Evaluating Antecedents of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty at Automobile After-Sales Service Centres (AASSC): A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

Abstract

This study investigates the key antecedents of Customer Satisfaction (CS) and Customer Loyalty (CL) within the highly competitive Indian automobile after-sales service centers (AASSC), aiming to prioritize factors that significantly influence CS and CL for enhanced strategic decision-making. A structured questionnaire was administered to selected customers of AASSCs, and two Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques—Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Best Worst Method (BWM)—were independently applied to determine the relative importance and rankings of the identified factors. Kendall’s tau correlation test was used to assess consistency between the methods, revealing a statistically significant correlation and validating the robustness of the results. The analysis identified Product Quality, Service Quality, and Belief as the most critical factors, while factors such as Warranty Handling and Brand Awareness were found to be less influential. These findings provide actionable insights for managers to improve service quality and customer retention strategies. This research fills a gap by comparing two MCDM methods in the context of AASSCs and contributes to the literature by offering a structured, evidence-based approach for customer experience enhancement.