REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Satisfaction:
Satisfaction is a persons feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products perceived performance (out come) in relation to his or her expectations. As this definition makes clear, satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and expectations. If the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is dissatisfied. exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Many companies are aiming for high satisfaction, because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch when less good offer comes along. Those who are highly satisfied are much less ready to switch. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional affinity with brand, not just a rational preference. The result is high customer loyalty. Some of todays most successful companies are raising expectations and delivering performances to match. These companies are aiming for TCS-Total Customer Satisfaction. Consumers from their expectations on the basis of messages received from sellers, friends and other information sources. If the

performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If the performance

Customer Satisfaction:

Customer Satisfaction may be defined as a qualitative measure where in a customer experiences various degrees of satisfaction until the performance of the product matches his expectations. Customers satisfaction with a product depends on the products performance relative to the buyers expectations. If the performance of the product falls short of his expectations the customer is dissatisfied. If the performance of the product matches his expectations the customer is satisfied. If the performance of the product exceeds his expectations the customer is highly satisfied. Customer Satisfaction can be achieved through quality, value and service. For a customer-centered company customer satisfaction is both a goal as well as a major factor in the companys success. Companies that achieve high customer satisfaction ratings must make sure that their target customers come to know of it. The companies must realize that highly satisfied customers produce several benefits to the company. They are fewer prices sensitive and they remain customers for the longer period. favorably to the others about the company and its product and services. Although customer-centered firms seek to deliver a high level of customer satisfaction than their competitors, they do not attempt to maximize the customer satisfaction. A company can always increase customer satisfaction by lowering the price and increasing its services. But this may result in lower profits. The company may be able to increase profitability along with customer satisfaction by improving its manufacturing or investing on the R & D. Satisfaction is the customers fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provides a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment. In less technical terms, we translate this definition to mean that satisfaction is the customers evaluation of product or service in terms of whether that product or service has They also talk

met their needs and expectations. Failure to meet needs and expectations is assumed to result in dissatisfaction with the product or service. In addition to a sense of fulfillment in the knowledge that ones needs have been met, satisfaction can also be related to other types of feelings, depending on the particular context or type of service. For example, satisfaction can be viewed as contentment more of a passive response that consumers may associate with services they dont think a lot about or services that they receive routinely over time. Satisfaction may also be associated with feelings of pleasure or services that make the consumer feel good or associated with a sense of happiness. For those services that really surprise the consumer in a positive way, satisfaction may mean delight. And in some situations, where the removal of a negative leads to satisfaction, the consumer may associate a sense of relief with satisfaction. It is also important to recognize that although were tend to measure customer satisfaction at a particular point in time as if it were static. Satisfaction is dynamic, moving target that may evolve overtime. Influenced by a variety of factors. Particularly when product usage or the service experience takes place over time, satisfaction may be highly variable depending on which point in the usage or experience cycle one is focusing on. Similarly, in the case of very new services or a service not previously experienced, customer expectations may be barely forming at the point of initial purchase; these expectations will solidify as the process unfolds and consumer begins to form his or her perception. Through the service cycle the consumer may have a variety of different experiences some good, some not good-and each will ultimately impact satisfaction.

What determines Customer Satisfaction?

Customer Satisfaction is influenced by specific product or service features and by perceptions of quality as suggested. Satisfaction is also influenced by customers emotional responses, their attributions, and their perceptions of equity.

Product and service features

Customer Satisfaction with a product or service is influenced by significantly by the customers evaluation of product or service features. Research has shown that customers of services will make trade-offs among different service features (for example, price level versus quality versus friendliness of personnel versus level of customization), depending on the type of service being evaluated and criticality of service.

Customer Emotion
Customers emotions can also affect their perceptions of satisfaction with products and services. These emotions can be stable, preexisting emotions.

Attributions for Service success or failure

Attributions- the perceived causes of events influence perceptions of satisfaction as well. When they have surprised by an outcome, consumer tend to look for the reasons, and their assessments of the reasons can influence their satisfaction.

National Customer Satisfaction Indexes

Because of the importance of customer satisfaction to firms and overall quality of life many countries have a national index that measures and tracks customer satisfaction at a macro level. Many public policy makers believe that these measures could and should be used as tools for evaluating the health of the nations economy, along with traditional measures of productivity and price. Customer Satisfaction indexes begin to get at the quality of economic output, whereas more traditional economic indicators tend to focus only on quantity.

The Indian Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

The ACSI, developed by researcher at the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan, is a measure of quality of goods and services as experienced by consumers. The measure tracks customer perceptions across 200 firms representing all

major economic sectors, including government agencies. For each company approximately 250 interviews are conducted with current customers. Each company receives an ACSI score computed from its customers perceptions of quality, value, satisfaction, expectations, complaints, and future loyalty.

Customer Expectations of Service

Customer Expectations are beliefs about service delivery that functions as standards or reference points against which performance is judged. Because customers compare their perceptions of performance with these reference points when evaluating service quality, through knowledge about customer expectations is critical to services marketers. Knowing what the customer expects is the first and possibly most critical step in delivering quality service. Being wrong about what customers want can mean expending money, time, and other resources on things that do not count to the customer. Being wrong can even mean not surviving in a fiercely competitive market.

Customer Perceptions
How customers perceive services, how they assess whether they have experienced quality service, and whether they are satisfied. Customers perceive services in terms of the quality of the service and how satisfied they are overall with their experiences. These customer oriented terms quality and satisfaction have been the focus of attention for executives and researchers a like over the last decade or more. Companies today recognize that they can compete more effectively by distinguishing themselves with respect to service quality and improved customer satisfaction.

Satisfaction versus Service quality

Practitioners and writers in the popular press tend to use the terms satisfaction and quality interchangeably, but researches have attempted to be more precise about the meanings and measurements of the two concepts, resulting in considerable debate. Consensus is growing

that the two concepts are fundamentally different in terms of their underlying causes and outcomes. Although the certain things in common, satisfaction is generally viewed as a broader concept, whereas service quality assessment focuses specifically on dimensions of service. Based on this view, perceived service quality is a component of customer satisfaction.

Methods of measuring Customer Satisfaction

A companys tools for tracking and measuring Customer Satisfaction range from Primitive to the sophisticated methods. Companies use following methods to measure how much Customer Satisfaction they are creating.

Complaint & Suggestion Systems:

A customer centered organization would make it easy for its customers who deliver suggestion and complaints. Many restaurants and hotels provides from guests to report their likes and dislikes. Some companies establish customer hot line with toll-free numbers to maximize the ease with which customers can inquire, make suggestions or complaints. This inform action flows provide this companies with many good ideas and enable then to act more rapidly to resolve problems.

Customer Satisfaction Survey:

A company may not conclude that it can get a full picture of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction by simply running a compliant and suggestion system. Companies cannot use complaint level as a measure of customer satisfaction. Responsive companies obtain a direct measure of the customer satisfaction by conducting surveys. They send

questionnaires or make phone call to random sample of their recent customer to find out how they feel about various aspects of the companys performance. They will solicit buyers view on the competitors. Customer Satisfaction can be measured in a number of ways. It can be measured directly by asking indicate how satisfied you are with service X on the following scale. Highly Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Indifferent Satisfied Highly Satisfied Respondents can be asked as well to rate how much they expected of a certain attribute and also how much they expected it. (Derived Satisfied) Another method is to ask respondents to list any problems they have had with the offer and to list any improvements they could suggest. (Problem Analysis). Finally, companies could ask respondents to rate various elements of the offer in terms of the importance of each element and how well the organization performed each element. (Importance, Performance rating). The last method helps the company to know if it is under performing on important elements and over performing on relatively unimportant elements. While collecting customer satisfaction data it would be useful asking additional questions to measure the customers repurchase intention. This will normally be high if the customer satisfaction is high. It would be useful to measure the likelihood or willingness to recommend the company and brand to other persons. A high positive word or mouth score indicates that the company is producing high customer satisfaction

Ghost Shopping:
Companies can hire persons to pose as potential buyers to report their findings on strong and weak points they experienced in buying the companys and competitors product.

Lost Customer Analysis:

Companies should contact customers who have stopped buying or have switched to another supplier to learn why this happened.

Satisfaction:
Satisfaction is a function of perceived performance and expectation. If the performance matches the expectations the customer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds the expectations the customer is highly satisfied and delighted. If the performance does not match the expectations the customer is dissatisfied. Satisfaction is a persons feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products perceived performance (out-come) in relation to his/her expectation. The link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is proportional. The key to generating high customer loyalty is to deliver high customer value. A companys value proposition is much more than its positioning on a single attribute. Most of the successful companies are raising expectations and delivering performances to match. These companies are aiming for TCS Total Customer Satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is both a goal and a marketing tool. Companies that achieve high customer satisfaction ratings make sure that their target market is known. Customer Satisfaction may be defined as a qualitative measure where in a customer experiences various degrees of satisfaction until the performance of the product matches his expectations. Product & service features along with emotions of customer play a vital role on level of satisfaction. Indian Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), developed by researcher at the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan, is a measure of quality of goods and services as experienced by consumers. Methods of measuring Customer Satisfaction are;

Complaint & Suggestion Systems Customer Satisfaction Survey Ghost Shopping Lost Customer Analysis

The study is to find out the level of Customer Satisfaction on sales towards the Maruti vehicle. And to find out the Satisfaction on the performance of AMBAL motors. To find out this, I have done the survey.

Customer Survey: Finding out the customer satisfaction on sales towards Maruti
vehicle with reference to Maruti Suzuki Udyog Ltd. Finding out the customer satisfaction on dealership performance towards AMBAL Motors Ltd. For this survey, I have prepared a questionnaire; through this I collected data from customers. Sample Size of survey is 100 consumers. By analyzing these questionnaires, I found out the level of customer sales satisfaction on Maruti. In this report, I explained the analysis of questionnaire through graphs and tables. Methodology used in collection of data is; 1. Survey Research method 2. Primary source of Data Questionnaires Direct Interviewing Text books

3. Secondary Source of Data

Internet Newspapers Magazines