A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY OF

MANDOVI MOTORS PVT LTD IN MANGALORE

Sijal Khan
2nd Year MBA HR, Srinivas University, College of Management and Commerce,
Pandeshwar, Mangalore, India
Email: sijalkhan63@gmail.com
Phone No: +917676343760

ABSTRACT

The automobile sector plays a vital role in the development of a nation. India is one of the
largest and rapidly growing countries in the automobile sector. In today’s competitive
environment delivering high-quality service is the way for a sustainable competitive
advantage. A customer who has a good experience with the concerned dealer may likely use
the same brand again while the customer who experiences problems with a certain brand of
car may not use the same in the next time. The present study was carried to find and identify
the relationship between customer satisfaction and the service quality of Mandovi Motors.
The positive impact of customer satisfaction makes the customers to be loyal to the company.
Mandovi Motors Pvt Ltd. is the First and Largest Dealership of Maruti Suzuki Cars in India.
Its parent company has nearly 75 years of experience in the Automobile Industry. The
company has a well and substantial culture of excellence in everything that it does. It is one of
the leading dealers of Maruti Suzuki cars, in Mangalore. 
The main purpose of this study is to examine and establish the correlation that exists between
service quality and customer satisfaction. The study seeks to provide factors that influence
buyers purchasing decisions. The primary data for the study has been collected with the help
of a survey and questionnaire. The secondary data have been collected from books, journals,
research reports, articles, and websites. The analysis helps in providing improvements in the
suitable service areas of Mandovi motors. The study concludes that a proper customer care
strategy plays a key role in satisfying & delighting customers.  
Keywords: Automobile sector, Service Quality, Customer satisfaction, Customer care
Strategy.
 INTRODUCTION:
Automobile industry has become the backbone of the Indian economy which employee’s 13
million individuals in India. The automotive industry is contributing about 3.1 % of India’s
GDP. India is one of the fastest growing car markets in the world. India is expected to
overtake China by 2050 in terms of the number of units sold. India has a huge domestic
market and as of now it has a low base of car ownership (17 per 1000 people). Lower cost of
production, availability of skilled labour, surging economy, pro industrial policy of the
government made India to be a huge attraction for car manufacturers across the globe. Several
foreign auto manufacturers like Ford, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai have their own
manufacturing bases in India. Multiplicity of local taxes, high import duties on raw materials,
high taxes on services, lack of infrastructure, poor after sales service, inconsistency in quality,
congested roads are becoming hurdles for the higher growth rate of passenger cars industry.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The study conducted on evaluation of customer satisfaction with reference to Mandovi motors
states the following objectives.
 To assess customer satisfaction of Mandovi Motors Pvt Ltd.
 To assess the reasonable time taken for services and delivery.
 To study the attitude of the customers towards the facilities provided at the center
 To study the preferences of respondents while buying Maruti Cars.
 To know whether services are done properly on time and delivered to customer.

PROFILE OF MANDOVI MOTORS PVT. LTD:

Mandovi Motors Pvt. Ltd. is the first and Largest Dealership of Maruti Suzuki Cars in India.
Its parent company has nearly 75 years of experience in the Automotive Industry. The
company has a strong culture of excellence in everything that it does. This has helped it earn
tremendous loyalty from Customers, resulting in a large percentage of its business coming
through references from the existing Customers. This has also enabled Mandovi to become:
 First Automobile dealer in South India to cross a sale of 50,000 cars in 1997.
 First Dealer in Karnataka to cross a sale of 100,000 cars.
 Only Dealer in Karnataka to service more than 26,000 cars every month.
 Again, testimony of the trust our Customers place in us, by patronizing our workshops
because of high quality service and personalized attention they get.
 First Auto dealership to get ISO Certification in in Karnataka.
 First Maruti dealer in India to get Top position in JD Power customer satisfaction study (Non-
Metro) Three times in a row.
Mandovi Motors is a leading dealer of Maruti Udyog Ltd. Today, Mandovi boasts of the
largest network among all the Maruti dealers in Karnataka, with 4 Cities, 9 Showrooms, 9 E-
Outlets, 4R-Outlet, 28 Workshops and 5 Showrooms for Used Car Sale (True Value), 6
Maruti Driving School. With branches in Bangalore, Mangalore and Mysore, Mandovi offers
exciting Career opportunities, and a great growth path, to aspiring candidates in the area of
Sales, Service, General Administration, Tele Sales etc.  It has a team of over 2800 dedicated
professionals committed to provide the best possible service to its customers.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:
Customer satisfaction is defined as the number of customers, or percentage of total customers,
whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified
satisfaction goals. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers,
customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key
element of business strategy. Presently gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very
important to a business or any.
1. CompanyCulture:
Culture is a pattern of behaviors that is encouraged, developed & incorporated by like-minded
people in a society (in our case, a company). Mandovi is now 27 years old, & their culture has
been developed enough to formalize it. Culture cannot be dictated by heads of society,
leaders, or even directors / owners (as in their company). These are a set of behaviors /
attitudes that are developed by the members of the society, or company.
For our company to grow & prosper in these changing times, it is very important that we
identify & respect the culture we live by.
2. Integrity:
They are all here to achieve our company objectives without compromising on their integrity
& ethics. Honesty is expected & respected amongst us all.
They would like all of us to be 100% honest & ethical to all their colleagues & customers.
There is no place for unethical team members, who will lie or cheat their peers for personal
gains.
3. Loyalty:
They are a very young team, & many of them have started their careers here. The company
 respects all team members who work loyally towards the goals of the company. They are very
keen on giving Opportunities for further growth within our organization before doing external
recruiting.
4. PositiveTeamwork:
They can only succeed if they work positively as a team. Their company should be broken up
into different teams within departments & outlets. This sub classification of teams within
teams will help us manage their organization better, & will increase accountability.
Teamwork at a micro level also helps us identify the managers of the future. Each team
should have a Captain & a Vice Captain.
5. Customer is friend as well as source of live hood:
All the above principles are in vain if we cannot respect our customers. Their utmost
satisfaction is the only way we can secure our future growth. Their convenience, their
satisfaction & their trust is what we must strive for every day.

SWOT ANALYSIS:

STRENGTHS WEAKNESS
Distributor network brand loyalty Lack of experience in foreign market.
After sales service Low Resale value.
Cost-effective and Low maintenance Low engine capacity.
Indian middle-class
Low price
High fuel efficiency
Strong brand image & loyalty

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
High end car segment Stiff competition from local players.
Improve handling Rising customer’s expectations.
Attracting youth Fuel price
Perspective huge market of government and Foreign brands
software company employees Small car competition.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
In this competitive environment corporate companies are keen in promoting brands and
creating brand value to project their products and to sustain in the market. Hence it is very
essential to know the determinants and measurement of brand equity and its implication on
value of the firm. Automobile industry in general and car industry in particular is chosen
taking into account the emergence of many new brands of cars in the recent past and changing
mind set of the customers on the purchase of cars. Customer satisfaction plays a key role in
choosing a brand.
Objectives of the study:
This study was conducted with the following objectives;
Primary objectives: -
 To study and understand the preferences of respondents while buying Maruti
Cars.
 To assess customer satisfaction at Mandovi Motors Pvt Ltd.
Secondary Objectives: -
 To know the post purchase satisfaction level of respondents.
 To get an idea about which factors determine the customer satisfaction in vehicle
purchase and servicing

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
A review of literature shows that researchers investigated the relationship between attribute
and overall customer satisfaction with Maruti Suzuki using different car and nature of
attributes. In addition, the results of these studies will empirically validate that proposed
attributes considerably affects overall customer satisfaction with Maruti Suzuki car of service
provided.
Menon Balakrishnan & Dr.Jagathy Raj V.P, (May 2012) in their research paper, ―Model
development and validation for studying consumer preferences of car owners‖ highlighted on
various consumer purchase behaviour patterns of passenger car owners in the state of Kerala.
Their findings indicate that customer focus is a major differentiator in the passenger car
industry, wherein the customer looks for personalized care for his after sales service with the
manufacturer.
The study also reveals that for the youths, peer group is the greatest influencing factor, of
their car purchase decision. They also suggested that the company should launch its car with
 some added features with competitive prices. Suganya R, (Jan 2012) in her research paper
highlights the effect of brand equity on consumer purchasing behavior on car. The paper
speaks that brand plays vital role in car sales, not only to attract but also to retain customers.
The author concluded that brand awareness and perceived quality proved to influence the
brand loyalty.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
Research design is defined as a framework of methods and techniques chosen by a researcher
to combine various components of research in a reasonably logical manner so that
the research problem is efficiently handled. It provides insights about “how” to
conduct research using a methodology.
This paper is mostly prepared with the help of primary data collection.
 Research design: Descriptive research
 Data sources:
1. Primary Data: Users of Maruti Suzuki towards Mandovi Motors in Mangalore are the
primary data sources.
2. Secondary Data: Secondary data sources are journals, magazines association bulletins, web
portals, company brochures, books etc.
 Research instrument: Structured questionnaire
 Research approach: Survey method

 Sampling design:
Sampling frame: Customers of Mandovi motor cars in Mangalore were taken for the survey.
Sampling unit: Maruti Motor Car users.
Sample Size:
Sampling method:

Limitations of the study:

The study is confined to the existing passenger car users.
 The data has been gathered using a questionnaire and hence the limitations of the
questionnaire are inherent in the report.
 As the main objective of this study is customer’s views, there is always a little amount of bias
that might have crept in knowingly or unknowingly.
 The conclusions arrived at are based on my limited knowledge and the data that was at my
disposal.
 Due to time constraint, this study is limited to a small research report.

SUGGESTIONS:
Mandovi Motors can focus on to the several areas like:

1. They go for certain initiatives at the enterprise level like Six Sigma wherein they can
maintain and improve on the quality of the workforce in the organization.

2. They can go for some other data base also like “Dealer Management System” wherein they
can have 2-way flow of information with the customer more effectively. They can use
Database for future contact.

3. They can look for more creative measures to do the advertisements and promotion so that
more and more customer gets attracted.

4. They can suggest Maruti Suzuki to offer more generous discount during Festival Season
like Navratra, Dusshera, and Diwali to gear – up their sales to much extend.

5. They can go for having a quality control department which can monitor all day to day
activities of the different department and can give feedback to members depending on their
performance.

CONCLUSION:

Customer satisfaction is crucial for business performance, as it is the driver of customer

loyalty and consecutive retention. One could say that it is much more expensive to acquire
new customers than retain current ones, as the costs associated with the customer recruitment
are higher than those connected with customer retention. Maruti Suzuki is No. one automobile
industry in India and has changed over the time to suit the needs of their customers. Maruti is
the only company in India with a lots of small car models There was positive correlation of
age, education and Income with service quality during purchase, safety of car and cost of
ownership.
Mandovi Motors says “That price of a car is just one-third of what it cost over its lifetime.”
Running and maintaining it make up the other two-thirds. Take into accounts resale value and
its real cost becomes clear. Maruti Suzuki stands for value as much as it stands performance
and that makes Mandovi Motors put Ltd is one of the leading dealers of Maruti Suzuki cars,
in Mangalore. Despite rising input costs, they try their best to keep prices down as per stated
by Maruti Suzuki. They are oriented driven company and have more varieties of car offering
with maximum sales of cars as compared to other brands. They also offer good sale service;
spare parts are cheap as compared to any other brand with cheap prices & reliable quality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCES:

[1]. Bhargava, R.C., & Seetha. (2010). Assembling a Dream. In The Maruti Story (Seetha,
Trans). India: Harper Collins Publishers.

[2]. Menon, B., & Jagathy Raj, V. P. (2012). Model Development and Validation for Studying
Consumer Preferences of Car Owners. International Journal of Marketing & Technology, II
(5), 148-170.

[3]. Manoharan, N., & Ganapathi, R. (2012). Customer Preferences and Attitudes towards
Maruti cars in Pollachi Taluka. Indian Journal of Applied Research, I (8), 41-45.

[4]. Maruti Suzuki India Limited. (2009). Sustainability Annual Report 2009-10. Maruti
Suzuki India Limited.

[5] Akhila, M and Thayyullathi, T. A (2014) A study on customer satisfaction toward Maruti
Suzuki in Coimbatore. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT AND
COMMERCE INNOVATIONS. 2(2) 583-587

[6] Javed, M and Gupta, P and Saxena, V (2015) Role of service quality and customer
satisfaction in four wheeler automobile service industry. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ENGINEERING TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGY. 28(6) 287-29

[7] Singh, A and Srivatava, M (2013) Factors ‘affecting customer satisfaction, a study on
Maruti Suzuki. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND SOFTWAREENGINEERING.3(5) 865-874
WEBSITES:
• Indian consumer complaint forum Dated: 20th October, 2009
• Mandovi Motors Manual
• OICA. Retrieved 2009-06-24
• http://www.Mandovimotors.in
• Business Times

BOOKS:
• Marketing Management – Phillip Kotler
• Maruti Suzuki Insurance booklet
• Brochures of different car models.

ANNEXURE: