The country largest car brand Maruti has topped the prestigious J D Power Customer Service Study for after-sales customer service among mass market brands for the 17th consecutive year.

“Overall service satisfaction in the mass car market in India continues to improve and Maruti Suzuki and Honda have been ranked highest in after-sales customer service among mass market brands,” according to the J D Power 2016 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study mass market segment.

Overall service satisfaction in the mass market segment in India improved by 14 points to 880 on a 1,000-point scale in 2016 from 866 in 2015.

Honda and Maruti Suzuki rank highest in satisfaction, in a tie, with after-sales customer service of each scoring 901. While Maruti Suzuki bagged this position for the 17th consecutive year, Honda ranked the highest for the first time.

“Maruti performs well across all factors and Honda shows strong improvement across all factors, with the greatest improvements in service initiation and service quality. Hyundai and Tata rank third in a tie at 888, and are the most improved nameplates in the study,” pointed out the study.

“Our service network on an average services over 15 lakh cars per month and over 1.6 crore cars per annum. The mantra is ‘create devoted customers’. This involves concepts such as express service bays and early morning service to deliver vehicles on time. Express service bays are operational across 1,600 cities and offer quick service in 90 minutes. Workshops are pro-actively communicating these concepts so that customers can benefit from them,” said Pankaj Narula, Service Head, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

He said the company’s Maruti Mobile Support (MMS) door-step service was well appreciated by customers. There are over 1,490 MMS operating across India.

“While we keep innovating and finding opportunities to offer new-age convenience services, we are conscious that if we take good care of the customer at the workshop, there is higher probability of getting recommendation of the brand/ dealership. Service gives us an opportunity to promote brand loyalty,” he added.

Even as automotive manufacturers collectively improve their after-sales service satisfaction for the eighth consecutive year in India, satisfaction levels and service consistency vary greatly across the regions of the country.

Overall satisfaction in the western region is 900, while overall satisfaction in the northern region is 857.

Strong differences in customer behaviour, preferences and expectations of after-sales experiences contribute to the substantial disparity in regional scores.

“In an astoundingly diverse market like India where every region and state has its own unique characteristics and needs, dealers need to capitalise on every customer interaction opportunity to develop points of differentiation and deliver on those expectations,” said Mohit Arora, executive director at J.D. Power.

The 2016 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study is based on responses from 7,843 new-vehicle owners who purchased their vehicles between May 2014 and August 2015. The study was fielded from May through August 2016.

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