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

Sammanfattning: 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.