Sullivan Ford Auto World

I.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to identify the possible solutions that could keep the Sullivan Ford Auto World
stable from all the existing internal and external barrier that challenges the companys stability
thru improving its customer service.

STRENGTHS S
1. Modern and wellmaintained equipment
2. Well-known dealership
3. Favorable locationcommercial local area
4. Attractive showroom
5. Business operation
experience
6. Enough knowledge about the
industry

OPPORTUNITIES O
1. completely penetrate its
current market
2. Change of management
3. Continuous customer
feedback

THREATS T
1. Poor industry forecast
2. Decline of regional

SO-Strategy
1. Make use of the companys
ample knowledge about the
industry as a competitive
advantage thru continuously
addressing the needs of the
customers and following the
trends in the market.
(S6,S5,O3)

ST-Strategy
1. Hire a general manager that
has enough knowledge

WEAKNESSES W
1. Poor customer complaint
handling
2. Inappropriate attitude of
service staffs
3. Low sales that causes
financial difficulties
4. Low work force
5. Problems with service
writers
6. Poor service work order
process (Traditional way of
serving customers)
WO-Strategy
1. Train employees
regarding rendering
effective and efficient
customer service that
could satisfy every
customer they interact
with (W1,W2,W5,O3)
2. Use customers
feedbacks as a basis on
implementing a better
service operations for
the companys service
department (W6,W3)
WT-Strategy
1. Benchmark with strong
competitors(W3,W6,T5)

economy
3. Switch of customers
preferences
4. High business
operation costs
5. Strong competitors
with wide-range
product lines
compared to the
companys

II.

about the market.

(S6.S5,T5)
2. Compete in the market thru
improving the companys
customer service (S1,T3)

2. Improve customer
service thru initiating
trainings and seminars
(W2,W5, W1, T3)

Alternative Courses of Action

1. Use customers feedbacks as a basis on implementing better service operations for the
companys service department.
a. Customers feedback enables a company to gain critical insight about
customers needs and requirements. Critical inputs and responses can help a
company to develop better customer-retention programs and might as well see
if the company needs necessary improvements or changes to keep up with
customer preferences and requirements. Sullivan Ford auto World could make
use of the companys survey regarding customer satisfaction to look into the
flaws of their product and service department and quickly address these flaws
to improve the whole business operations.
2. Improve customer service thru initiating employee trainings and seminars
a. Sullivan Ford auto World should initiate customer trainings and seminars to
help employees improve their knowledge and skills regarding customer
orientation in order for them to address their need to improve their customer
service based from the low customer satisfaction rating they got from their
survey. These training activities could help employees to address customerrelated grievances more competently and resolve queries and complaints more
quickly. These trainings and seminars could also help the company to
increasing the quality of work and productivity of every employee in the
service department.
3. Benchmark with strong competitors

a. Sullivan Ford auto World should make an effort to know how their strong
competitors satisfy its customers. The company could also analyse the process
of how their competitors obtain such output and compare it with their own
operational process to enhance the competitiveness of their organization.
According to the survey, the company lacks efficiency in repairing cars; they
may use benchmarking to see how their competitors operate on this part of the
operational process and improve their own operations.

III.

Decision

After analysing the current situation of Sullivan Ford auto World, the best course of action they
could consider doing is to initiate employee trainings and seminars. This is due to the fact that
the companys customer service rates low on the survey they have conducted and thus there is a
clear need that the companys employees specifically those on the customer service department
needs to improve their customer interaction skills and knowledge.
IV.

Recommendation

To support such course of action, the company has to save some of their budget to provide such
trainings and seminars. They should also consider changing their traditional way of operating on
their service work-order process because this greatly affects the promptness on simple business
operation such as scheduling, and writing up orders. The company should also see to it that the
companys production and operational process are as efficient as it can be in order to shorten the
length of time on operations (repairing of cars). They should also train the employees in
maintenance department to be as knowledgeable and skilled as they can be to set as a
competitive advantage in terms of having a quality work. Employees who frequently interact
with customers should be trained to improve their interpersonal skills in order to be more
accommodating, polite and to be more knowledgeable on how to solve and address customer
inquiries and complains.