How can good marketers improve customer-support

services?

Shubham GoswamiJadavpur University

Manufacturers of equipment must provide product-support services

Product-support service is quickly becoming a battleground for competitive advantage

John Deere derives significant profits from these services

Identifying and SatisfyingCustomer Needs

Traditionally customers have had 3specific worries about product service

Failure frequency Downtime Out of pocket costs

Purchase cost

Discounted cost of

maintenance –

Discounted salvage

value

Life-cycle cost

A buyer takes all these into account in order to estimate the life-cycle cost

A manufacturer must identify the services customers value most and their relative importance, in order to provide the best support

Service mix

Presale

Facilitating services (for expensive equipment)

Value augmenting services (that extend beyond extend beyond

functioning and product performance)

Postsale

Customer service departments

Repair and maintenance services

Postsale Service Strategy

Customer-Service Evolution

Manufacturers usually start by running their own parts-and-service departments

Over time they switch more maintenance and repair service to authorized distributors and dealers

Still later independent service firms emerge offering a lower price and better service

The Customer Service Imperative

Customer service choices are increasing rapidly

However equipment manufacturers must increasingly make out how to make money on their equipment, independent of service contracts

For instance some new car warranties now cover 100,000 km before servicing

Summary

Even product based companies must provide post-purchase service

A manufacturer must identify the services customers value most and their relative importance

The service mix includes both presale and postsale services

Disclaimer

Created byShubham Goswami, Jadavpur University, during a marketing internship byProf. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow(see www.IIMInternship.com)