A study in the International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence has looked at the automotive market in Zambia and found that after-sales service is a crucial, though often-overlooked, factor in shaping customer satisfaction and influencing word-of-mouth recommendations.
As car ownership in this developing nation grows and consumer expectations rise, the findings from Shem Sikombe of Copperbelt University, in Kitwe, Zambia, show that dealerships can play a role not only in selling vehicles, but also in cultivating long-term relationships with customers.
Sikombe carried out a structured survey distributed among customers at branded car dealerships in various locations. His analysis of the data offers a detailed examination of how after-sales service functions in an emerging market context. The work used hierarchical regression and a statistical method known as the Hayes bootstrapping mediation analysis to determine the indirect impact of one variable on another. The results dissect the effects of maintenance facilities, warranties, and the quality of spare parts.
As such, Sikombe found that maintenance facilities and warranties have a clear and statistically significant positive effect on customer satisfaction. In practical terms, this means that when a customer believes their car is being properly serviced and that the dealership stands firm behind its warranty promises, they are more likely to feel satisfied with the overall buying experience. This echoes what has been found in in more established markets, where service reliability and perceived value are closely tied to customer trust.
That third factor, the quality of spare parts, produced a more ambiguous result. Statistically, there was no real correlation between parts quality and customer satisfaction. However, the issue may lie less with the quality of the parts themselves and more in their cost and availability. Delays in obtaining spares and dissatisfaction with high prices, suggests that supply bottlenecks and pricing policies could be harming the reputation of dealerships. These various factors all influence customer satisfaction and how overall service quality correlates with word-of-mouth promotion.
Dealerships must ensure customer satisfaction as much as they can control those factors. In markets like Zambia, where consumer decisions are strongly influenced by peer recommendations, this form of informal marketing carries particular weight.
Sikombe, S. (2025) ‘Investigating after-sales service, customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth nexus: evidence from a branded car dealership’, Int. J. Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.199–213.