Measuring Customer Satisfaction - A study regarding measuring customer satisfaction at Volvo Penta's authorized dealers

Abstract: Nowadays measuring customer satisfaction constitutes an important part of a company’s business since it provides valuable information about customers' expectations, preferences and experiences. By measuring customer satisfaction, a company can gain essential insights on how to improve their business. Satisfied customers are of utmost importance for a company since they are more likely to become loyal customers. This is desirable for a company based on the fact that loyalty promotes growth and profit. In order to achieve high customer satisfaction, it is important that the company has information about what underlying factors that are most valuable to measure. This study aims to describe why measuring customer satisfaction is important and how Volvo Penta could work with measuring customer satisfaction. This includes describing essential factors that should be measured as well as the implications that a measurement can result in. The study has applied a qualitative approach where the empirical data has been collected through nine interviews and internal meetings at Volvo Penta. The empirical findings together with the theoretical framework have formed the basis for the analysis. The main result of the study shows that measuring customer satisfaction is important, and that it is something that both companies and customers appreciate. Measuring customer satisfaction is essential in order to keep a business successful. This can be explained by the fact that a measurement results in a company having the opportunity to identify areas that they can improve. To create satisfied customers and maintain them over time has been shown to be necessary in order to create customer loyalty. Finally, the study also finds that it is essential to measure the right factors to gain valuable insight from the customers. These factors have been found to be quality, availability, timeliness, communication, employee courtesy and retailers.