Village Volvo “ New kid in town”

Introduction:

In today's market place the consumer has loads of choices as to where to have their
vehicle repaired. Taking this into account, village Volvo operations strategy is designed
to create sustainable competitive advantages by providing unique and value added
services and un-compromised service standards, to Volvo car owners, where on-the-go
convenience, reliability, using state of the art strategies for the customers is a pivotal
consideration by two former combined 22 experienced authorized Volvo dealers. Fig-1
the model of Service Profit Chain adopted by village Volvo owner’s

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Fig-1 the service profit chain

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 Source: Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger, The Service Profit Chain, 1987, p.19

Operations strategy:

Operations strategy is top-down activity and a pattern of consistent decisions that has
been noted in Village Volvo for achieving convincing competitive objectives that may
include constant interaction with customer, growth, stability and long-term returns.

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Village Volvo Car Care Center is dedicated to consistently providing the best in customer

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service and delivering the highest quality automotive repairs while always being

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responsive to the customers' needs and finally, strives to be an energetic, profitable, and

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dynamic company that will move into twenty first century as the leader in total
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automotive repair. Fig-2 shows the village Volvo’s operations strategy
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Fig-2 Operations Strategy of Village Volvo

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Consumer
Service Process
Evaluation
Monitor arrivals Departures
Consumer Participant
(input) (output) Criteria
Consumer-Provider
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Measurement
Interface
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Control Monitor
Control

Service operations manager

Service Personnel
Customer Demand Production function:
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Monitor and control process

Empowerment
Perceived Needs Alter Marketing Function: Schedule
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Training
Location Demand Interact with consumers supply Attitudes
Control demand
Modify as necessary
Define standard
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Service Package
Supporting Facilities
Communicate by Basis of Selection
Internet Advertising
Facilitating goods Source:
Nature of Services, Explicit services (2006), ‘Open Systems View of Services
Implicit Services
Operations’ Viewed at 01-01-2006, available at
<http://www.belkcollege.uncc.edu/ mjkhouja/Nature2.ppt>

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 Operations Strategy is the total pattern of decisions and actions which set a role,
objectives and activities of the operation so that they contribute and support the village
Volvo’ business strategy. (Slack and Chambers, Harland and Harrison, and Johnston,
1998). With skilled manpower such as GM/AC Delco Service Specialists, ASE certified
technicians PPG Paint products and certified worker, AAA Approved Auto Repair, AAA
Emergency service, Old fashioned service with the technology of today, Informative,
Courteous, and Neighborly Staff and effectively designed operations strategy like for
example express drive through bay where in particular time customer’s in rush hours may
come and check their cars for routine tune-ups and oil change, this high level of
flexibility at village Volvo stands a swift response among workers to customers, however
for extensive checkups, worker along with customer will take a short span of test drive is
to understand both mechanic and owner, the main area of attention and recognizing the

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flaw in the car. Attaining the preliminary diagnosis, while discussing with the customer

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before repair has been done, service manager will assess the projected cost which

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customer would incur, given customer estimated cost by service manager before any

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repair of vehicle, customer can be able to reflect their own finance(s), including customer
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will feel by no means cheated at any point because he /she can confirm the estimation
given by manager with other non-volvo service providers and most importantly the
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estimated time by manager to repair and deliver the car on time. This also helps customer
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to re-schedule his / her daily work. Furthermore consideration of providing shuttle

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service will be added advantage. However shuttle service is not enough to satisfy
customer’s need, because village Volvo might loose potential customer, if he/she
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consider repairing their vehicle(s) near their work place or home, therefore owner must
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consider home picking service replacing with another car or dispatching a taxi service
until vehicle repair has been finished.
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Capability of leveraging added value services in operations can be a critical differentiator

for a village Volvo to stay competitive, in addition better customer profiling and
prediction of customer behaviors can facilitate target marketing, cross-selling and up-
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selling into the existing customer base, village Volvo’s CCVD (customer car vehicle
dossier) is evident manifestation to achieve company’s bottom line benefits, whereby
maintain the database of owner’s vehicle and alert post cards for tune-ups and oil change
due-ups is one of the decisive operations strategy for village Volvo which can be
operations strategy for retention of client and customer loyalty with village Volvo. Also it

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 will be rather easy for bay mechanic to diagnosing the problem in car more quickly and
fixing it keeping the CCVD updated. In addition maintaining the Volvo vehicle CCVD
has other advantages as well, like for example if some one want to buy a used a Volvo
car, with reasonable cost customer would be more than willing to pay for service looking
at the history of the vehicle helps customer to make a decision easily even the car is out
of warranty status that’s what sets Village Volvo apart from the rest is because of its

Value added intangible services to make village Volvo as differentiated operative

strategies. Moreover distinguishing it self from Volvo dealers, A flexible strategy must be
taking into consideration, like for example owner must consider towing service for
entering the extended-stay in the market place. Which offer 24/7 customer call center
with damaged-Free towing and recovery service, whereby focus on meeting the demand

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of a regular local resident Volvo clients, as well as towed vehicle drop-ins from local and

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freeway traffic traveling towed to village Volvo facility. Also establishing relationship

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with a few major local tow truck companies for referral business of stalled Volvo

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vehicles. This significant operational strategy allow village Volvo to become a reputable
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company among other competitors, in addition, other JIT service like help-desk, may
also a noteworthy service operation, attaining customer's inquiry regarding problems with
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a owner’s vehicle involves the help-desk support personnel to record the description of
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the problem, classify the problem, retrieve similar previous cases from the case database
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and develop a solution by reusing or revising previous case solutions. Also customer
observation area placed, right in front of the bay area that client can observe and monitor,
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because some clients tend to have this behavior to look and understand the problem of
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their cars while work-in-progress, however if the client feel fatigue some how than car’s
owner can be seated in the waiting room, completely equipped with cozy environment,
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equipped with vending machines, Astro cable service, comfortable sofas and chairs. , Fig-
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2 shows the degree of customer Interaction and customization.

Fig-2 Degree of customer Interaction and customization

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Degree of labor intensity Low High

Service Factory Service shops
• Airlines • Hospitals
Low • Trucking • Auto Repair
• Hotels • Printing shop
Relative time for service • Resorts & Recreation • Repair Shops
delivery
Mass Service Professional Services
• Retailing • Doctors
• fromWholesaling
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• Schools • Accountants
• Retail Aspects of • Architects
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Commercial Banking
 High

Source:  Schmenner, R, W. (2003), ‘Prospective for service managers: IMD International Institute

for Management Development, IMD, Switzerland, and Viewed at 29/12/2005, available at
<http://www01.imd.ch/upload/news/PFM/PDF/pfm_98.pdf>
Customer participation is critical operations strategy for village Volvo, moreover
customer must be integral part of village Volvo’s value-adding service work flow which
simultaneously improves their level of satisfaction also helps reducing the potential
losses and the cost of product-service bundle. (Ex. ATM, Personal fitness consultant,
self-service gasoline, obtaining a patient history).(Womack, 1990), In addition with

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proper feedback from client’s, mechanic job would be rather more easy to fix the

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cumbersome problem of the automobile, similarly worker must rely on client’s input in

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order to conduct their business. Moreover possible offering of a mini course to educate

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the instant survival techniques when customer vehicle is out of order and find him/ her
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self middle of no where, including how automotive systems work and what can go wrong
and significantly client’s accomplishment of 200,000-mile Volvo medal on weekend’s
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further evident the involvement of customer is a promising operational activity for village
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Volvo doing business as usual. This intangible service oriented perception is the true
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back bone operations strategy for village Volvo.

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The ability to satisfy customer requirement today, however, does not imply an ability to
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satisfy customer expectations in future, because customer expectation change over time.
Thus the day-to-day business like village Volvo must attain certain implicit service
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standards and beyond the tangible requirement of job pre-requisites like free estimates of
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pre-losses of new vehicle, helping the settlement of insurance claims, courtesy vacuum
cleaning, probing air bag system, abrasion of car exhaust system, scrutinizing alternator
belts. Furthermore, referring the clients to other network service provider must be
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explicitly enhanced (Ex, Body works, Alignment & Balance, Tire rotation, Winterizing,
Timing belt, Custom car designed), thus network relationship, contribute great deal of
market extending operative strategy, similarly a satisfactory results from other service
provider leads to satisfaction of customer referred by village Volvo, specially when
customer pay to get the service for the first time.
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 Village Volvo also committed about Method of service delivery work flow. One of the
main operations strategies of village Volvo is to make car looks tidy, when the car bayed
for repair and service, because the last thing client want to see the black patches in his /
her car after completion of work, in addition the facility of village Volvo must be neat

and clean. Drained waste fluids such as waste oil, antifreeze, and solvents are stored in
separate drums or tanks, oil filters are punctured in front of customers and drained oil
drum must be disposed properly. A licensed transporter picks up and recycles solvents or
disposes solvents as hazardous waste and if a flammable solvent is used, the parts cleaner
has a fusible link that locks shut in the case of fire.

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The number of issues must be addressed as well the company is solely focusing on Volvo

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vehicles therefore recruiting the newer mechanic or staff worker can be a point of

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concern(s) because, owners need a worker who had a working experience, engaging on
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Volvo vehicles for quite number of years, therefore careful co-ordinate staff selection
process must be keep in mind and avoid the turnover in village Volvo which can be very
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costly In deed. (Quade, 1999), suggest that in order to have happy, satisfied and loyal
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customers, employees must be happy and satisfied. When things are going well for them,
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they will convey that feeling to their customers. Making your employees happy is the key
to reducing costly turnover and repetitive training. Village Volvo owner must designed a
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reward and recognition operation strategy, like bay mechanic of the month, well-
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mannered worker of the week and performance base bonuses, allow workers and staff try
to win among each other creating the company culture of competition. Other issues like
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not repairing the car during heavy contact hours is questionable, given a scenario of
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getting one or two worker take a day off because for some domestic reasons, the other
mechanic have to replace those workers, to comprehend those worker owner must deem
working with 7 to 8 and 5 to 6 not to create any hap hazard situation. Therefore service
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manager must have contingent operation strategy in situation like these. Mentioned above
service manager to re-schedule there appointments and substitute out of order vehicles to
other temporary vehicles until repair has been done and telling the customer the
ambiguity the company is facing on the day worker took day off.

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 Conclusion:

As we move into the new economy characterized by globalization, the Internet, and the
dynamic market conditions in a highly competitive environment; businesses are
struggling to differentiate themselves via agile responses, superb customer relationship,

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effective supply chain management and innovation through better business intelligence.

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Companies are collecting all sorts of operational data and performing various kinds of

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analytics on them. Two former authorized dealers seem compassionate about their work

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their decision and operative application are the model of today’s stream lined business
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conducts. Village Volvo is more than willing to satisfy their Volvo customers, providing
TQM, JIT with effective supply chain service, therefore, this modern days buzz words
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help great deal of their operations strategies being reputable and differentiated from
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others.
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 References:

Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger, The Service Profit Chain, 1987, p.19

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Nature of Services, (2006), ‘Open Systems View of Services Operations’ Viewed at 01-01-2006,

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available at <http://www.belkcollege.uncc.edu/mjkhouja/Nature2.ppt>

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Schmenner, R, W. (2003), ‘Prospective for service managers: IMD International Institute for

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Management Development, IMD, Switzerland, and Viewed at 29/12/2005, available at
<http://www01.imd.ch/upload/news/PFM/PDF/pfm_98.pdf>
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Slack, N and Chambers, S and Harland, C and Harrison, A Johnston, R, (1998), ‘Operations
Management: Financial times’ 2nd edn, Prentice Hall P-77..
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Quade, J (1999), ‘Happy Employees = Happy Customers: www.eMotiv8.com ’, ASTN Viewed at

14/01/06, at <http://www.trinityworkplacelearning.com/auto/workbooks/happy_employees.pdf>
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Womack, J, P and Jones. D, T and Ross.D (1990), ‘The Machine that changed the world’ Rawson
Associates, NY P 323
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