by making the customer experience perfect.

V.G. Ramakrishnan (2003) has quoted that the vehicle servicing business in India is

undergoing a transformation. In early days, the servicing needs of the vehicles were undertaken

mostly by roadside mechanics and a few organized workshops and the companies need to focus

on building a chain of authorized service stations covering the entire country to service its

vehicles, moreover as the competition in the market has intensified and profit margins squeezed,

companies need to view servicing as a money spinner for the entire operation. In the recent

years, other players have entered in the field and the creation of national chain of organized

workshops is underway and that is likely to change the nature of vehicle servicing market in

India.

Chairman and MD of TVS Motors Venu Srinivasan (2012) has quoted that the company has

multiple platforms when compared to competition and the company if focusing to boost

profitability by using fewer product platforms and cutting down the number of components that

go in the scooters and motorcycles, the entire process would take three years. The researcher is

of the opinion that this move taken by the company is the need of the hour and will benefit the

company in coming years.

V.G. Ramakrishnan (2003) quoted that the two-wheeler market has seen an explosive rise in

sales over the last few years which created an opportunity for various companies to enter the

after sales business of two wheeler, Castrol, a company well known for its lubricants, has entered

into the motorcycle servicing business with the roll out of its first workshop 'Castrol PrimaZona'

and have plans to have pan India presence.

2.3. Customer Relationship Management Insights.

The study by Shailendra Dasari (2011) has concluded that Relationship Marketing orientation

comes naturally to Indians who treat guests as gods (Athithi devo bhava) and imbibe the spirit of

service from their parents and senior members of the family. It is not a concept new to India and

has been practiced from ancient times. While there have been some aberrations to this

philosophy, post-independence, Indian marketers have quickly rediscovered the importance of

being customer-centric and building long-term relationships with the customers whether

individuals or other business organizations. The Indian ethos that regards customer as a king or

even a god (none other than Mahatma Gandhi endorsed this view), and their exposure to global

business practices post-liberalization, ensured that Indian marketers whether big or small;

organized or unorganized, have fine-tuned their relationship marketing skills and practices,

which have been in their veins for centuries, for greater success and consolidation.

Dr Vidya Hattangadi (2012) is of the opinion that marketing is the heart of any business and

marketing strategies represent the plan by which the firm delivers its value to the customers and

in spite of whatever be the companies offering, the companies should always educating its

customers. Smart companies spend a lot on educating the customers about the use of product and

how to achieve maximum utility from it.

The study by Abhijeet Singh and Brijesh Kumar (2011) indicated that people term CRM as

technology based initiative, but the fact is that it is an enterprise wide activity which uses

technology to facilitate various functions sales, marketing , service etc and CRM initiative starts

with identification of customers with the objective of differentiating from customer to customer

and he further mentions that it is not the products or services that please the customers, but the

right attitude of handling them and building a closer relationship with them. Organisations with

high base of customers with close bonding would enjoy higher revenues and profitability.

According to V S Ramaswamy (2010) customer relationship management is not merely the

response of the times, but the necessity of the time as well it is the effective customer

relationship management which converts buyers into profitable customers and then builds

relations and retains them as a customer for life.

Shan L Pan and Jae Nam Lee (2003) had mentioned that the emergence of e commerce has

changed many aspects of existing businesses and generated new companies with new business

models. Existing companies are being challenged to rethink the most basic business relationship,

between and organisation and its customers. The underlying fact is that, addressing customer’s

needs leads to sustainable profit and to satisfy customer’s needs, companies have to maintain

consistency across all interaction channels and to overcome this challenge, organisations are

considering accepting the concept of customer relationship management.

Alan Smith (2006) found that since the mid-1990s many industries were experiencing increased

demand from their customers for higher quality and easier access to service thus corporations

and top managers started to rethink their traditional ways of providing service and customer

relationship management started to become a strategic asset among corporations.

W Ravi Kumar (2011) had mentioned that, customer relationship management is the buzzword

in the Indian corporate sector today as cut throat competition in the liberalized Indian market

place has rendered undertaking customer relationship management, as an imperative than just an

optional feature and now it has been recognised as one of the major tools for enhancing customer

loyalty and in the process reducing customer defections to competing firms. Customer

relationship management practices leave a lasting impact on their customer relationships in this

era of competition, there is a need for organiations, whether big or small to practice customer

relationship management I their own way to attract new customers, while retaining the existing

ones.

Alok Kumar & Chhabi Sinha (2008), has quoted that customer relationship management has

become a strategic initiative in most companies today because of the several reasons like ,

growth of the service sector industries which require integration of pre sales , sales and post sales

customer support , secondly due to affordable advances of digital technology , where the cost of

data storage and processing has been sharply declining and the third reason is the shift among

companies from market share to share of wallet by selling multiple products and services through

cross sell, up sell and bundling of packaged offerings.

R K Garg (2011) indicated that customer relationship management requires a seamless, single

view of the customer with consistent cross-channel interaction models and it is recommend that

companies bundle all internal customer relationship management strategies into one

comprehensive multi-channel strategy and more over if the two wheeler manufacturer integrate

customer relationship management with SCM, then product design and production planning can

be aligned with the customer information available, to increase customer loyalty

According to Alok Kumar (2008), customer relationship management is an essential discipline

for success in the 21st century as there is a direct ongoing relationship between customers and the

company especially in those service industries where customer makes a choice in the beginning

of a relationship and continues to give patronage so long as the company meets or exceeds

customers changing expectations.

The study by A Mukund (2006) about the role of customer relationship management in Tesco

and concluded that the loyalty card scheme launched by Tesco in 1995, laid the foundation of a

customer relationship management frame work that made Tesco UKs number one retailer and

the data collected with the help of these cards forms the basis to formulate strategies that offered

customers personalised services in cost effective manner and today customer relationship

management in Tesco is more of a companywide philosophy.

A V Vedpuriswar (2003) has highlighted that ICFAI realised that the growth is the key to long

term survival and much of its growth will come from keeping its eyes and ears tuned to

environment and for this ICFAI implemented customer relationship management strategies

specially for the students enrolment and processing of examination hall tickets, and this lead to

growth of ICFAI which has surprised traditional academic institutions.

Calin Gurau (2003) mentioned that the advantages of the Internet as a transaction and

communication channel present new opportunities for businesses to create a long-term

relationship with their customers and the level of e-service quality is an essential component of

this customer-centric strategy, thus the companies need to establish the optimum level of e-

service quality, taking into consideration customers’ satisfaction, , the competitive conditions of

the market, but however, the effective use of this method requires the implementation of e-CRM

systems, structured around a customer-centric approach.

Celent (2006) concluded that banks can gain full value from their investments in customer

relationship management technology by leveraging on customer knowledge and TCF bank a

midsize that has a community banking culture realised the same and implemented customer

relationship management for its online banking process and this helped TCF bank to reap

rewards during direct customer interaction.

VP Marketing, Lifestyle International Devarajan Iyer (2012) has quoted that big customer data

aided with location based technology can be used to update customers in store on the latest offers

and shopping suggestion based on the latest offers and shopping suggestions based on their

previous shopping history and as companies trade in multitude of brands, the data is a rich source

of information to understand the behaviour and spending patterns of the customers

Gaurav Patra (2006) suggested that investing in cutting edge technologies, high end

equipments and robust infrastructure, will be of little use, unless the customers are serviced

satisfactorily, thus Tata Teleservices Limited, adopted and deployed customer relationship

management solution, which helped the company to cater to the varied needs of its vast customer

base and this moved the company to higher customer service levels.

In his chapter “Putting relationship in CRM” Gordon Fullerton (2006) concludes that CRM

programs are currently in vogue. An effective CRM programs offer significant benefits to the

firm beyond customer retention, like in era where new products and services are being developed

at an accelerating rate, it is usually easier to sell these offerings to customers who already buy

one or more of the businesses existing products than to customers who have not bought any of

the firms product before.

Graham Charlton (2011) has highlighted the findings in the report from E consultancy 2011

Customer Engagement Report, that companies have stared the use of social media for customer

service and companies are really seeing the benefits of social media as customer service channel

which allows companies to handle complaints, question and deliver real time information.

Injazz J Chen (2003) has mentioned that Customer relationship management is a combination of

people, processes and technology that seeks to understand a company's customers and companies

that successfully implement CRM will reap the rewards in customer loyalty and long run

profitability and managing a successful CRM implementation requires an integrated and

balanced approach to technology, process and

people.

Jagdish N and G Shainesh (2007) had mentioned that in India and worldwide, the service firms

have taken some of the early initiatives in customer relationship management and Relationship

management is emerging as the core marketing activity for business operating in fiercely

competitive environments. On average, business spends 6 times more to acquire customers than

they do to keep them. Therefore, many firms are now paying more attention to their relationships

with existing customers to retain them and this would help create value for the customers as well

as the firms.

Jean Murphy (2006) identified that organizations are increasingly demanding an enterprise

wide customer relationship management solution that must integrate with other systems at

numerous customer touch points, as the customer relationship software market matures; it

increasingly is being viewed as an enterprise wide solution that must integrate with other systems

at numerous customer touch points.

The study by Koushiki Choudhury, Arvinandan Mukherjee (2007) observed that relationship

marketing implies attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships and it is

beneficial because acquiring new customers is more costly than retaining existing ones, and one

of the determinants of the success of the relationship marketing strategies of a firm is how the

customers perceive the resulting service quality.

Lavanya T (2011) has mentioned that customer relationship management solutions aim to

eliminate the organisations stovepipes that hamper proactive customer interaction. Customer

relationship management applications are also designed to increase the effectiveness of the staff

members who interacts with the customers or prospects and the use of customer relationship

management applications can lead to improved customer responsiveness and a more

comprehensive view of the entire “cradle –to- grave” customer life cycle.

Madhavi Garikaparthi (2002), has concluded that in the present scenario of globalization and

liberalization , marketing has undergone a matamopheric change to cope with increased

competitiveness, changing needs of customers , continuous product up gradation due to change

in technology , changing market trends and many more, because of these continuous changes ,

the marketing efforts have also slowly shifted from mass marketing to interactive marketing and

finally to today’s relationship marketing.

In the chapter “Customer Relationship Management”, Mary Moylan (2006) conclude that due to

changing scenario in financial service sector Allied Irish Bank (AIB) , noticed the need to

provide quality customer service as a means to retain customer and attract new ones and thus

focused attention on CRM which helped AIB to shift its business focus from transactional to

relationship market.

Director Marketing, Clarkston consulting, Mary Haigis (2006) has mentioned that they have

seen many companies which have done CRM, ERP and supply chain, but now these companies

need to integrate these pieces together to get the visibility and to accelerate the business value

they are getting out of their systems.

Mohd Altaf Khan (2011) the author has concluded that some businesses outperform their rivals

in offering superior relational value to their target customer and convert these advantages into

superior performance because the company focuses on their customer relating capability , which

acts as important source of advantage and has 3 interrelated components like orientation , which

reveals the organizations priorities towards customer relationship , information , which includes

customer information systems and the configuration, which reflects the alignment of

organization structures, accountability and incentives for customer retention.

Morris M, Pitt L & Honeycutt E (2001) has quoted that the view of marketing (as selling)

changed by the end of 1990. Today marketing is much more complicated and has instead became

equivalent with a set of value-creating activities and organizations must make fundamental

decisions regarding how to approach different market segments and individual customers. The

conventional wisdom is that the marketer is no longer interested in making a sale or achieving a

transaction, but instead must focus on relationship marketing.

CEO, TransOrg Solutions and services Navin Jain (2012) has strong views that if any company

wants to understand the transformation in the market place, it will have to understand and master

analytics and those companies who have made an early start in capturing and trying to make

sense of all the data will definitely enjoy an advantage.

CMO, Future Group Pawan Sarda (2012) is of the opinion that loyalty programmes are a strong

starting point for most retailers and they needs not be restricted to just their own stores, as

pantaloon retail has tied up with payback, a multi partner loyalty programme and this helps

pantaloons to look at its customers in a more holistic lights and this helps the company in

building a far more personalised relationship with customers.

Paul Szwarc (2006) has noted that CRM involves more than just gathering data and developing

programmes to identify the most profitable customer, then managing the relationship by offering

them more suitable products and services. Handled well customer relationship management can

allow for stages in the relationship to be identified and managed and the organisations that use

CRM systems sensibly can often change customer’s opinions and behaviour.

Richard Feinberg, Rajesh Kadam (2002) identified that business is moving online, not as a

matter of choice, but as a matter of necessity and the use of the Internet as a channel for

commerce and information presents an opportunity for business to use the Internet as a tool for

customer relationship management (CRM)/(e-CRM) and companies will benefit from the same.

Tamilarasan R (2011) has mentioned that customer relationship management becomes effective

when customers are involved in the customer relationship management process and it is

necessary the organisation include the customers into the mix and if CRM practices are

conceived and implemented properly, it will enable companies to retain customers for life, get

maximum value out of each customer and generate exemplary customer bonding.

Tina Nilsson (2004) explained that the main benefit of having good customer relationships is that

it helps one to stay in business and argued that the company's good customer relationships

facilitates the customer interaction when the salespersons were not available and moreover the

customer relationship results in higher sales because a relationship builds trust and trust leads to

repeat business and this also broadened the market access of the company.

Head marketing, Westside Uma Talreja (2012) shares his opinion that earlier there was only

the sales in data available on the quantitative side, i.e. the sales from the manufacturer to the

distributor or retailer were tracked, it is now that sales out i.e. sales to final consumers is being

tracked , making it possible to actually understand consumption patterns.

VP sales and marketing, Ford India, Vinay Piparsania (2006) has mentioned that the Ford has

learnt that the loyalty for a brand comes with frequent usage of the brand and by inspiring the

existing customers to avail the benefits of the services of authorized company dealers, the

company is in anticipation to inspire customers to buy a Ford car when they plan to change their

car and for this the customers gets bonus points when their car turns a year older and the same

points can be redeem to get discounts when they decide to exchange their existing cars.

2.4. After Sales Service Insights.

The study by Biswajit Mahanty and Virupaxi Bagodi (2007) observed that more than 55

million two-wheelers are moving on Indian roads, accordingly, two-wheeler service sector

should have generated revenue amounting to INR 100,000 million per year, but in reality, this

has not been realised in the organised service sector, the Indian two-wheeler service industry has

not considered servicing as a line of business and providing conveniently reliable services is

most important in two-wheeler services in India to capture the market.

Govind Hemraj (2011) has concluded that after sales service operations have been very crucial

in the automobile business and customers are very sensitive about maintenance of their vehicles.

If customers are dissatisfied with the charges or quality of the service an authorized dealer

provides, they will take their maintenance problem to roadside garage owner, moreover

customers have general perception that the service charges levied by an authorized dealership are

higher compared to the next door garage owner, but at the same time, they are also aware that the

authorized dealers’ service shop has highly skilled people and variety of sophisticated equipment

for maintenance of vehicles and the automobile organizations and dealers confront the dilemma

of improving the workshop traffic and retaining the customers after the completion of mandatory

free services for which customers generally visit the authorized outlet.

The study by Ch Venkatadri Naidu, P Madar Valli and A V Sita Rama Raju (2010)

observed that in India, automobile service sector occupies a strategic position in the economic

development, although, sales rate of auto vehicles have been continually and rapidly increasing,

a similar growth has not been in the growth of auto service sector which leads to customer

dissatisfaction. As a result, there is a need to establish and develop service centers to meet the

customer demands. Most of the vehicle manufacturers are establishing their service centers in

proportion to their sales growth and no scientific studies or methods have been developed on

improving the service rate of the existing centers.

Govind Hemraj (2011) has concluded that, the after sales service market of automobile has high

dependence on unorganized players and the other participants in the vehicle servicing market

include authorized dealer’s workshops, authorized service centers of vehicle manufacturers, road

side mechanics and some organized service centers. Most of the vehicle manufacturers have been

gearing up for enhancing the after sales service by programs like service standardization to

attract

and retain the customers, moreover with the establishment of chain of service centers it

has posed problem for authorized dealers ,since the organized service stations can provide

service for multi brands.

The study by Abdelmoti S Aburoub and Abdullah M Hersh (2011) has concluded in their

research paper “Relationship between Internal Marketing and Service Quality with customers

satisfaction” that, in services customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction takes place during the

moments of truth, when customer comes in contact with a front line employee of the firm and it

is at this moment of the truth that the quality of provided services is the customers judgment and

the result from the discrepancy between customers expectations and perceptions and moreover

the external customer satisfaction can be achieved only with the contribution of the customer

contact employee who gives the services.

In the chapter “Service as a Profit Center” Alfred P Hahn (2003) has mentioned that today

service is a major revenue generator for many large companies and the main driving forces

behind this shift from product to services are customers and competition and today service is

being organised as a profit centre rather than a cost center.

Andreas Gissler (2008) has mentioned in the report “Automotive after Sales 2015” that there

has been a decline in the profit margins of new car sales as the business is in erosion and today

high revenues doesn’t equate to high profits. Thus at the same time there are increase in revenue

from the after sales business, for instance in Germany the after sales business generates more

than half of profits.

A V Bala Krishna and Madhavi Garikaparthi (2005) has concluded that there has been a

revolutionary proportions seen in the service sector of the economy in which well-known ways

of doing business continue to be pushed aside, as service industry is growing at a rapid pace in

comparison to manufacturing industry, new opportunities in the form of globalization have

prompted many companies to fine tune their marketing efforts for their target markets. To attract

build and retain customers has become critical today and customer relationship management in

the service industry is the latest buzzword, where technology coupled with a need for delivering

better service is putting many companies on their toes.

B V Amsterdam (2007) has quoted that the after-sales activities are nowadays acknowledged as

a relevant source of revenue, profit and competitive advantage in most manufacturing industries,

therefore the top and middle management should focus on the definition of a structured business

performance measurement system for the after-sales business.

C Bhattacharjee (2008) has argued that there is no such thing as service industry or product

industry, today even product industry has the component of service in it and moreover today

everyone is in service industry and the companies need to get everybody in the company

involved in customer service, so that they can “feeling the customer” and can also get a feeling

for what’s not working.

CEO Allianz Global Assistance China Christophe Aniel (2011) mentioned that he is very

confident that the growing automobile sales market in the country will offer huge potential for

company and although the sales growth rate of automobiles in China may not be as high as that

in the past two years, the roadside assistance market potential in China remains huge.

Christopher Lovelock & Jayanta Chatterjee (2007) has concluded that with the growth of the

service economy and emphasis on adding value enhancing services to manufactured goods, the

line between services and manufacturing sometimes becomes blurred and many manufacturing

firms from auto manufacturers Ford and Fiat to Rolls Royce are moving aggressively into service

business.

Christopher Lovelock & Jayanta Chatterjee (2007) observed that the first law of service

productivity and quality is: Do it right the first time. But the organisation can’t ignore the fact

that failures continue to occur, sometimes for reasons outside the organisations control, thus how

well a firm handles complaints and resolves problems may determine whether it builds customer

loyalty or watches former customers take their business elsewhere. Customer feedback system

plays a key role in ensuring that information from complaints m compliments, market research

and other sources is systematically collected, analyzed and disseminated in ways that will drive

service improvements.

Christopher Lovelock, Jayanta Chatterjee (2007) outlined that productivity has been a

managerial imperative since 1970s, but during the early 1990s, improving quality became a

priority and in a service context, this strategy entails creating better service processes and

outcomes to improve customer satisfaction. At the beginning of twenty-first century, we are

seeing growing emphasis on linking these two strategies in order to create better value for both

customers and the firm.

Huang Ying (2011) reported that according to statistics released by the China Association of

Automobile Manufacturers in January 2011, China's automobile production rose 32.44 percent

from 2009 to 2010 to 18.26 million units since automobiles need maintenance and replacement

of tires one or two years after they are purchased, the large number of car owners in China will

create a huge demand for after-sales service.

In the chapter The Use of Technology in Customer Service James A Schauer (2003) has

concluded that today it is only with the use of technology that the businesses are getting lucrative

solutions for reducing the business cost, but business is not only about reduction in cost the other

important factor on business is providing service quality which outstands the company in front of

its competitors and gives the company a competitive edge which helps to retain the loyalty of its

customers and attract new customers. Thus the researcher concludes that technology can be used

to improve both product and service quality, which in turn will leads to leading increased

productivity and better customer services.

James A Fitzsimmons (2010) has concluded that it is imperative to recognize that services are

not peripheral activities, but rather integral part of society, service sector not only facilitates but

also makes possible the goods producing activities of the manufacturing sectors.

The study by Jayanta Chatterjee and Christopher Lovelock (2007) observed that the 2005

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) aggregate results for manufactured products,

private sector services in United States shows clearly that the services sector lags significantly

behind manufacturing sector in terms of quality provided.

From the focus group research Jayanta Chatterjee and Christopher Lovelock (2007) has

identified five criteria used by consumers in evaluating service quality and they are

1.Tangibleapperance of physical elements), Reliability (dependable , accurate performance),

Responsiveness(Promptness, helpfulness), Assurance(competence, courtesy, credibility and

security) and Empathy(easy access, customer understanding).

Jerry Fritz (2008) has quoted that the companies will never have a product or price advantage

again as it can be easily duplicated by competitors, but a strong customer service culture can’t be

copied.

John Kemp (2003) is of the view that customer retention is always a cheaper option than

customer acquisition and service plays a significant role in customer retention by recovering lost

customers and by providing feedback on customer concerns.

CEO 3M China, Kenneth Yu (2011) has mentioned that only 10% people own a car in China

and this ratio is much lower when compared to countries like Japan and South Korea. On the

other hand with the fall in cost of making automobiles and at the same time with the rise in

income increasing of people in china it is expected that the demand for cars will be on rise, thus

growing the demand for after-sales market.

The study by Lo Liang Kheng and Osman Mahamad (2010) , has concluded in their research

paper “The impact of service quality on customer loyalty : A study of banks in Penang Malaysia”

, that the improvement in service quality can enhance customer loyalty and the service quality

dimensions that play a significant role in this equation are reliability , empathy and assurance and

moreover a clearer understanding as to the sequence of relationship between service quality ,

customer satisfaction and customer loyalty can help to ensure better targeting of customer using

limited marketing resources.

Lori Flees and Todd Senturia (2008), has concluded that after-Sales Service is the key to

retaining car buyers, moreover studies have shown that owners are willing to buy the same auto

brand again if they receive excellent after-sales service from the dealer and the automakers have

opportunities to improve their business performance in the short term by focusing more on the

customers they already have, especially in tough times for the industry, one of the most powerful

techniques for converting buyers into die-hard fans is providing exceptional after-sales service.

Mc Collough, Michael A (2010) is of the view that service guarantees have the potential to

transform service organizations and despite their high potential value they remain the exception

rather than the rule for service organizations. Further, service guarantees can provide a unifying

framework that brings together the service quality literature, the complaining literature, the

service failure and recovery literature, and the relationship marketing/loyalty fields.

Mazda Japan (2005) Mazda strives to provide comprehensive after-sales service to its

customers both in Japan and overseas, from vehicle purchase to end-of-life disposal, so that its

customers can enjoy the experience of driving their cars with peace of mind, moreover the

company is working to disseminate useful information and a full range of after sales services in

order to encourage its customers to repeatedly visit dealership and to take into account diverse

viewpoints in order to encourage customers to make vehicle purchase.

Mona J Fitzsimmons (2010) has concluded that the profitability of manufacturers depends on

exploiting value added services for instance automobile manufacturers have discovered that

financing and after sales service can achieve significant profits.

Nikhil Chandra Shil and M Muzakkeerul Huda (2011) studied the explicating customer

satisfaction with special reference to private commercial banks in Bangladesh, the study brings

to light that keeping the customers satisfied is more challenging for service providers in recent

days due to the rapid change of satisfying factors among customers and in service industry the

capacity of providing quality services depends on the skill and quality of human resources and if

a good standard can be reached in terms of staff quality, the service provider should give more

focus on how the services are delivered.

P G Ramanujam (2010) has quoted in his research paper “Services sector growth in India

Myths and realities” that, service form a major portion of humans life and the service sector has

emerged as the largest and fastest growing sector in the world economy making higher

contributions to the global output and employment and in the current economic scenario the

service sector is to stay as India is fast emerging as a global services hub.

Preeti Oberoi (2002) has mentioned in the chapter “Marketing of Services, Professional” that

marketing concepts and practices have been gradually moving into service industries and

evidence implies that marketing can be a most important function in helping services firms meet

the unprecedented challenges they face.

Ratan N Tata (2012) reported that this year the company has witnessed a surge in terms of pan

India service centers to improve the customer reach and the company has connected with

customers through various contact programmes organised at channel partners to improve

customer satisfaction and on an average companies service centre are located every 50-70 km

along major highways moreover the company has established a 24x7 call centre which allows the

company to provide spot service within one hour of a call from the Tata customer.

Ratan N Tata (2012) reported that in view of the varied customer aspirations, the company has

launched the national customer day initiative in the month of October 2022 to deepen customer

connect and also introduced Tata Delight a customer loyalty programme which allows the

owners to earn rewards for commercial related products.

Saif Ullah Malik (2012) has concluded that with the growth in size of the service sector of the

global economy, services are distributed regionally, nationally and globally and are earning

larger portion of an organisations revenue and the quality of their services plays a very important

role in customer satisfaction and due to intense competition in the service sector, service

providers are laying more emphasis on service quality to market leadership. The author also

concluded that customer satisfaction is significantly related with perceived service quality and

perceived value.

In the chapter “Services Today” S Balachandra (1999) has mentioned that service is intangible,

performed by people, providing satisfaction to customers. Boundaries between different kinds of

services are getting blurred. This is the fastest growing sector in the economy and provides the

competitive edge in the market. It does not recognise geographical boundaries and is truly global

in its reach and impact.

S Balachandran (1999) has mentioned in the chapter “Developing The Service Product” that a

service product is the offer made to the customer, promising benefits and infinite options are

available in creating depth and breadth in the product range. The delivery system is an integral

part of service product and it should deliver consistently as promised, without being asked

moreover performance beyond expectations and continuous upgrading are facilited through

attention to customer complaints and customization improves attractiveness.

Shamez S Dharamsi (2005) , is of the opinion that the service industry has its focus on selling

intangibles, so the service marketing companies can learn from B2C marketing companies

successful experience about relationship marketing and the best practices dictate that the data to

be collected from all the customer communication channels , carefully cleansed and made

available to all the channels of organization , which can anticipate and proactively solve

customer service needs and make the customer migrate to the most appropriate service solution.

Tamilarasan R (2011) has mentioned that as a result of changes in technology, and India’s

economic liberialisation and changes in consumer behaviour, the Indian consumer has more

choices to choose from services of competitors and besides retention of their existing customers,

companies have to evolve strategies to earn a competitive edge among other competitors.

Valarie A Zeithaml (2011) has mentioned that in service companies, there exist the listening

gap which is the difference between customer expectations of service and company

understanding of those expectations, the other reason for this listening gap is the lack of

companies strategies to retain customers and strengthen relationship with them i.e. the approach

of relationship marketing.

Vikas Gautam (2011) has concluded that Service organisations in India are facing tough

competition, hence it is helpful for service organisations to know the customers service quality

perceptions in order to overcome the competitors and attract and retain the customers. In order to

overcome the competition, Indian companies have been forced to adopt quality management

programs. Due to high competition retaining a customer is cheaper than finding a new customer,

so service quality provided can lead to a point of distinction for the service providers. This can

be a competitive advantage over a period of time.