TESTING THE SATISFACTION OF PROFESSIONAL CUSTOMERS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET SPARE PARTS INDUSTRY WITH THE PURPOSE OF IMPROVING SALES: THE CASE OF BALKANS

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a survey of professional customer satisfaction in the period from 2015 to 2019 on a sample of 4248 professional customers of a company engaged in the distribution and trade of automotive spare parts (aftermarket). This company operates in the region of Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia. The results for 2019 were presented by descriptive statistics and compared with Categorical Regression Analysis (CATREG). The analysis was used as a method of predicting the level of customer loyalty by combining variables from the survey (questionnaire) with regard to the relationship between the sales staff and the characteristics of the products themselves (2015-2018). Previous author's research shows that the greatest impact on customer loyalty in Bosnia and Herzegovina has the range of goods, delivery, and price-quality ratio. For Northern Macedonia, it is the range of goods, delivery, and the manner of complaints resolving. The greatest importance in predicting the level of customer loyalty in Serbia is the delivery of goods and complaints resolving. The conclusions and managerial implications confirmed the author's assumptions in the third phase of the examination, which was conducted in 2019. Unfortunately, due to the well-known Covid-19 pandemic, research of this type could not be conducted in 2020.