Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence 10th Edition by James Evans ,William Lindsay

Exercise 57

A local franchise of Acme Awesome Car Rental Company conducted a survey of customers to determine their perceptions of the importance of key product and service attributes as well as their perceptions of the company's performance. 71 The results are given in Tables 3.5 and 3.6. In Table 3.5, importance was measured on a five-point scale ranging from "not at all important" to "extremely important." Note that Table 3.6 is segmented by personal and business use, and that two different scales were used (the percentage values are based on the percentage of "yes" responses; all others are on a five-point scale from "poor" to "excellent"). What conclusions might you make from these data? What possible improvements can you suggest?

Source: Adapted from Ralph F. Altman and Marilyn M. Helms, "Quantifying Service Quality: A Case Study of a Rental Car Agency," Production and Inventory Management 36, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1995), 45-50. Reprinted with permission of APICS-The Educational Society for Resource Management, Falls Church, VA.