Process Optimization and Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction in an Automotive After-Sales Service Department

An automotive dealership conducted a study after experiencing a 19% decrease in customer satisfaction over a three-month period. The problem was analyzed using a Pareto diagram, which identified the after-sales service process as the primary source of dissatisfaction, mainly due to excessive waiting times. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was applied to evaluate the impact of the intervention. The study sample consisted of services performed on an average of 30 vehicles per month. To address the problem, the PDCA and SMART methodologies were implemented and complemented with a continuous time-and-motion study, which revealed a bottleneck in the vehicle washing stage. As corrective actions, follow-up procedures were standardized through an APS monitoring format, schedules were reorganized, personnel performance was evaluated through key performance indicators (KPIs), and an additional washer was hired. As a result, waiting times were significantly reduced, productivity in the washing process doubled, and the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) increased from 77.8% in January to 95.6% during the following quarter. These results demonstrate that process optimization and systematic monitoring can significantly enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction in automotive service departments.