INTRODUCTION

Customer perception, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer perception is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. It's a well known fact that no business can exist without customers. In the business of Website design, it's important to work closely with your customers to make sure the site or system you create for them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because it's critical that you form a close working relationship with your client, customer service is of vital importance. Customer perception is the most common form of market research in businessto-business markets and is often connected to quality and production measurement, rather than as straight marketing based research. Before setting up a customer perception programme, it is necessary to ensure that the organisation has the will to actually make changes for improvement, otherwise you will simply be annoying customers by taking their time to collect information, then not doing anything with it. MEASURING CUSTOMER PERCEPTION When customers rate their perception with an element of the company's performance, say delivery, we need to recognize that customers will vary in how they define good delivery: it could mean early delivery, on-time delivery, order completeness, and so on, yet if the company had to spell out every element in detail, customers would face a huge questionnaire. We must also recognize that two customers can report being "highly satisfied" for different reasons. One way be easily satisfied most of the time and the other might be hard to please but was pleased on this occasion.

Companies should also note that manager and salespersons can manipulate their ratings on customer perception. They can be especially nice to customers just before the survey. They can be especially nice to exclude unhappy customers from being included in the survey. One danger is that customer know that the company will go out of its way to please customers, some customers may want to express high dissatisfaction (even if satisfied) in order to receive more concessions. Consumer perception can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Questions typically include an element of emotional coupled with an element of behavioral perception, or loyalty to a particular product or service. Customer perception, a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer perception is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified perception goals." It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is often part of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer perception is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. Within organizations, customer perception ratings can have powerful effects. They focus employees on the importance of fulfilling customers expectations. Furthermore, when these ratings dip, they warn of problems that can affect sales and profitability. These metrics quantify an important dynamic. When a brand has loyal customers, it gains positive word-of-mouth marketing, which is both free and highly effective." Therefore, it is essential for businesses to effectively manage customer perception. To be able do this, firms need reliable and representative measures of perception.

"In researching perception, firms generally ask customers whether their product or service has met or exceeded expectations. Thus, expectations are a key factor behind perception. When customers have high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate their experience as less than satisfying. For this reason, a luxury resort, for example, might receive a lower perception rating than a budget motel-even though its facilities and service would be deemed superior in 'absolute' terms." The importance of customer perception diminishes when a firm has increased bargaining power. For example, cell phone plan providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, participate in an industry that is an oligopoly, where only a few suppliers of a certain product or service exist. As such, many cell phone plan contracts have a lot of fine print with provisions that they would never get away if there were, say, a hundred cell phone plan providers, because customer perception would be way too low, and customers would easily have the option of leaving for a better contract offer. There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer perception for firms. NEED OF THE STUDY It is buyers market. Customer is an important person to the organization. We have to fulfill the requirements of customer to survive in the global competitive environment. The needs and demands of customers are constantly changing. So, suppliers / organizations have to dance to the tune of customer. In this regard, the organization must equip to demonstrate its power. The following information would help the leaders or managers to understand the magnitude of customer perception. This present study of customer perception is done in Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. Customer perception is a very good study. By this, we can know the Quality and Product range in Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. By the study of customer perception, we can know the opinions of customers regarding the products of Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. We can also know the products offered by the Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 1. To know the perception level of customers with the products of Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. 2. To know the customer perception towards the services of Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. 3. To know the opinion on quality and product range in Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. 4. To know the promotional activities implemented by Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. 5. To bring awareness to the customers regarding the Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. 6. To know the preference of customers regarding the products. 7. To know the opinion of customers on price rates in Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY Consumer perception applies the concept of sensory perception to marketing and advertising. Just as sensory perception relates to how humans perceive and process sensory stimuli through their five senses, consumer perception pertains to how individuals form opinions about companies and the merchandise they offer through the purchases they make. Merchants apply consumer perception theory to determine how their customers perceive them. They also use consumer perception theory to develop marketing and advertising strategies intended to retain current customers -- and attract new ones. The term consumer perception in its broader sense covers various aspects like how an individual selects, organizes and interprets information inputs. For the purpose of the study, consumers will be deemed to be persons who are users of Adarsha motors in the selected areas Karimnagar.

The scope is very limited because attitude of the people change according to the time. It is restricted to Karimnagar and that to among 120 respondents. It is conducted for 45 days and restricted to certain area. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research is the plan structure & strategy for investigation conceived to answer to research question & control variance. It is the overall operation pattern to framework of project that stipulated the information to be collected from which sources by word procedure. What are the two possible sources of data for securing in the above mentioned information in the primary & secondary data.

SOURCES OF DATA: Primary data:Primary data consists of original information for the specific purpose at hand. It is first hand information for the direct users of respondents. The tools used to collect the data may vary and can be collected through various methods like questionnaire, personal interview Information required for the project is mainly primary data. The information was collected by sample survey method with the help of questionnaire by meeting various customers of Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. Secondary data:Secondary data is the data which is already been collected and assembled. This data is available with the companies or firms and it can be collected from newspapers, periodicals, magazines, websites etc. Secondary data is collected form the company journals, magazines, broachers & websites.

Sample design: The sampling unit was confined to consumers of the product i.e. Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar to know there perception level regarding performance of the company. Sample universe: The survey was done in Karimnagar only according to my convenience. It is not giving the complete picture of Andhra Pradesh (or) India. Sample frame/unit: Sample frame for professionals, business people, employees etc, who are the customers of Adarsha (TVS) Motors, Karimnagar. Sample size: The total sample size is 120 only. Sample technique: The information is planned to be collected by sample method, the sample method followed is random sampling method. The sampling method is simple random sampling. Analytical Method: simple percentage method is used for the analysis purpose. Data collection: The information is collected through questionnaires and personal interviews. And the information of customers is known by companys service sheet and the free service sheet. A Direct structure questionnaire has been asked to all the respondents in the sample followed by direct personal interviews. Duration of study is 45 days.

Descriptive Studies: In descriptive studies, when the researcher is interested in knowing the characteristics of certain groups such as age. Sex, educational level occupation of income, a descriptive study is necessary. Descriptive studies are well structured. It is therefore, necessary that the researcher gives sufficient thought to framing research questions and deciding the types of data to he collected and the procedure to be used for this purpose. The objective of such a study is to answer the who, what and how of the subject under investigation. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 1. The present research is restricted to Karimnagar only. 2. The sample size taken is only 120 and as such is very small as compared to the universe, this is due to the constraints of time and effort, and as such may not be enough to generalize to the entire population, however it is presumed that the sample represents the universe. 3. Respondents might have responded with the actual feelings of facts while giving responses to the questionnaire. 4. Time being a limiting factor was not sufficient to gather opinions from majority of the respondents, who form part of the universal sample. 5. While every care as been taken to eliminate perceptual bias from the side of the researcher and the respondents however certain element of bias might have set in to the research in adherently.