History of Nissan in North America

Steve Jackson, the General Manager of Cranston Nissan has just received a letter from Sam Monahan, a customer who has experienced a serious breakdown in service.

Highlight of Order of Events

• August 28, Mr. Monahan dropped his car off for repair of rust damage in the following areas:
• Roof-along the top of the windshield
• Left rocker panel-under drivers door
• Left quarter panel – near end of bumper
• Rear body panel – under license plate.

Between August 28 and September 13 Mr. Monahan experienced customer service at its worst.  His vehicle went into the shop for body repairs and came out with several different mechanical repairs.

Steve Jackson must identify the root causes of the problem and initiate remedial action.

Purpose:

The case provides a detailed chronology of service problems encountered by a customer. The information provides the opportunity to:

1. Categorize the service quality problems at a service facility.
2. Discuss the probable causes of the service failures.
3. Demonstrate the use of a cause-and-effect diagram.
4. Speculate on the actions management should take to the situation.  Determine what the company’s long-term goals are.

Categorize the service quality problems at service facility:

1. Personnel

88756222. Promised to call customer about the status of the job but never did.
88756223. Caused customer to take several long trips to dealership to pick up the car without offering a loaner car.
88756224. Delivered car to customer with requested bodywork completed but several other mechanical problems created.
88756225. No one ever tried to satisfy the customer
88756226. Service department required extra time on car as was “time consuming” showing lack of respect for customer

2. Shops

88756227. Fixed requested problems, but then created others.
88756228. Gave body shop customer low priority in the repair shop.
88756229. Could not repair car when promised.
88756230. Materials to repair vehicle not identified or ordered in timely manner

3. Procedure

88756231. No coordination between departments.
88756232. No one in steps up and accepts responsibility, but rather, many employees are involved with the customer.
88756233. Knew a part had to be ordered, yet did not order it.
88756234. Lack of coordination between departments
88756235. Not in place for calling customer to provide status of work order

4. Product appearance  (Output)

88756236. Indicates that exterior parts were not replaced properly after job is completed.
88756237. Reveals interior parts damaged by personnel.

Discuss the probable causes of the service failures.

There are two primary causes for these problems. First, management has lost control of the very thing the company should excel in - customer service. No one is responsible for coordinating problems within two departments. Second, the company lacks a "quality culture"; employees should pride themselves in solving problems for the customer. An example of the lack of a quality culture is the actions of the employee who brought the car with obvious defects to the customer three times.

A cause-and-effect diagram can represent this categorization. `

        

Speculate on the actions management should take to the situation.  Determine what the company’s long-term goals are.

As a team, we realize that there is an immediate response to the situation, as well as a long run need for action to ensure that this type of service never happens again.

1. Immediately, Jackson should contact Monahan and apologized for the incident.  He should ensure that the problem be resolved to the customer’s satisfaction and at no cost to him. At this point Mr. Monahan should not be inconvenienced by any means.  Mr. Jackson should have Jim Boyd go out to wherever Mr. Monahan is located and pick up his car.  At the same time, a rental car or loaner car should be supplied for him. The management employees involved should be reprimanded for not handling the problem correctly and assist in the solution. All defects in Monahan’s car should be fixed and the car should be return in the same mechanical condition it was originally received in.

2. In the long run, reorganization may be appropriate with some changes in personnel. Employees should be trained in Total Quality Management, (TQM) especially as it relates to customer services.   Establish Total Service Teams.  These teams begin with the salesperson.  Each sales person is assigned a service writer.  When a customer purchases a new or used car that customer becomes a part of that salesperson team.  So whenever the car needs servicing or repairs because you are: Each team should have two-service writers (Head & Assistant) –Customers point of contact; the person you see when you are taking your car to the shop.  Each team should be assigned a certain number of mechanics.  Those mechanics work for that service writer and work on the jobs that have been assigned by the service writer.    To take service teams a step further, we suggest that this will elevate multiple mechanics working on the vehicle and no one will be able to pass the buck off to someone else.   Once a customer comes into the dealership, he should always (if possible) be directed to same service writer.  This way you begin to establish a relationship with your customers. He needs to do reorganization with some changes in personnel.  The department should be retrained in TQM. 

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