The Simultaneous Influence of Product and Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction in Automotive After Sales Service

Customer satisfaction value is a key differentiator in many economic sectors including the automotive industry. Literature reports the direct influence of product quality and service quality on the customer satisfaction, however, the implementation of these practices in dealerships context is a very challenging issue and it is distinctively investigated, thus it is worthy to investigate the simultaneous influence of these antecedents as they are remarkably interrelated. A survey based research methodology is adopted and randomly targeted the car owners in Malaysia who perform the required service in the authorized service centres. Of the 600 customers that are met in the automotive 389 complete questionnaires usable for the data analysis stage performed with the help of structural equation modelling SEM technique. Results demonstrate that the overall proposed model shows an adequate fit, while service quality is considered to be an important factor in leveraging the customer satisfaction; in contrary to product quality, which demonstrates less importance than with service quality Notably, this study provides evidence that customer satisfaction value relies on metrics compromising operational measures for service and product quality The model contributes to sensitising the decision makers from both manufacturing and service aspects to the interdependencies and the perquisite for overall collaborative development. Further, it addresses the interests of both the manufacturers and the dealers, who are attempting to preserve their quality level to influence repetitive purchase and service activities.