Maruti tops JD Power India Customer Satisfaction Study for 13th consecutive year

Bangalore, October 31, 2012: Maruti Suzuki, which has the largest customer parc in the country, has topped the JD Power Asia Pacific 2012 India Customer Service Index (CSI) Study released today. Maruti, which has won the CSI study for the 13th consecutive year, scored 879 points out of 1,000, performs particularly well across all five factors of service operations. Mahindra & Mahindra is the most improved make in 2012, significantly improving across all factors.

The key takeaway from the findings is that vehicle owners in India increasingly seek speed and convenience when having their vehicle serviced, and consider faster turnaround in service, door-step service and alternate transportation arrangements post vehicle drop-off as essential to satisfaction.

The study, now in its 16th year, measures satisfaction among vehicle owners who visit an authorised dealership service centre for maintenance or repair work between the first 12 to 24 months of vehicle ownership. The study measures overall satisfaction in five factors (listed in order of importance): service quality; vehicle pick-up; service advisor; service facility; and service initiation. Overall customer satisfaction is measured on a 1,000-point scale, with a higher score indicating higher satisfaction.

Satisfaction is significantly higher among vehicle owners whose dealership provides an alternate form of transportation while their vehicle is being serviced than among those who do not receive this service.

“Vehicle owners view the service process as an essential errand that needs to be completed,” said Mohit Arora, executive director, JD Power Asia Pacific. “With increasing stress of the daily commute, time commitments and other complexities in their daily life, owners highly appreciate the actions that dealers take to mitigate the effort required for service.”

Overall customer satisfaction with the dealership service experience has increased by 10 points from 2011 to 834 in 2012, demonstrating that operational improvements continue to remain a focus for the industry. Satisfaction has improved in all five factors, with the largest increase in the service quality factor.

The study also finds that during the past three years, there has been a significant reduction in the cost of maintaining and repairing vehicles, which correlates to the improvement in the overall quality of vehicles being produced. In 2012, vehicle owners have experienced significantly fewer problems, compared with 2010. This year, 10 percent of owners have experienced a problem with their petrol-fueled vehicle during the initial 12 to 24 months of ownership, down from 17 percent in 2010. Similarly, the percentage of owners who have experienced a problem with their diesel-powered vehicle has declined to 14 percent in 2012 from 24 percent in 2010.

“While reduction in the number of problems experienced during ownership has contributed to the reduction in the cost of vehicle maintenance and repairs for owners, the overall cost of running vehicles has gone up,” said Arora. “Fuel price increases are the primary reason for the rising costs, especially for petrol models, for which a 13 percent reduction in the cost of maintenance has been offset by a 31 percent increase in the cost spent on fuel between 2010 and 2012.”

The 2012 India Customer Service Index Study is based on evaluations from 7,594 vehicle owners. The study was fielded from May to August 2012 and includes owners who purchased their vehicle between May 2010 and August 2011.