TVS Scooter wins women vote

NEW DELHI: Preity Zinta endorsing scooterettes seems to be bang on target. When it comes to scooters, women are definitely the happier lot. In the first TVS Scooter Satisfaction survey, women have emerged as more satisfied with their scooters than men. Women are almost 8 points higher on the total customer satisfaction index.

The study reports that stark difference has been observed in the sales satisfaction index. The total customer satisfaction index is a sum total of aspects of brand image, cost of ownership, quality index and design among others.

Contrary to popular belief, motorcycle rather than scooter is the mass vehicle. According to the survey findings, the income profile of scooter owners is more affluent than motorcycle owners.

More than 31% of motorcycle owners reported their monthly income to be about Rs 10,000. On the other hand 19% of scooter owners reported their monthly income falling in that slab. Also more than 11% scooter owners reported their income to be more than Rs 30,000 per month, while there were far lesser proportion of motorcycle owners in the high income category.

“The profile of a scooter consumer has changed a lot. From a time where scooters were the only vehicle in the family. Scooters are now being bought as a second vehicle for short distances by affluent families,” says Pradeep Saxena, senior veep, TNS Automotive.

Quality remains a concern though as most scooter owners in the survey were not satisfied with the quality of scooters. In almost all segments of scooters—geared scooters, ungeared scooters and scooterettes, quality satisfaction saw a drop with increasing duration of ownership. The scooterettes saw the biggest drop with the quality index dropping nearly 28 points with ownership up to years.

The upgradation trends for both gender saw a strong inclination to upgrade to a car. However men also showed a strong inclination for motorcycle. Almost 80% women reported scooters to be their first two-wheeler but for 20% men it is a second two-wheeler.

TNS Scooter satisfaction had a sample size of about 2,000 people of which 688 were women. The survey was conducted across 20 cities which were major two-wheeler markets.