Degree
Master of Business Administration
Faculty / School
Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)
Advisor
Mr. Jami Moiz
Committee Member 1
Mr. Jami Moiz, Assistant Professor, Business Administration – Academic Affairs, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi
Project Type
MBA Research Project
Keywords
https://ir.iba.edu.pk/do/search/?q=Automobile%20Industry&start=0&context=8598587&facet=">Automobile Industry, Indus Motor Company, Toyota Corporation, Dealerships, Honda Atlas, Pak Suzuki Motors, Customer satisfaction, Customer experience, Customers’ needs
Abstract / Summary
The landscape of the automotive industry in Pakistan is simplistic. The market consists of three main players which are all joint ventures with global automobile giants. Indus Motor Company and Toyota Corporation, Honda Atlas and Pak Suzuki Motors. In terms of sales and overall market share, Indus Motor Company is the market leader. In terms of dealerships Pak Suzuki Motors has the largest number with IMC coming in second. The main categories of vehicles sold in Pakistan are light transport vehicles and heavy transport vehicles. Indus Motor Company deals with light transport vehicles. Locally manufactured models include Corolla, Fortuner, Revo and Hilux. IMC only deals with vehicles of 1300 cc and above engines. In order to attract and retain the most customers, IMC has developed an internal practice called Toyota Way in Sales and Marketing (TWSM) which is a guideline by which all dealerships are required to adhere in terms of customer service.
The project objective is to determine whether the current customer satisfaction practices adopted by Toyota dealerships fulfill the requirements of the customers and the goals set forth by IMC. The project used various methods such as mystery shopping, data analysis, field and secondary research in order to gauge customer experience at each of the five chosen dealerships. The project also takes a deeper look at the current back office practices of dealerships and how they are operating. We conducted our research using a three-pronged approach to gauge customer satisfaction.
The first step was using a questionnaire using the customer service points highlighted in the TWSM document we conducted mystery shopping visits. The purpose of these visits was to check ourselves that each of the five dealerships assigned to us were following those guidelines.
The second step was to conduct visits to each dealership as IMC representatives and ask in-depth questions regarding the processes and back office reporting. Since the dealerships are owned by different individuals or organizations the software used by the companies to record data and generate reports is different. We were able to deduce the problems each dealership had when it came to following IMC guidelines as well as reporting information back to IMC.
The third step was to build a survey asking customer satisfaction questions and have relevant individuals answer those questions. Their answers were used to conduct data analysis such as correlation and regression.
In terms of back office reporting we found that all five dealerships were concerned with the amount of paperwork IMC required from them and the customers who came to purchase vehicles had to fill out in order to receive their vehicles which usually left them frustrated and irritable. One of the reasons for this was lack of a single software used across all dealerships. As each dealership had the liberty to come up with their own type of software, extracting data and then converting it into an IMC acceptable format or even using two software simultaneously was hectic and lengthy for the dealerships.
In terms of customer experience, we found that only physical aspects such as location and parking and the overall convenience of the dealership had a significant impact on the customer’s level of satisfaction. The other factor which had a significant impact on the customer’s satisfaction was problem solving. This means the way in which the dealership can answer and resolve the customers’ queries. In order to resolve the breakdowns in the back-office reporting process we recommend that IMC collaborate with a software house to build a single software that is used across all dealerships while all other software is discarded or becomes legacy.
To improve customer satisfaction the focus needs to be less on the affability or personal interaction of the salesperson and more on the dealership’s overall problems solving skill. The dealership that is able to satisfy its customers’ needs by resolving any issues they have not only during the purchasing process but also after sales, will be able to satisfy their customers the most.
Recommended Citation
Hasan, A., Sajjad, S., Tariq, S., Ghani, S. B., & Muhammad, W. (2019). Improvements in sales management systems at IMC dealerships (Unpublished graduate research project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/research-projects-mba/224
