Analysing the drivers of customer happiness at authorized workshops and improving retention

Abstract

Due to increased business competition, customer happiness has drawn significant interest in recent times. With customer happiness at authorized workshops in mind, workshops are trying hard to give the best services to customers so that they feel happy and return even after free services. However, customers are not using regular maintenance services properly although their vehicles are still under warranty. Literature shows that there is a direct relationship between company performance and customer happiness. However, no literature is available related to sustaining customer happiness and improving retention after free services. Therefore, the study aims to identify the drivers of customer happiness at authorized automotive workshops and prioritize them, allowing service providers to improve services to help in improving customer retention even after free services. To achieve this aim, a two-phased research methodology was used. In the first phase, an extensive literature review was carried out to list drivers of customer happiness; and finalized the drivers empirically. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed in the second phase to prioritize the drivers. The ‘technological’ driver has been reported as the most important sustainable driver of customer happiness followed by ‘social’ driver. This study will help service providers to plan resources effectively and increase customer happiness at authorized workshops; this will improve retention even after free services. To check the robustness of results, sensitivity analysis is performed.