A STUDY ON SERVICE QUALITY IN ROYAL ENFIELD

SHOWROOM, CHENNAI
G. Gopalakrishnan1, R. Rengarajan2
1
Final year MBA, School of Business, PRIST University, Vallam, Thanjavur.
2
Assistant Professor, School of Business, PRIST University, Vallam, Thanjavur.

ABSTRACT service quality may achieved by improving

This research examines service quality operational processes; identifying problems
perceptions in the showroom. First, it analyses quickly and systematically; establishing valid
the theory about service quality and reliable service performance measures and
conceptualization. Then a modified measuring customer satisfaction and other
SERVQUAL instrument is developed, and performance outcomes.
applied to the showroom using as subject one Dimensions of service quality
of the companies. Five service dimensions are Gronroos (1984b) identified two service
identified: READINESS RELIABILITY, quality dimensions the technical aspect that is
TRUST, COMFORT, SECURITY, and "what" service is provided and functional aspect
ACCESS. They are examined in terms of their and "how" the service is provided. The
impact of customers' overall quality customers perceive what he/she receives as the
perception and their willingness to outcome of the process in which the resources
recommend the firm to a friend. These are used that is the technical quality. But he also
variables are found to be affected heavily by and more often importantly, perceives how the
two dimensions: trust and comfort. The process itself functions that is the functions
present investigation's main conclusion is that quality.
SERVQUAL is a good starting base to The SERVQUAL Instrument
quantify service quality, but it is neither of The SERVQUAL instrument developed
general nor of direct application. The by Parasuraman et al (1991) has proved popular,
SERVQUAL instrument would need some being used in many studies of service quality.
adjustments to fit each particular situation. This is because it has a generic application and is
No marketing is needed if it simply means a practical approach to any area. A number of
discounting. Sell services through quality. researchers have applied the SERVQUAL model
to measure service quality in the hospitality
1. INTRODUCTION industry with modified constructs to suit specific
Service quality (SQ), in its hospitality situations.
contemporary conceptualization, is a comparison Parasuraman et al (1985) developed the
of perceived expectations (E) of a service with gap model and the subsequent SERQUAL
perceived performance (P), giving rise to the instrument designed to identify and measure the
equation SQ=P-E. This conceptualization of gaps between customers' expectations and
service quality has its origins in the expectancy- perceptions of the service received. Service
disconfirmation paradigm. A business with high quality from the consumer's perspective depends
service quality will meet or on the direction and degree of difference
exceed customer expectations whilst remaining between the expected service and the perceived
economically competitive. Evidence from service. Thus by comparing customer's expected
empirical studies suggests that improved service service with customer's perceived service, hotels,
quality increases profitability and long term for example can determine whether its service
economic competitiveness. Improvements to standard is appropriate. The gap between
 
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expectations and perceptions of performance questions or attention to problems.
determines the level of service quality from a Responsiveness also captures the notion of
customer's perspective. flexibility and ability to customize the service to
The servqual instrument consists of 22 customer needs.
statements for assessing consumer perceptions Assurance
and expectations regarding the quality of a It means to inspire trust and confidence.
service. Respondent are asked to rate their level Assurance is defined as employees' knowledge
of agreement or disagreement with the given of courtesy and the ability of the firm and its
statements. Consumer's perceptions are based on employees to inspire trust and confidence. This
the actual service they receive while consumer's dimension is likely to be particularly important
expectations are based on past experiences and for the services that the customers perceives as
information received. The statements represent involving high rising and/or about which they
the determinants or dimensions of service feel uncertain about the ability to evaluate. Trust
quality. and confidence may be embodied in the person
1.1.The five dimensions of service quality who links the customer to the company, for
measured by the SERVQUAL example, the marketing department. Thus,
Instrument employees are aware of the importance to create
The SERVQUAL Instrument measures trust and confidence from the customers to gain
the five dimensions of Service Quality. These competitive advantage and for customers'
five dimensions are: tangibility, reliability, loyalty.
responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Empathy
Tangibility It means to provide caring individualized
Since services are tangible, customers attention the firm provide its customers. In some
derive their perception of service quality by countries, it is essential to provide individual
comparing the tangible associated with these attention to show to the customer that the
services provided. It is the appearance of the company does best to satisfy his needs. Empathy
physical facilities, equipment, personnel and is an additional plus that the trust and confidence
communication materials. In this survey, on the of the customers and at the same time increase
questionnaire designed, the customers respond to the loyalty. In this competitive world, the
the questions about the physical layout and the customer's requirements are rising day after day
facilities that FFR offers to its customers. and it is the companies' duties to their maximum
Reliability to meet the demands of customers, else
It is the ability to perform the promised customers who do not receive individual
service dependably and accurately. Reliability attention will search elsewhere.
means that the company delivers on its promises-
promises about delivery,sevice provision, 2. COMPANY PROFILE
problem resolutions and pricing. Customers Royal Enfield is a well-known
want to do business with companies that keep automobile company that primarily deals in
their promises, particularly their promises about manufacturing of motor cycles and cycles. Apart
the service outcomes and core service attributes. from that, it produces lawnmowers, stationery
All companies need to be aware of customer engines and rifles. The company's motto, “Made
expectation of reliability. Firms that do not Like A Gun”, reflects its weapon making legacy.
provide the core service that customers think Royal Enfield is a company based in India with
they are buying fail their customers in the most its headquarters in Chennai. The company was
direct way. founded as Enfield Manufacturing Company
Responsiveness Limited in 1890. It produced its first ever bike
It is the willingness to help customers and under the brand name of 'Royal Enfield' in the
provide prompt service. This dimension same year in Redditch, Worcestershire, England.
emphasizes attentiveness and promptness in Albert Eadie and Robert Walker Smith were the
dealing with customer's requests, questions, founders of Enfield Manufacturing Company
complaints and problems. Responsiveness is Limited that ceased to exist after 1971.
communicated to customers by length of time
they have to wait for assistance, answers to

 
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About Royal Enfield Ltd India  Classic 500
Although Enfield sold its first bike in  Classic 350
India in 1949, it was not before 1955 that India's  Bullet 500
own Royal Enfield manufacturing establishment  Bullet 350
came into existence. In 1955, Redditch Company  Bullet Electra
and Madras Motors became partners and formed  Bullet Machismo
Enfield India, which is currently based in  Continental GT
Chennai. The present day Royal Enfield BIGGEST MILESTONE
company is a subsidiary of the Indian automobile Royal Enfield reported total domestic
stalwart Eicher Motors Limited. Dr. Venki sales of 50,059 units during March 2016 as
Padmanabhan is the CEO of Royal Enfiled India. against sales of 32,854 units in March 2015,
Royal Enfield has been the most trusted high thereby registering a year-on-year (YoY) growth
capacity bike and the most favourite of the Indian of 52.37 percent in the domestic market. It can
government for the past six decades. The be noted that the company had sold of close to
Government of India had a requirement of a 50,000 units for the 12-month period of 2010,
powerful, high capacity, strong and reliable which underlines the surge in the demand of the
vehicle for the Indian Army and Indian Police for Royal Enfield motorcycles over the last half a
patrolling purposes. Royal Enfield was the name decade.
the Indian government counted on. In 1965, 800 It has also recorded growth in its
350cc Royal Enfield Bullet model units were exports, which stood at 1,261 units last month,
ordered by the Government of India. The original up by 52.85 percent. It had exported 825 units in
Enfield Manufacturing Company Limited went March 2015. The company’s total sales
defunct in 1971; however, Enfield India just kept including exports stood at a healthy 51,321 units
on growing in stature and repute. during March 2016 – its highest-ever sales in a
Royal Enfield Plants month.
Royal Enfield has one manufacturing and Commenting on his company’s achievement,
assembly facility in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This Rudratej Singh, president, Royal Enfield said:
manufacturing plant has been functional since “Reaching sales of over 50,000 motorcycles in a
1955 and still produces the Royal Enfield Bullet single month is a significant milestone for Royal
350cc and 500cc models. Enfield. Royal Enfield’s simple yet evocative
List of models produced at the plant: motorcycles have been aspirational yet
 Thunderbird 500 accessible that provides a pure motorcycling
 Thunderbird 300 experience to our customers. This experience has
 Classic Desert Storm created strong demand for our motorcycles that
 Classic Battle Green continues to grow our order books.”
 Classic Chrome

Royal Enfield, which has been following as against 386,872 units sold between January
calendar years as its financial years and is now 2014-March 2015. This outlines the company’s
converting into the conventional financial year handsome growth pattern of 52.32 percent YoY.
format of April-March starting today (1 April The company, which has its 346cc
2016 – 31 March 2017), has also clocked models (Classic 350, Bullet 350 Twinspark and
impressive YoY growth for the last 15 months Bullet Electra Twinspark – in that order) as its
(January 2015 – March 2016). top sellers in the domestic market through the
According to the company, it sold a total year, is clearly seen to be on a dream run with its
of 589,293 units during the said 15-month period linear month-on-month growth pattern.

 
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On the export front, Royal Enfield’s top sellers operationalized customer satisfaction by using a
for the last 15-month period were Bullet Classic single item scale and many others have used
500, Classic 500, Continental GT and the Classic multiple item scales. Further researchers have
350, among other models. adopted a different approach and views customer
The company is estimated to garner satisfaction as a multi dimensional construct just
decent returns (via bookings) on its recently as service quality, but argues that customer
launched adventure motorcycle, single-cylinder, satisfaction should be operationalized along the
411cc Himalayan. While with the new purpose- same factors (and the corresponding items) on
built model, it has opened an all-new category in which service quality is operationalized. Based
the Indian motorcycle market, the company is on this approach, the link between service quality
also reported to be working upon an upcoming and customer satisfaction has been investigated.
range of high-performance, highway-worthy Further he found that the two constructs are
motorcycles for export markets. indeed independent but are closely related,
implying that an increase in one is likely to lead
3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE to an increase in another.
According to Zeithmal & Bitner (2003) Madhukar et al. (1999) examined the
the success of work using SERVQUAL in applicability of alternative measures of service
Understanding customer satisfaction, quality in the developing economy of India and
dissatisfaction and loyalty in a range of business assesses related issues in that context. Based on
arenas Suggests that these dimensions illuminate data gathered from customers of two major
bank switching. SERVQUAL measures service banks, overall results support a multidimensional
Quality in five dimensions. The dimensions are construct of service quality and suggest that the
reliability – the ability to perform the promised SERVQUAL scale provides greater diagnostic
service as dependably and accurate, information than the SERVPERF scale.
responsiveness – the willing to help customers However, the five-factor conceptualization of
and provide prompt service, assurance – the SERVQUAL applied by this research does not
knowledge and courtesy of employees and their seem to be totally applicable, and no significant
ability to inspire trust and confidence, empathy – difference was found in the predictive ability of
the caring individualized attention the firm the two measures. Although SERVQUAL and
provides its customers, tangibles – the physical SERVPERF have identical convergent validity,
facilities, equipments and appearance of persons. SERVPERF appears to have higher discriminate
Nantel (2000) proposed an alternative validity than SERVQUAL.
measures of perceive service quality in retail Mohammad & Alhamadani (2011)
banking that comprise 31 item with 6 underline examined the level of service quality as
key dimensions; effectiveness, assurance, perceived by customers of commercial bank
access, price, tangibles and service portfolio. working in Jordan and its effect on customer
Further Ravichandran et al. (2010) satisfaction. In their research service quality
emphasized that the financial liberalization has measure is based on modified version of
led to intense competitive pressure and private SERVQUAL as proposed by Parasuraman et al.
banks dealing in retail banking are consequently (1988).
directing their strategies towards increasing Customer satisfaction was measured by a
service quality level which fosters customer nine item adapted from Walfried et al. (2000),
satisfactions and loyalty through improved researchers have used the multiple regression
service quality. analysis to test the impact of service quality on
According to Sureschandar et al. (2002) customer satisfaction. The results indicated that
the relationship between service quality and service quality is an important antecedent of
customer satisfaction has received considerable customer satisfaction.
academic attention in the past few years. But the Parasuraman A, Valarie A. Zeithaml and
nature of the exact relationship between service Leonard L. Berry (1994) responded to the
quality and customer satisfaction (especially in concerns raised by Cronin and Taylor (1992) and
the way the two constructs have been Teas (1993) about the SERVQUAL instrument
operationalized) is still shrouded with and the perceptions – expectations specification
uncertainty. Many researchers have invoked by it to operationalize service quality.

 
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They have offered a set of research directions for  Lack of marketing research; inadequate
understanding of service quality assessment. upward communication; too many levels
Parasuraman A, Valarie A. between contact personnel and
management
4. EXECUTION OF RESEARCH  Employee performance is not
4.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY standardized; customer perceptions are
Research methodology is the not uniform
systematic, theoretical analysis of the procedures  Marketing message is not consistent with
applied to a field of study (Kothari, actual service offering; promising more
2004). Methodology involves procedures of than can be delivered
describing, explaining and predicting  A function of the magnitude and
phenomena so as to solve a problem; it is the direction of the gap between expected
'how'; the process, or techniques of conducting service and perceived service
research. 4.6 DATA COLLECTION METHODS
4.2 Research Design 1. Primary Sources:
Research design adopted for this research Tool used: Structured Questionnaire
is “Descriptive Research “. It includes surveys Conducting QWL study required the preparation
and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The of a detailed questionnaire which could capture
major purpose of descriptive research is all possible areas of their agreed levels. Prior to
description of the state of affairs as it exists at preparation of questionnaire I circulated a
present. questionnaire to all employees regarding the
4.3 Sampling Framework objectives of my study. The questionnaire
The population is finite and included twenty two questions. There were
“Simple random sampling method” will be questions on a 5 point scale, where 1 is the least
adopted for selecting samples from the finite one. agreed level and 5 is the most agreed level.
4.4 OBJECTIVES 2. Secondary sources:
 To study the due importance given to The major sources of secondary data
each attribute in accessing the service were the documents and records of the
quality by the customers. organization, the annual reports and the literature
 To analyze the relationship between review.
service quality and customer satisfaction 3. Data collection
 To gain a better understanding of the Data collection done through interactions
service quality dimensions that affects with customers
customer satisfaction from customer 4.7. Research Instrument
perspective. A questionnaire is
 To find the problems regarding service a research instrument consisting of a series
quality of questions (or other types of prompts) for the
 To suggest a good service quality model purpose of gathering information from
to overcome the issues and improve it respondents. The questionnaire was invented by
4.5 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM the Statistical Society of London in 1838.
 The service features offered don’t meet Although questionnaires are often designed
customer needs for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not
 The service specifications defined do not always the case. Questionnaires have advantages
meet management’s perceptions of over some other types of surveys in that they are
customer expectations cheap, do not require as much effort from the
 Specifications for service meet customer questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and
needs but service delivery is not often have standardized answers that make it
consistent with those specifications simple to compile data. However, such
 The service does not meet customer standardized answers may frustrate users.
expectations, which have been Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the
influenced by external communication fact that respondents must be able to read the
 Customer judgments of high/low quality questions and respond to them. Thus, for
based on expectations vs. actual service

 
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some demographic groups conducting a survey
by questionnaire may not be concrete.

5. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Table 5.1
Gender Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulative
y Percent Percent
Valid male 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

INTERPRETATION
According to the analysis all the customers for the showroom are male customers.

Table 5.2

Age Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulative

y Percent Percent
less than 18 years 2 2.0 2.0 2.0
19 to 29 years 75 75.0 75.0 77.0
Valid
30 to 39 23 23.0 23.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0 100.0

INTERPRETATION
In the above table 2% respondents are less than 18 years of age, 75% respondents are come
under 19 to 29 years of age, 23% respondents are come under 30 to 39 years of age.
According to the analysis most of customers come under 19 to 29 years of age.

 
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6. CONCLUSION Integrated Conceptual framework”,

It could be concluded that Royal Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Enfield has to close the gap between customers’ Science
expectation and perceptions of services. It should  Gulati, R., (1998), “Alliances and
not exaggerate its quality of services in order to Networks’, Strategic Management
prevent higher customer expectations of service. Journal
Otherwise, customers’ expectations do not  Lee, J. Lee, and Feick, L. (2001), “The
match their perceptions and service quality is impact of switching costs on the
considered low. Finally, in order to enhance customer satisfaction – loyalty link:
service quality, customer attraction should be Mobile phone service in France”, Journal
retained, and competitive advantage should be of services marketing
gained, people-based companies have to increase  Oliver, R.L. (1999), “When customer
employees’ attitude, training and improve their loyalty?”, Journal of Marketing,
knowledge of services. Royal Enfield should  Parasuraman, A., Zathanl, V.A and beny,
also introduce new vehicles with the latest L.L. (1988), “SERVQUAL: A Multiple
technology. The study considered only the Item Scale for Measuring Consumer
customers’ point of view from service quality of Receptions of Service Quality”, Journal
bike service agencies. Hence, future studies are of Retailing.
recommended to conduct surveys of managers
and employees because their understanding of
customers’ expectations as well as their
communication with customers is important to
the final perceived service quality of bike
agencies.

REFERENCES
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 Bearden, W.O. and Teel, J.E., (1983),
“Selected Determinants of Consumer
satisfaction and complaint reports”,
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 Dick, S.A., and Basu, K. (1994),
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