Weighting and ranking the factors which influence customer satisfaction in the automobile industry, using AHP method

Nowadays, companies which try to provide better satisfaction and delight, to their customer in the target market will be much more successful in acquiring profit. Today, buyers have enormous options in choosing products and services, and their expectations of products and services quality are far different from the past. With regard to these facts, therefore, buyers will choose those products and services which have the greatest conformity to their needs and expectations. One of the main tasks of companies marketing department, is to identify the factors which influence customers’ satisfaction and also to provide the best solution to customers’ needs and wants. This survey had weighted and ranked the factors which influence the satisfaction of the customers who had purchased automobiles (namely PRIDE 141, XANTIA) from Sypa automobile manufacturing company in Shiraz province during April of 2003 until April of 2005 (N = 1038), using AHP method. First of all, the influential factors of customer satisfaction, using the existing sources and the company’s technical experts’ viewpoints and decision making tree hierarchy, are outlined. Then, via questioners and interviews, the necessary data are collected and then analyzed using “Expert Choice” software. At the end, according the result of the survey, the specifications of these automobiles had the greatest relative weight in compare to other factors which influence the customer satisfaction and are of more importance