Servitization in Automotive : How Service Catalogs Influence Sales of Services for Car Dealerships

This research explores the impact of implementing a service catalog on customer satisfaction and sales of services at a car dealership. A high-fidelity prototype of a service catalog was developed for a Volkswagen dealership and tested through a two-trial vignette experiment. The experiment assessed various metrics, including task completion time, overall satisfaction, and sales performance. Results indicate that the service catalog significantly reduces task completion time, enhancing efficiency and usability. However, while there was an observed increase in customer satisfaction, this difference was not statistically significant. The study also found that the service catalog effectively promotes additional products and services, increasing non-mandatory purchases and directing more transactions to official channels. These findings highlight the potential of service catalogs to improve operational efficiency and sales performance in the automotive industry. The research contributes to the broader discourse on servitization, suggesting that similar strategies could be beneficial across various sectors.