Maruti tops customer satisfaction again

For the sixth consecutive year, Maruti Udyog has clinched the top slot in the customer satisfaction study conducted by J D Power Asia Pacific. The study "� India Customer Satisfaction Index Study 2005 "� that was released today is in the ninth year.

It examines the satisfaction of new-vehicle buyers with authorised service experience at 12 to 18 months of ownership. More than 4,200 owners of 33 different vehicle models participated in the 2005 study, which was fielded from June to August 2005.

Overall satisfaction with the dealer's service department is assessed on 42 attributes, grouped into seven pre-defined factors: problems experienced, service quality, user-friendly service, service advisor, service initiation, service delivery and in-service experience.

"Maruti Suzuki's overall strength lies in building an organisation that is sharply focused on the voice of the customer," said Mohit Arora, India director at J D Power Asia Pacific. "Maruti's consistent performance in the study over the past several years has resulted in a steady increase in the percentage of its customers who say they intend to remain loyal to the brand."

The industry has improved its overall performance by three index points, with seven of the 11 name-plates ranked in 2005 showing improvements from 2004.

A release from J D Power further said that Mahindra & Mahindra has emerged as the most improved nameplate in the study with an increase in score of 30 index points from 2004. Mahindra, Ford and Honda are the only three name-plates that have improved performance across all seven factors from 2004.

Additionally, the study finds that operation costs of new vehicles have risen 11 to 15 per cent for petrol and diesel vehicles, respectively, from 2004. The overall cost of operation is an aggregation of three cost components: fuel, repair and maintenance and tyre costs.

Diesel vehicle owners continue to report lower overall operating cost per kilometre than petrol vehicle owners, largely due to significantly lower fuel costs. However, diesel vehicle owners report a 44 per cent higher repair and maintenance cost on a per-kilometre basis compared to petrol vehicle owners.

The Tata Indica and Indigo models have recorded strong performances in the diesel segment in terms of cost of operation, while Maruti models continue to outperform their competitors in the petrol segment.