ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER

SATISFACTION IN AN AUTHORISED AUTOMOBILE

SERVICE CENTRE OF HYUNDAI BY USING KANO MODEL

PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

BICHU.B

TOC17MBA13

in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree

of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University

February, 2019

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

Toc H INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Arakkunnam P.O, Ernakulam District, KERALA –682 313
 DECLARATION

I undersigned, hereby declare that the project titled “Assessment of service quality and
customer satisfaction in an authorized automobile service centre of Hyundai by using
Kano model” submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of Degree of Master of Business
Administration of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University is a bonafide record of work
done by me under the guidance of Assistant Prof. Pearly Saira Chacko, Department of
Management Studies, Toc H Institute of Science & Technology. This report has not
previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or similar title of any
University.

Date Bichu B
 Toc H INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Arakkunnam P.O, Ernakulam District, KERALA – 682 313

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project titled “Assessment of service quality and
customer satisfaction in an authorized automobile service centre of
Hyundai by using Kano model” submitted by Bichu B of MBA Trimester v
is a bonafide account of the work done by her under our supervision,
during the academic year 2017-2019 in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the degree of ‘Master of Business
Administration’ of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.

…………………………. ………………………….
Pearly Saira Chacko Hareesh Ramanathan
 (Project Guide) (Head of the
Department)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank God Almighty for his timely providence, strength and
grace in completing this project.

I would like to present my sincere thanks to Dr Hareesh Ramanathan (Head of the

Department, Department of Management Studies) of Toc H Institute of Science and Technology
for providing an opportunity to undertake this project. And for his support and cooperation by
providing guidelines regarding the project.

I would like to express thanks to my guide Ms. Pearly Chacko, (Asst. Professor) for her
valuable suggestions and constant guidance.

I am also grateful to my family and friends who have upheld me in their prayers and extended
their constant support for the completion of this project

Bichu B
 Table of Contents

CONTENTS PAGE NUMBERS

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction 1-2
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study 3
1.4 Limitations of the Study 3

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction 4
2.2 After sales services 4-5
2.3 Customer Satisfaction 5-7
2.4 Service Quality 7-9
2.5 Kano Model 9-10

3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 11
3.2 Research Design 11
3.3 Study Population and Sample size 11
3.4 Sample Design 11
3.5 Research Tool 11-12
3.6 Data Collection 13

4. DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 14
4.2 Profile of Respondents 14
4.3 Customer Need Dimension and Analysis 14-17

5. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION 18

6. BIBILIOGRAPHY 19-22

7. APPENDICES
 List of Tables

Sl.No Title Page No

1 Table1.1 : Kano Evaluation Table 12

2 Table1.2 : Customer Satisfaction co-efficient 16

 List of Figure

Sl.No Title Page No

1 Fig1.1 : Kano diagram of customer satisfaction 9

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Customers are one of the most valuable assets of any business. The main purpose behind every
business is to satisfy the existing customers as well as attracting and retaining them. Satisfaction
cannot be consider as the separate function of the business it has increasing value as the part of
the business. Service quality is one of the important driver that leads to achieve the customer
satisfaction in every business. Service quality dimension is one of the major component while
talking about the customer evaluation. Even in the case of service with physical products the
service quality has an increasing important as well as it can be termed as one of the critical factor
to examine. Customers perception is related to the technical outcome that the service provider
provide to them as a better or prime quality service.
Customer satisfaction is a dimension that ensure the satisfaction of the customer. i.e.; the
customer should be satisfied by the product they purchase or by the service they get from sellers
during and after the purchase of the product or services. As (P.Kotler, Marketing Management
Millennium Edition: Custom Edition, 2002) stated, selling process should go beyond the delivery
of goods and services and there should be “follow– up” step that a company should apply to
ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business to make sure that there was proper installation,
instruction and service. The automobile companies in India is dealing with providing enough and
efficient aftersales service for the product them offering to the market. While the competitors
introducing the substitute with almost same price, technology it is difficult to differentiate
products. As a result of this the companies have to provide after sale service for their customers.
Automobile industries generally has a link with the after sales service. The sellers provide after
sale service for their customers as the nature of the product requires continuous follow up and
inspection. The nature of the product, here it is vehicle are basically related to the after sales
service, because after a long time they are normally getting vulnerable to technical and
mechanical problems.

Customer Satisfaction is a measure of how the customers are treated before during and the actual
sale is made. The company have some responsibilities towards the customers, they are
responsible to make the product or service according to the expectation, and sometimes they
have to surpass the expectations of the customers. Customer satisfaction largely depends upon
treating the customer in the life time of the business.

1
The expectation and perception are the two factors that examine the quality of the service. It can
be simply state that good quality is obtained when the experienced quality (perception) meets the
customer expectations. Both tangible and intangible features of the service are the dimensions
that determining the degree of superiority of services business. The critical components that are
prime to determine a positive dynamics in customer satisfaction are to making the intangible or
tangible, to make visible the results, develop a group of customers- satisfaction and increase the
process of client references. Here, quality of services can be stated as the gap between customer
expectations and perceptions related to service experienced. The key to ensure a good quality of
service occurs when perceptions surpass the customer expectations. The process is on a "service
encounter" that consists of several moments of the interactions that will impact the overall
perception of quality service. These moments of contact between the customer and the service
provider are called "moments of truth", and these interactions between symbolize of buyer and
supplier. Specifically, towards the dimensions of the quality service, such as reliability,
responsibility, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, tangibility and
knowledge of the consumer.

The Kano model of customer satisfaction (or ‘of attractive quality’ as reported in several
sources), developed in the 1980s (Kano, Seraku, Takahashi, & Tsuji, 1984), ranks among the
most powerful and popular tools to scrutinize the contribution of product/service features (Kano
N. S., 1984) within the overall generation of value for consumers

Kano’s theory has challenged the idea of a linear relationship between the offering level of any
product feature and the extent of customer satisfaction that is consequently generated, as
highlighted. The model subdivides the most valuable product attributes into three categories
(must-be, attractive, one-dimensional). These classes show dissimilar and asymmetrical impacts
on the capability to generate customer satisfaction and avoid severe discontent

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between various identified after-sales
service attributes of particular Four Wheeler automobile brand and customer satisfaction as well

2
as service quality. It further intends at segregating the major after sales service as per Kano
Model

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Customer satisfaction is an important factor for every business. It is one of the strong predictor
of customer retention and customer loyalty as well as the product repurchase. According to the
studies only 4 percent of dissatisfied customers complain, and eventually one dissatisfied
customer tells nine other people about the problem. So the customer satisfaction and service
quality the critical components to customers involvement in the business.
In response of the problem regarding service quality and customer satisfaction the study
proposes to investigate the related factors such as after sales services and its related attributes to
assess the above mentioned components which are critical to the business.

1.3 Objective of the study

• To map the service quality and customer satisfaction of the authorized service dealer
with already established or assumed attributes and to provide the suggestions to improve

1.4 Limitation of the study

• The fairness of the study depends upon the response given by the respondents, due to the
busy schedules of some respondents sometimes they may provide unfair information.
• Time Constraint, The research is scheduled with not much more time, so the lack of time
is one of the major limitations of the study.

3
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction

Review of literature is necessary as it enables the researcher to keep a contact with concepts and
conclusions already evolved by earlier analysts, the contributions of the past studies will pave the
way for the present researcher to analyze the scope and make further examination in the
proposed topic. It also enables the present researcher to measure the scope for future study and to
frame appropriate objectives for the proposed evaluation based on the early framed concepts.
Since the proposed study is to analyze the gap between expectations and perceptions in service
quality and assessing the result as customer satisfaction based on the service quality of after sales
services, the previous studies made in this area of research are briefly reviewed. It also includes
the opinions expressed by various authors in leading articles, journals and books.

2.2 After sales services

After sales services can be defined as the periodic or as-required maintenance of equipment by
its supplier or manufacturer, during and after a warranty period.

After sales services encourages repeat and additional purchases, increasing customer satisfaction
and ensures long-term customer loyalty. After sales services makes sure products and services
meet or surpass the expectation of the customers. After sales services includes various activities
to find out whether the customer happy with the product and services or not. After sales services
is a’ must-be component’ or the factor crucial for sales management.

According to (P.Kotler, Marketing Management Millennium Edition: Custom Edition, 2002)

attracting a new customer is five times greater than the cost to keep a current customer happy.
Gaiardelli, et al. (2007) define after sale service as those activities going on when the purchase of
the merchandise and devoted to supporting customers in the usage and disposal of the goods to
make them loyal. While according to Rigopoulou, et al. (2008) after-sales services are often
referred to as “product support activities”, meaning all activities that support the product-centric
transaction. Furthermore, as stated in (Hawariat.H, 2010) the term “after-sales services” has been
approached with in the literature under two broad perspectives.

4
Forooz and Rostami (2006) have shown after sale service advantages like:- Competitive
advantage, Customer satisfaction, Long- term customer relationship , customer retention and
loyalty, New product success and development, High profit, Differentiation and branding.
Henley center headlamp vision (Anon, 2007) shows more than 1,800 customers who had
purchased all the automotive brands traded in the U.S, Excellent service not solely reinforces
relationships with customers who already feel loyal to a brand. It may also remove sick that
causes disillusioned customers to bad-mouth the brand. According to Potluri and Hawariat
(2010), delivery of after-sales service is becoming essential as businesses do everything in their
power to be more cost-effective, boost profit margins, and meet customer demand for a product
or service. After sale service has been important for organization to compete in the market by
using such extended services .It is very important to note that after sale is a key to support
marketing performance and to increase customer loyalty, productivity in long run .In sale
services, after sale delivery and Installation is very important for customer satisfaction .Different
customers have different needs some want that the product to be delivered to their destination at
right time and right price, others give value to customers’ needs and wants, on the other hand
poor distribution results negative impression.

2.3 Customer Satisfaction

Last few decades have witnessed dramatic changes in market atmosphere characterized by
unique levels of diversity, knowledge richness and turbulence. The turbulence in atmosphere has
created by macro environmental changes, namely, technological advances and globalization. The
technological changes have created the old-fashioned economic conception of scale, scope and
structure irrelevant in the new economy removing the time and place barriers of doing business.
Technological advances combined with forces of globalization have resulted with in the
transformation of the economy, industries, markets and customers, leading to a connected
knowledge economy, borderless worldwide economy, globalizing, joining and consolidating 54
industries, fragmenting and frictionless markets and active, connected, informed and demanding
customers. (Gupta, 2005)

5
Organizations’ tries to adapt to those ever-changing environmental realities have achieved
changes within the focus, emphasis and scope of marketing. Today’s customers demand choice
and convenience. Customers mix and match according to their desires for product or service.
Customer “satisfaction presents a flexible cross-channel metric to measure the service provider’s
strengths and weaknesses from the customer’s point of view. The concept of customer
satisfaction occupies a central position in marketing thought and exercise.
Satisfaction is a major outcome of marketing activity and service to link processes culminating in
purchase and consumption with post purchase phenomenon such as attitudinal modification,
repeat purchase and brand loyalty. It is a sense, which a customer gets from a process of
evaluating what was received against that expected, the purchase decision itself and the
fulfilment of needs and want. The key to customer satisfaction lies in meeting these expectations.
Expectations are created within the customer mind from a range of causes and reasons like past-
experience, promotional claims, word of mouth and third party information. (P.Kotler, Marketing
Management, 12e,, 2006) also noted that satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and
expectations that identifies feelings of a person resulting from comparing a products perceived
performance in relation to his/her expectations.
Since satisfaction drives behaviour, a lot of thorough understanding of what drives customer
satisfaction can provide service providers the insights they have to influence customer behavior
within the short-run and long-run. The centrality of the concept is reflected by its inclusion in the
marketing concept that high customer satisfaction ratings are widely believed to be the best
indicator of a company’s future profit (Anderson, Customer Satisfaction, Productivity and
Profitability: Difference between Goods and services,,, 1997). Because, satisfied customers are
more willing to pay for the benefits they receive and are more likely to be tolerant of increases in
price. This implies high margins and customer loyalty. Otherwise, it will lead to customer turn
over, high replacement costs and high customer acquisition costs (Anderson, Customer
Satisfaction, Market Share and Profitability: Findings from Sweden,, 1994)
Customer satisfaction is generally as a judgment that a customer develops when the act of
purchase of a product/service. The determinant to customer satisfaction includes product quality,
product packaging, keeping delivery commitments, price and responsiveness and ability to
resolve complaints and overall communication, accessibility and attitude. Most firms
comprehend that the more competitive the market, the more important the level of customer

6
satisfaction. During this context it is very important to provide-customers with outstanding
worth, i.e. quality, service and price to attain sustained customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Improving quality and customer satisfaction reduces costs associated with defective services like
warranty costs, field service, and remodeling and handling or managing complaints. Word-of-
mouth from satisfied customers lowers the element of cost of attracting new customers and
enhances the firm’s overall reputation and image, where as that of dissatisfied customers are
naturally has the opposite effect
The perpetually dynamic surroundings forces enterprises to spot new opportunity for claiming
competitive advantages and to adapt these intense and environmental factors become additional
hostile; the priority for service quality grows. Quality has been considered to be one of the
management’s topmost competitive priorities or necessity and a prerequisite for sustenance and
growth of firms. The search for quality improvement has become an extremely desired objective
in today’s intense competitive market.
Though service quality and customer satisfaction is conceptually different, but there exists a high
relationship between them. The perceived service quality is an antecedent to satisfaction and
leads to customer satisfaction. Firms that are clearly interested in providing outstanding customer
value would be expected to have culture that reinforces high quality. A high quality service can
level the customer’s perception and exception towards an offering. Quality has to satisfy, and
preferably exceed, the needs and expectations of the customers. That is why; service quality is
widely seen as a key antecedent to successful customer relationships. A service offer, which is
inferior or indistinct, may lead to greater problems in attracting and retaining satisfied customers.
(Ennew, 1996).

2.4 Service Quality

The high quality of service is definitely important to attract more loyal customers as the huge
customer base contributes positively to the bottom-line of the firm (Caruana, 2002) Studies in
automotive after-sales service have advocated service quality as an important variable
influencing the level of customer loyalty (Bouman, 1992) (Yieh, 2007). Relatedly, customer’s
perceptions on service quality dimensions might also influence the customer’s behavioral and
attitudinal loyalty (Anderson E. W., 1993). However, the measures for service quality are still

7
debatable and the researchers were not unanimously agreed on one common dimension as
measures for service quality (Bhat, 2012) (Kashif, 2014) (Shekarchizadeh, 2011). Even though
the SERVQUAL has been accepted as the most popular measures of service quality
(Parasuraman A. Z., 1985) (Parasuraman A. Z., 1988), it is still insufficient to fully describe
service quality in all service settings (Bhat, 2012). Indeed, researchers are encouraged to further
revisit the multi-dimensional scale of service quality (Cronin, 1994). On top of that, the
instruments and determinants also need to be reassessed (Caceres, 2007). Until recently, (Kashif,
2014) also emphasized that the literature has not fully explained on service quality especially in
non-western countries and further proposed for future studies to consider the new paradigm to
represent service quality that suit to the different context of the study. With a certain
modification of SERVQUAL in line with the suggestion from the studies on the automotive
aftersales service industry, this study intends to examine the influence of modified SERVQUAL
and how it impacts the level of customer loyalty. This study also considers the industry-specific
dimension related to the new way in telecommunication as reflected by the changes in current
consumer demands and behavior. The following discussion explains on the four dimensions of
after-sales service quality namely customer service, support service, tangible and technical
quality. Customer service plays a vital role in delivering high quality of service; however, little
focus has been given by researchers (Andreassen, 2008). Customer service adds more customer
value to enhance customer satisfaction and consequently ensures customer to return to indicate
loyalty. The finding shows that customer service able to explain both customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty (Kursunluoglu, 2011). Along with that, the automotive industry offers both
tangible products that are vehicle and spare part, together with after-sales service in almost equal
ratio. Tangibility in the service industry is such an important element that cannot be ignored and
must be examined accordingly (Yieh, 2007). Hence, measures for service quality are supposed to
consider both intangible factor and tangibility element. Further to that, the measures for tangible
and intangible should be examined as two separate constructs as it allows for better
understanding of service quality from tangible and intangible dimension (Bouman, 1992) (Yieh,
2007). The similar study in car after-sales service also examined tangibility as a distinct
construct (Bouman, 1992). Being guided by the previous literature on automotive after-sales
service, this study has regrouped the five SERVQUAL dimension into the group of four namely
customer service which comprises of responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and reliability; and

8
tangibility was examined separately as one discrete dimension of service quality measures.
Besides measuring service quality subjectively from functional quality as measured by customer
service dimension, the objective measure of technical quality is required (Gronroos, 1984).
Technical quality measures the outcome of the service, that is, the technical part of “what”
process of service delivery (Gronroos, 1984) (Kang, 2004). Automotive after-sales service
measures technical quality in terms of the effectiveness of repair and zero problem arises as a
result of effective technical quality delivered by the service provider (Ooi, 2011).

2.5 Kano Model

Noriaki Kano, Japanese professor, developed and introduced Kano model in 1980s (Kano N. S.,
April 1984) the model identifying how different product/service features influence customer
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In other words, the model indicates the relationship between
product quality and customer satisfaction based on a questionnaire that consists of functional and
dysfunctional questions for each product/service attribute. For example, how do you feel if this
attribute is present and how do you feel if this attribute is absent? The model distinguishes
between three types of product requirements that influences customer satisfaction in different
ways, figure 1 (Kano N. S., 1984) the horizontal axis of the Kano diagram indicates product’s
functional fulfilment and vertical axis indicates customer satisfaction.

9
 Fig 1.1: Kano diagram of customer satisfaction

The must-be requirement should have a high priority, because if these requirements are not
fulfilled, the customer will be very dissatisfied. However, the customer satisfaction will not
increase significant when they are fulfilled, as the customer takes these requirements for granted.
The must-be requirement have also an impact on the competitiveness, as if they are not fulfilled,
the customer will not buy the product and thereby, not be competitive (Sauerwein, 1996)
Regarding one-dimensional requirement, the customer satisfaction is proportional to level of
fulfillment of product/service features. Customers explicitly demand the one-dimensional
requirements. An example of one-dimensional requirement is car gas consumption. Customer
will be more satisfied, the longer the car can drive per liter of gas and opposite, dissatisfied by
worse gas mileage (Berger, et al., 1993). The attractive requirements are not explicitly demanded
or expected by the customers, but these can increase the customer satisfaction significantly.
Thus, fulfilling attractive requirements can have a great impact on customer satisfaction and
competitive advantages, but if the requirements are not met, the customer will not feel
dissatisfied. The process is not static, as feelings towards a product/service feature will change
over time, as technology continues to evolve. Therefore, some attractive requirements can
change to one-dimensional and must-be requirements over time. Besides must-be, one-
dimensional and attractive, there are two other kinds of requirements, called indifferent
requirement and reverse requirement. If the customer is indifferent to a quality element, the
customer is either satisfied or dissatisfied if the product is dysfunctional or fully functional.
Reverse indicate that the first judgement of function and dysfunctional are reverse what the
customer feels. Based on the responses answers to the questionnaire with functional and
dysfunctional questions, the product feature can be classified into one of the following six
categories; Attractive, Must-be, One-dimensional, Indifferent, reversal and questionable.
Questionable signify that the respondent has misunderstood or answered the question mistakenly
(Berger, et al., 1993)

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses aspects of the research methodology including research design, data
collection and data analysis methods. The objectives of this chapter are: to justify the study’s
research methodology, to explain the research methodology used in the study and to demonstrate
how data collection and analysis is utilized in this study to answer the research questions and to
meet objectives outlined in chapter one.

3.2 Research Design

Descriptive survey design has been used in conducting this study .Descriptive survey design is
appropriate because it involves collecting data in order to test hypothesis or answer questions
concerning the current status of subjects of the study. Kothari (1985) notes that descriptive
design is concerned with describing, recording, analyzing and reporting conditions that exist or
existed.

3.3 Study Population and Sample size

The population of the study includes the customers from the authorized service center of the
Hyundai Motors who had the after sale service. It constitute the responses from 100 customers.
Most of the customers are who got the service more than one time.

3.4 Sample Design

For quantitative data collection, sampling was executed using the non-probability sampling
technique. Convenience sampling is used in the study. It is the non-probability sampling
technique where samples are selected from the population only because they are conveniently
available. The samples were selected from the huge population of the customers of Hyundai and
did the study based on the selected number of samples. (100 customer’s response).

3.5 Research Tool

The research tool used in the study was Kano Model two-dimensional model. It includes a
questionnaire with two questions for identified component or attributes. The each pair of
questions includes a functional form (a product ‘HAS’ characteristic, feature), and dysfunctional

11
question form (a product doesn`t have characteristic, feature ‘HAS NO’).The quality
characteristics is classified into five types. They are as follows;

(1) ‘Should-be quality’. Customers would not necessarily be satisfied even though all key factors
exist. However, the customers could not be dissatisfied for any factor lacking.
It is a basic quality characteristic of the product.
(2) ‘One-dimensional quality’. The more key factors that exist, the more customers would be
satisfied relatively. Otherwise, the fewer key factors that exist, the more customers would be
dissatisfied. This means that customers’ satisfaction has a linear relationship with the level of
key factors.
(3) ‘Attractive quality’. Customers could be satisfied while not having too much attractive
quality. Otherwise, customers would always be satisfied even though they may lack an attractive
quality.
(4) ‘Indifferent quality’. This quality factor would not affect customers’ satisfaction whether it
exists or not.
(5) ‘Reverse quality’. Customers would be dissatisfied with the existence of this quality factor.
Otherwise, customers would be satisfied if it is absent.
The Kano evaluation table is listed below

Table 1.1: Kano Evaluation Table

Source: https://marketisms.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kano-model-for-sales- negotiations/

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3.6 Data Collection

Quantitative data for the study were collected by the use of a well-structured close-ended
questionnaire prepared English. The questionnaires was developed from comprehensive
literature review related to effect of after sale service on customer satisfaction and service quality
by applying Kano model. Customer satisfaction measure parameters like quality, delivery time
and money customers pay has been incorporated according to the nature of after sale services in
the questionnaires.

In the first phase of the study, interview was conducted to identify after sale services offered, to
understand how it is offered. In the second phase, results from the interview were further to
explore the level of customer satisfaction and service quality in each after sale service.
The data employed includes detailed information on after sale service components and attributes
and customer satisfaction and service quality. It is identifying and analyzing by using both
primary and secondary sources. The primary source of data has been collected from sample
respondents relating to the components of after sale services, how after sale service is offered,

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses and presents the analysis results and their interpretations. The analysis
results presented include Kano model.

4.2 Profile of Respondents

The questionnaire was conducted among the Hyundai customers. In total 100 effective responses
were collected. The collected data showed that most of the respondents were (59%) below 25
years of age. In this (63%) of the respondents were male and the rest of the (37%) of the
respondents were female. The stats showed that (60%) were Diploma/Bachelor Degree holders,
(33%) of them belongs to Master degree and above, rest belongs to Primary and Secondary
qualification. Among them respondents (57%) of them were included in the average monthly
income of below 25000.

4.3 Customer Need Dimensions and Analysis

(Elmar Sauerwein, 1996) Figured out that when making product or service development
decisions, the general rule of must-be > one-dimensional > attractive > indifferent, should be
applied to set priorities. Must-be requirements have to be satisfied first. Otherwise, there would
be major dissatisfaction. The cost of meeting this type of requirement can be observed as an
entry cost. The fulfilling of one-dimensional and attractive requirements can fundamentally
increase customer satisfaction and help the providers to segregate their products and services
from those of others to be competitive.

The questionnaire is analyzed in three steps. After combined functional (positive) and
dysfunctional (negative) question’s answers, the each service attributes are summarized in a table
of results. After that the next step is analysis and interpretation.
The customer satisfaction coefficient indicates how much the service or product features and
properties may lead to customer satisfaction or vice versa – frustration/dissatisfaction. Summing
up the average satisfaction with the impact, influence, it must be to add attractive, one
dimensional column and the divide by the total attractive, one-dimensional, must-be and

14
indifferent responses. To calculate the average impact on dissatisfaction it should add the must-
be and one dimensional columns and then divide by the same factors.
Extent of satisfaction = (A+O) ÷ (A+O+M+I)

Extent of dissatisfaction = (O+M) ÷ ((A+O+M+I)* (-1))

The minus sign is placed in a formula to emphasize its negative impact on customer satisfaction
if this product or service quality is not fulfilled. Satisfaction with the positive values included in
the scope from 0 to 1. If the value is closer to 1, the impact of customer satisfaction is greater
(Extent of satisfaction based on the particular attribute); positive coefficient, which approaches
the value 0 indicates that there is very little impact, importance. However, it is important to see
negative satisfaction (Extent of dissatisfaction based on a particular attribute) values too. If the
value is approaching towards -1, customer dissatisfaction is very strong; size, approximately
equal to 0, meaning that a certain attribute or component does not feature such a high level of
dissatisfaction.
(1) ‘Should-be quality’. Customers would not necessarily be satisfied even though all key factors
exist. However, the customers could not be dissatisfied for any factor lacking.
It is a basic quality characteristic of the product.
(2) ‘One-dimensional quality’. The more key factors that exist, the more customers would be
satisfied relatively. Otherwise, the fewer key factors that exist, the more customers would be
dissatisfied. This means that customers’ satisfaction has a linear relationship with the level of
key factors.
(3) ‘Attractive quality’. Customers could be satisfied while not having too much attractive
quality. Otherwise, customers would always be satisfied even though they may lack an attractive
quality.
(4) ‘Indifferent quality’. This quality factor would not affect customers’ satisfaction whether it
exists or not.
(5) ‘Reverse quality’. Customers would be dissatisfied with the existence of this quality factor.
Otherwise, customers would be satisfied if it is absent.

15
QUESTIONS A O M I R Q TOTAL Category Extent of Extent of
Satisfaction Dissatisfaction

Maintenance 18 40 9 25 2 6 100 O 0.630434783 -0.532608696

Spare parts 15 17 12 48 3 5 100 I 0.347826087 -0.315217391

supply

Online 13 10 8 54 5 10 100 I 0.270588235 -0.211764706

(Telephone)
service
Car washing 25 10 4 54 7 0 100 I 0.376344086 -0.150537634

Inspection 17 19 7 48 4 5 100 I 0.395604396 -0.285714286

Warranty 12 41 12 23 5 7 100 O 0.602272727 -0.602272727

Training (driving 11 7 5 67 3 7 100 I 0.2 -0.133333333

orientation)

Documentation 17 13 12 51 0 7 100 I 0.322580645 -0.268817204

Table 1.2: Customer satisfaction coefficients

INFERENCE: The results from the table showing extent of satisfaction and extent of
dissatisfaction for each of the attributes. From this we can understand that Maintenance provides
a greater satisfaction i.e.; the value is generated as 0.630434783 which gives the implication that
the value is closer to 1, which means the extent of satisfaction is very high for Maintenance
among the attributes. Likewise Warranty has the value of 0.602272727 in extent of satisfaction
16
which is closer to 1. The two attributes are ‘one-dimensional’ in nature which is essential to the
business. The impact of these two attributes generating more impact on customer satisfaction of
the service provider (Hyundai)

17
CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
The Kano model is a theoretical model that connects the customer requirements and necessities
rewarded by products or services with customer satisfaction and identifies three types of
requirements that may influence ultimate customer satisfaction: must-be, one-dimensional and
attractive. The application of the Kano model to customer service is anticipated to provide
valuable information on the kinds of requirements that must be fulfilled to enrich the customer
satisfaction

. According to the results, requirements such as maintenance, spare parts supply, online
(telephone), and inspection services have been found that each of these attributes can make
major impact in the customer satisfaction based on the service quality of the service provider
while providing the services which including the above mentioned attributes. Kano Model helps
to reveal or identify that the product/service features for which customers have problem and
hence the dissatisfaction with the service/product. Determining these defects, when resolving and
improving, developing product/services features, customer satisfaction level will rise.

For developing the service or products the general rule of must-be > one-dimensional > attractive
> indifferent should be applied to set priorities. From the results we can identify that only two
attributes exhibiting the ’one-dimensional’ features, they are Maintenance and Warranty. While
rest of the attributes showing the indifferent characteristics. The Maintenance and Warranty are
the major key factors of aftersales services of automobile service provider. From this we can
understand its shows that more key factors exist, the more customers would be satisfied
relatively, and if it’s not exist, the more customers would be dissatisfied. The study shows that
other attributes doesn’t contribute much in customer satisfaction for the respective service
provider (Hyundai). They are indifferent in nature and doesn’t affecting the customer satisfaction
whether its exist or not. The service quality is depends upon the customer satisfaction the extent
of satisfaction is more while considering the one-dimensional attributes. So degree of the service
quality for the key factors is very high. Also the extent of dissatisfaction is not as much of high.
So the service provider (Hyundai|) have to improve the rest of the attributes to deliver more
customer satisfaction. The improvements in the rest of the attributes will improve the service
quality which will helps to attract more customers
18
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22
APPENDICES
 QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Respondent, my name is BICHU.B. I am currently carrying out a study for writing a
research project as a requirement for the award of Masters in Business Administration The topic
of study ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN
AN AUTHORISED AUTOMOBILE SERVICE CENTRE OF HYUNDAI BY USING
KANO MODEL. You have been selected to participate in this study due to the importance of
your information in the study. The information you provide will only be used for the purpose of
this study and will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Please feel free and answer all the
questions truthfully.

1. Gender : Male Female

2. Age : < 25 25-40 41-60 60 >

3. Educational Level : Primary Secondary Diploma/ Bachelor Degree

Master degree and above

4. Average Monthly Income : < 10000 15000-25000 25000-35000

35000-45000 50000 >

5. Do you think after sale service has effect on your level of satisfaction?
Yes No

6. How many times did you get after sale service? :

7. What will be your feeling, if your company has each of the following after sale services?
Please put “”depending on your desire.
 How do you feel

After sale services

I like it I expect it I’m neutral I can tolerate I dislike it

Maintenance

Spare parts supply

Online (Telephone) service

Car washing

Inspection

Warranty

Training (driving orientation)

Documentation

8. What will be your feeling, if your company has no each of the following after sale
services?
Please put “”depending on your desire.

How do you feel

After sale services

I like it I expect it I’m neutral I can tolerate I dislike it

Maintenance

Spare parts supply

Online (Telephone) service

Car washing

Inspection

Warranty

Training (driving orientation)

Documentation