Consumers Want Better After-sale

ServiceThe branded foreign home appliance manufacturers need to improve their after-sale services in China in order to keep the consumer loyalty alive and attract more customers.

The foreign home appliance brands, which are featured with better quality and bigger popularity, are usually more expensive than the Chinese domestic brands. However, the after-sale services they provide are not so brilliant.

As discovered by our journalist, these foreign companies all charge for the door-to-door service irrespective of them actually solving the problem or not. It is due to the fact that the foreign companies usually outsource their after-sale services, increasing the maintenance costs substantially. Therefore, the companies use this way to transfer the costs to the consumers.

Charges as Rules

According to Ms. He who bought a Sony TV set, when the problem occured, she consulted about the maintenance. The maintainer said that since the maintenance period of her TV has expired, the door-to-door service will be priced at 130 yuan (USD 19.04), in addition to the fees of repairing the machine. Ms. He thought that that it is reasonable to ask the customers to afford the charges of part replacement, but the door-to-door service should not be charged.

After stepping in contact with the maintenance departments of AO Smith, Samsung etc, the journalists discovered that most of the foreign companies charge you for the door-to-door maintenance service if the maintenance period expires. Some Netizens complained about the high service charges on the bulletins. A Netizen said that he bought a Hitachi TV and had a problem with the screen. However, the maintainer asked for the 500-yuan maintenance fee in addition to the 80-yuan door-to-door service fee.

With the increase of the Chinese people’s income, some foreign home appliances could be seen in the Chinese families. But the dissatisfactory after-sale service lead to many complaints among the Chinese consumers.

Reasons to Big Charges

According to the source from Sony, this Japanese company adopts the pattern of cooperating with the domestic maintenance companies. The source believed that the charge for the door-to-door service of the products whose maintenance period has expired conformed to the national regulations. The charges are based on the cost of maintenance.

While discussing that matter, Lu Renbo, deputy secretary-general of China Electronics Chamber of Commerce, was the opinion that most of the foreign companies choose to outsource their after-sale services in China. In addition to the comparatively smaller market share and higher prices, the maintenance cost is therefore higher.

An anonymous source said that outsourcing the after-sale service could help to reduce the operating cost. Outsourcing the service could save 200 thousand yuan (USD 29.3 thousand) every year for the company compared with building a maintenance department. If the foreign company spreads its maintenance service all across China, the costs saved through service outsourcing are quite significant for the company.

Different from the foreign companies, the Chinese domestic home appliance companies have the advantages in price and market share. Their after-service cost is comparatively smaller and after-sale service that is owned by oneself is suitable for them. Therefore, the domestic home appliance companies in China are facing smaller stress related to the cost of after-sale service. However, some experts thought that the self-owned maintenance department cannot fully satisfy the demand of the customers in different places. In this case, outsourcing service is inevitable and the service cost will increase too.

After-sale Service to Be Improved

“The companies should have a long-term brand development strategy. The risk of maintenance should not be transferred to the customers,” said Lu Renbo. In recent years, maintaining the home appliances costs more and more in China and several times’ maintenance cost as much as buying a new one.

The foreign companies are bullish on the consumption potential of the Chinese market and moved their research and development centers to China one by one in order to lower the R&D cost. However, since the production of foreign companies is on the way of localization, so is the after-sale service. When more and more top class products are introduced into China, the same level after-sale services should follow suit.