Customer Satisfaction in Automobile Industry

PROGRESS REPORT: 1

Submitted by

Gokul Ram G L

PGDM: 13

                                                                                Asian School of Business

 Industry Introduction: - Automobile Industry:

     The automobile industry in India is one of the larger markets in the world. It had previously been one of the fastest markets globally. India’s passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturing industry is the sixth largest in the world, with an annual production of more than 3.9 million units in 2012.According to recent reports, India overtook Brazil and became the sixth largest passenger vehicle producer in the world, grew 16 to 18 percent to sell around three million units in the course of 2011 and 2012. In 2009, India emerged as Asia’s fourth largest exporter of passenger cars, behind Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. In 2010, India beat Thailand to become Asia’s third largest exporter of passenger cars.

      A report from TimesJobs.com says that, Automobile industry was one of the top performing sectors of 2013. The industry showed significant rise in demand for talent during the year and experts predict that it will be one of the key sectors to watch out for in 2014. While currently because of the slow market conditions, the focus is off expansion and towards productive. Experts resonated in TimesJob.com RecruiteX report that companies which will continue to consistently attract talent, through long-term growth options and provide them cross-functional international assignments, will stay ahead of the competition.

     As of 2010, India is home to 40 million passenger vehicles. More than 3.7million automotive vehicle were produced in India in 2010 making the country the second (after China) fastest growing automobile market in the world in that year. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures, annual vehicle sales are projected to increase to 4 million by 2015, no longer 5 million as previously projected.

     The majority of India’s car manufacturing industry is based around three clusters in the south, west and north. The southern cluster consisting of Chennai is the biggest with 35% of the revenue share. The western hub near Mumbai and Pune contributes to 33% of the market and the northern cluster around the National Capital Region contributes 32%. In 2011,there were 3,695 factories producing automotive parts in all of India. The average firm made US $6 million in annual revenue with profits close to US $400 thousand.

      Currently, the biggest focus for every company, in the Automobile sector, is cost optimisation in the plant, new product development and sales & marketing. Consequently, there has been a rise in demand for certain specific profiles. Vidur Fupta, director, Spectrum Talent & Management shares 5 key profiles that are currently most in-demand in this industry. As the market slows down, the pressure on the sales team increases to gather the best possible market share from the industry.

Company profile:

     Popular Vehicles & Services Ltd. established in 1983-84 was among the first batch of Maruti Udyog dealers appointed in India. A subsidiary of the Popular Group which traces its history to 1939 and has interests in automobile spares and education, Popular Vehicles & Services Ltd. has established an envious position in automobile retailing. It is the first Maruti Dealership in Kerala, started in 1983-84 at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. The Kochi branch has been functioning since October 1985 and the Third dealership was started at Kozhikode in 1996. Popular’s first dealership outside Kerala was inaugurated on March 2013 at Chennai. Kottayam Showroom was inaugurated in October 2005. The group has grown into a business house with a turnover over Rs. 1000 crores and an employee strength above 4500. Currently Kochin is functioning as the head office of Popular Vehicles & Services Ltd. At present, they have a total of 8 dealerships, 35 service centres, 11 true value outlets and 5 Maruti Driving Schools covering Kerala and Chennai.

Awards:

• Awarded by Marti Suzuki for “Best HR Practices” for 5 times consecutively.
• One of the top ranked dealerships in employee satisfaction survey conducted by TNS Singapore.
• ISO certified.
• Ranked No.1 in Platinum plus category by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. during 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012 from Kerala State Productivity Council.
• Winner of National selling skill and technical skill competitions conducted by Maruti Suzuki.
• Won the KMA-OEN Young Manager Contest in the year 2011.
• IIM (Ahmedabad) has chosen PVS as a successfull Small & Medium Enterprise(SME) from Kerala for conducting a Academic case study.
• All India No. 1 in Sales Satisfaction Index conducted by JD Power India Ltd.
• All India NO.1 in Customer Satisfaction conducted by JD Power India Ltd.

Vision: “Popular Vehicles and Services Ltd., will be the world’s most admired corporate by progressively delivering greater value through entrepreneurship within”.

Process done: (till May 15)

    Objective of my project is to find out the customer satisfaction level of PVS Ltd. Trivandram. For that initially I planned to absorb the operations happening in the showroom in a practical way. The following are the functions and operations carried out in PVS Ltd.

Services offered:

• Accessories
• Insurance
• Loan
• Warranty
• True value
• Registration
• Customer care service before and after service
• Workshop services

Products:

• Alto 800
• Alto K10
• Celerio
• Eeco
• Omni
• Ritz
• Wagon R
• Stingray
• A Star
• Zen Estilo
• Swift
• Swift Dzire
• Ertiga
• Grand Vitara
• Kizashi
• SX4

Target Strategy: