Rhea Pradhan

PGP/23/412
Marketing of Services – B

Sullivan Ford Auto World

1. How does marketing cars differ from marketing service for those same vehicles?

Firstly, we realize that the offering in these two cases is different. Although both are in the
automobile category, the first is a tangible product and the second is an intangible service. Thus,
marketing the cars would be focused on more technical things like product features, price of the
vehicle, offers and promotions available, places it is available etc.. Customers can come in the
showroom and touch and feel the product, some places may allow customers to go for a test drive
and try out the car before purchase. Thus, marketing cars involves the four Ps.

Marketing car servicing is a greater challenge involving the service delivered, mode of delivery, i.e.
the place and time taken, the price and promotions, the people delivering it, their skills,
competencies, etc.. and the environment it is delivered in, basically the 7Ps. Thus, since service is an
intangible product, the marketing would largely focus on the people providing it, their skills, the
mode of delivery or price bundles offered, the promotions and packages present etc…

2. Compare the sales and service departments at Auto world?

Sales Department Service Department

The face of the showroom, where most of the
advertising and marketing is focused.
Attractive facility with tall ceilings and clean
and well-designed showrooms, decorations and
polished cars.
Customers walk into the sales department in a
happier mood to make a new purchase.
Employees require more interpersonal skills
and communication ability.
The back-end services, not particularly visible to
the customer with lack of marketing support.
Old and greasy building with modern
machinery. Service writers sat in a cramped
room.
Customers are invited for a tour, appointment,
or come with a problem to get it resolved
quickly.
Employees require great technical knowledge
and skills. However, the service writers also
require good communication skills and
patience.

3. From a consumer's perspective, what useful parallels do you see between operating a car
sales and service dealership, and operating health services?

In both places, a service is being rendered. Both require well educated and aware staff who know
what they’re offering well as the sales staff would need to know information about the cars and the
servicing staff would of course need technical knowledge and expertise. Similarly, health
professional would need to be experts in their field and well versed with medical knowledge.
Further, a certain part of both these services involves accurate diagnosis of the problem, without
which resolution will be unsuccessful. Thus consumer satisfaction is dependant upon the skill and
expertise, as well as the accuracy of the person delivering these services in both the cases.

Both places also involves handling of irate, anxious, unhappy or generally difficult-to-deal-with tye of
customers who may get angry at the people handling them. Thus, both places require calm and
patient staff who can handle the moods of the customer and deal with complaints and issues in an
amicable way.
Rhea Pradhan
PGP/23/412
Marketing of Services – B

Customer relationships are built on trust in both cases. In the care sales and service, word of mouth,
family, friends’ recommendations, personal experiences etc are the ones which help in building a
relationship and getting the customer to return to the same place instead of choosing a new place.
Similarly, healthcare services are also chosen on recommendations and positive experiences.

Another interesting parallel is that in both cases, the lesser returns of a customer indicates better
delivery of services. Elaborating on this, as in healthcare, in car servicing too, if the problems are
accurately identified and resolved or treated, then the customer will not have to return to the place
again. The customer satisfaction at this resolution would come from the need to not return there
again, unless there is a new issue at hand.

4. What advice would you give to Carol Sullivan-Diaz?

Firstly, I would ask her to evaluate the standing of her offerings in the current market, basically
asking her to do a situation analysis to know where she currently stands in the industry. Since she is
a capable and educated person with an interest indicated in continuing this firm, I would advise her
to focus her and try to spend some time in it’s revitalisation. She can begin by hiring Larry Winters as
the leader and manager of the sales department, handing him the responsibility to use his education
and long experience and skills to handle and increase sales. Parallelly, she should focus on managing
the servicing department. She can begin by modernising it and making it look better aesthetically, so
that customers can be provided a tour of the department when needed. Also, she can look into
more customer friendly ideas like a waiting room or modern lounge for them to relax or work in
when waiting for their car to get serviced. She can make better employee policies for her customer
facing staff so that they can be protected against abusive customers. In fact she can undertake
employee engagement activities and provide better benefits to the servicing team so they feel
bonded to the company and work with more zeal. She can invest in training the staff, in handling
difficult customers, improving the efficiency of servicing cycles, etc…

She should also adopt useful technology and software in her entire company, so that various
processes can be automated, such as appointment reminders and updating information etc… This
would give better customer satisfaction and increase the efficiency and speed of the organisation.

Lastly, she can focus on a different marketing strategy, which focuses on servicing as a part of sales
but also as an individual offering, as it is the higher margin revenue generator.