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The interaction between companies internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived quality A case study in the automotive industry

Christensen, Susanne and Lilja, Hanna (2015) MIO920
Production Management
Abstract
The competition in the automotive industry is constantly increasing and it
is no longer sufficient for a company to only deliver a physical product.
The companies’ ability to fill a need and provide a solution including a
combination of both tangible and intangible products is becoming
increasingly important. The service a company offers can be a critical
factor for success why a company needs to understand what actions that
creates a good service encounter and high perceived quality for the
customer.
Purpose The purpose is to describe and analyse the interaction between companies’
internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived
quality, within the automotive industry.
Methodology To fulfil the... (More)
The competition in the automotive industry is constantly increasing and it
is no longer sufficient for a company to only deliver a physical product.
The companies’ ability to fill a need and provide a solution including a
combination of both tangible and intangible products is becoming
increasingly important. The service a company offers can be a critical
factor for success why a company needs to understand what actions that
creates a good service encounter and high perceived quality for the
customer.
Purpose The purpose is to describe and analyse the interaction between companies’
internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived
quality, within the automotive industry.
Methodology To fulfil the purpose a case study was preformed with a combination of
descriptive and explanatory approaches. A starting point was to define the
three different concepts, internal process, service encounter and perceived
quality, out of existing literature. Existing literature was also used to form
a theoretical framework, consisting of the three models: process mapping,
service blueprint and seven criteria for good perceived quality. These were
later applied on empirical data from the case company. The empirical data
was gathered through interviews and observations on workshops owned or
authorized by the case company. This was also complemented with data
collected in customer interviews as well as observations and interviews at
an extra case company used for comparison.
Conclusions In the two examined case companies the internal processes and the service
encounters are organised differently, since the customers’ demands for
perceiving high quality are different. Which probably is a result of the carand
truck workshops acting on different markets, C2B and B2B. In the car
workshops there are less people involved and a personal service encounter
is satisfying the customers needs. In the truck workshop there are a lot of
people involved, but it gives them a possibility to be flexible. This enables
delivery of fast correction and qualified staff, which is most important to
their customers. What can be concluded is that the internal processes and
the service encounters are organised based on the workshops customers’
needs, for the customers to perceive a high quality. But how it is done
differs depending on market, customer structure and the size of the
workshop. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Christensen, Susanne and Lilja, Hanna
supervisor
organization
course
MIO920
year
type
M1 - University Diploma
subject
keywords
workshop, automotive industry, blueprinting, process mapping, perceived quality, service encounter, Internal process
other publication id
15/5528
language
English
id
7869307
date added to LUP
2015-09-18 09:58:47
date last changed
2015-09-18 09:58:47
@misc{7869307,
  abstract     = {{The competition in the automotive industry is constantly increasing and it
is no longer sufficient for a company to only deliver a physical product.
The companies’ ability to fill a need and provide a solution including a
combination of both tangible and intangible products is becoming
increasingly important. The service a company offers can be a critical
factor for success why a company needs to understand what actions that
creates a good service encounter and high perceived quality for the
customer.
Purpose The purpose is to describe and analyse the interaction between companies’
internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived
quality, within the automotive industry.
Methodology To fulfil the purpose a case study was preformed with a combination of
descriptive and explanatory approaches. A starting point was to define the
three different concepts, internal process, service encounter and perceived
quality, out of existing literature. Existing literature was also used to form
a theoretical framework, consisting of the three models: process mapping,
service blueprint and seven criteria for good perceived quality. These were
later applied on empirical data from the case company. The empirical data
was gathered through interviews and observations on workshops owned or
authorized by the case company. This was also complemented with data
collected in customer interviews as well as observations and interviews at
an extra case company used for comparison.
Conclusions In the two examined case companies the internal processes and the service
encounters are organised differently, since the customers’ demands for
perceiving high quality are different. Which probably is a result of the carand
truck workshops acting on different markets, C2B and B2B. In the car
workshops there are less people involved and a personal service encounter
is satisfying the customers needs. In the truck workshop there are a lot of
people involved, but it gives them a possibility to be flexible. This enables
delivery of fast correction and qualified staff, which is most important to
their customers. What can be concluded is that the internal processes and
the service encounters are organised based on the workshops customers’
needs, for the customers to perceive a high quality. But how it is done
differs depending on market, customer structure and the size of the
workshop.}},
  author       = {{Christensen, Susanne and Lilja, Hanna}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The interaction between companies internal processes and the service encounter and its affect on the perceived quality A case study in the automotive industry}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}