The Indian automobile industry is the tenth largest in the world with an annual production of approximately 2 million units. It has the potential of becoming the major automotive industry in the upcoming years. Industry experts are hopeful that it will touch 10 million units mark. The Indian automobile industry is involved in design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of motor vehicles. Maruti Udyog is one of the major Indian car manufacturing companies.
Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) started manufacturing cars under the benign protection of the Government of India at the height of the Licence Permit Raj. With no noteworthy competition, it was little wonder that MUL went on to capture a major share of the Indian market. The significant fact is that even after liberalization came into being in 1991 and all major auto manufacturers were provided access to the Indian automobile market, MUL still continued to dominate the Indian market, and even as of date twenty years later, sells more cars in India than all other auto manufacturers put together. According to JD Power Asia Pacific, MUL was rated at the top position in customer satisfaction for the ninth consecutive year. The Annual Report of MUL shows that their current market share in the Passenger Vehicles segment is 52.2%. The Report indicates that MUL has a complete monopoly in multipurpose vehicles.
The authors contend that MUL has managed to have this dominance in the market through different initiatives related to management of products, marketing, and services. But the biggest contributor for the successful building of the Maruti brand has been the highly effective management of services offered to the customer. The authors intend to verify this hypothesis through original research that will encapsulate the response of users of MUL vehicles as also a study of the service organization created by MUL in India based on published material.