The Hindu Business Line : On life after ...

For Lakshmi, that year was an annus horribilis. That was the year her refrigerator, her microwave oven and her washing machine all broke down in quick succession. In each case, the service personnel promised to “come and take it tomorrow” but no amount of yelling and shouting could force them to fulfil their promise till Lakshmi, a journalist, tried other ways to make them understand. But to no avail. Her oven didn’t return for three weeks, her washing machine for six weeks and she had to pull strings for things to work.

“It was sheer harassment,” recalls Lakshmi, whose story could well be that of the average Indian consumer. “They wouldn’t come, wouldn’t commit to a time, and once even called to tell me to wait at home as they would come “sometime” in the afternoon, never mind that I told them neither I nor anyone else would be available.” The problems were temporary, the scars are permanent. And opting to buy a different brand of appliance the next time around is small comfort. “What’s the guarantee other brands will be better? I’m not sure I want to find out,” she says bitterly.

Service, that bugbear of consumers, would have the power to make or break a brand, one would think. But not delivering on the service promise is a malaise that seems to be endemic to manufacturers and service providers across the board. Companies, for their part, say they recognise this frustration and are taking steps to remedy it. In fact, they are trying to use this promise to their advantage, with most major players in the consumer durables industry increasingly focusing on this factor.

“It’s much more than after-sales service, it’s the attempt to build a continuous relationship,” says Sukhpreet Singh, General Manager (Brand Marketing), Whirlpool of India. Service is one of the key differentiators but it’s more relevant to marketers of durables because the life cycle of appliances is much longer, he points out.

Almost all of them are investing in beefing up their service capabilities, be it conducting ‘free service camps’, installing facilities such as single-number access, toll-free numbers and online complaint registration apart from helpdesks at major retail outlets.

Consumer electronics brand LG even talks about its service strengths in advertisements. “We see customer service as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage in our market segment, hence we want to emphasise on after-sales support, communicate it to the customer and derive a competitive edge,” says Moon B. Shin, Managing Director, LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd.

“We have also started value-added services such as service complaint registration acknowledgement by SMS, post-repair feedback through SMS and providing standby units to customers,” says V. Ramachandran, Director (Sales and Marketing), LG Electronics India. According to him, the company has set up four regional training academies to train a team of 8,000 service engineers in both technical and behavioural skills for their wide network of 1,200 authorised service centres across the country.

Says Ravinder Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung, “After-sales service has always been a strength for Samsung and 45 per cent of our customers own more than one product of Samsung. We believe a satisfied customer is the best brand ambassador that we can have for our products.” The brand has a widespread service network comprising nine Samsung Service Plazas and over 600 authorised service centres. It also has the service hotline facility available at around 250 dealer counters. Samsung is planning to expand its service network by over 50 per cent next year.

Kamal Nandi, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), Godrej Appliances, another major brand in the country, says, “At Godrej we have always considered service as the core brand proposition and not just another value-add along with the product.” There are essentially a couple of reasons for that, he says. Godrej, the oldest appliance manufacturing company in India, crossed the milestone of selling 10 million appliances almost a decade ago. As a result of this, there is a huge population of Godrej appliances, especially refrigerators, that has been in running condition in many households for as many as four to five decades. “This means there is a need to have a well-organised service network to ensure that these appliances, irrespective of the age, get the best quality service within the shortest possible time. Godrej Smartcare consists of more than 400 authorised service providers and over 7,000 trained service personnel,” mentions Nandi, adding, “Our plan is to add an additional 100 authorised service providers and 2,500 personnel over the next three years.”

“Our service centres are key points from where we can get consumer insight and suggestions to formulate our new products to remain ahead of competition,” says LG’s Ramachandran. Based on these insights, LG Service has introduced seven-day working for authorised service centres keeping in mind working couples in major cities. Under LG’s 211 ‘service when you want’ concept, we ensure that our field service engineers visit the customer within a day at the time agreed upon.

According to Nandi, Godrej’s new approach would be to ensure regular inspection of the product to ensure there is no breakdown and thus assist the customer in overcoming any problem. It has instituted a field force of 500 service technicians who check products at customers’ places on a proactive basis. The second big shift that Godrej foresees would be to constantly improve the service delivery keeping in mind the ever increasing consumer expectation, he says. This not only calls for better efficiency at service personnel level but improving the entire process from receiving the call to the visit to the customer’s place, identification of problem, spare part logistics, repair and after-service feedback.

LG has also signed an MoU with the Department of Technical Training & Education, Delhi Government, for the same purpose. As per the pact, LG Electronics plans to cover 35 cities by end of 2009 which amounts to around 50 ITIs across these cities. It aims to recruit 5,000 people by the end of 2010. The company has entered into agreements with the ITIs in various States, with plans to enter more States. “To ensure proper quality, extensive training in LG products will be given to each ITI instructors,” says Shin.

Says Whirlpool’s Singh: “We also train service personnel in soft skills – how to respond to complaints, how to behave with the woman of the house … And yes, some complaints do tend to get overlooked but we’ve ensured that each unattended complaint is copied to the head of the service department, and goes to the national help desk as well.”

Despite the best efforts, service still remains a touch-and-go affair. Annual maintenance contracts only serve to fatten the company’s coffers, it seems. Says Vijay Kumar of his refrigerator’s AMC: “Not once was there any pro-active service call - finally, towards the expiry date of the contract, someone called to say there would be a “free inspection of the fridge” - obviously to get us to renew the service contract,” adding that the service promise “is all nonsense.” Very often, the companies say they cannot carry out the repair immediately as the parts are not available. When they will be is anybody’s guess. And thus begins another cycle of complaint, waiting, and resolution.

Lakshmi, meanwhile, has another crisis on hand. Her geyser greets her with an explosive noise every time she switches it on; it’s been two months since she’s first complained, and she’s still waiting … She’s wondering whether she should kidnap the service engineer when he finally arrives, hold him hostage till the company actually ensures the geyser’s ready to use. Hmm …?

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