One of the most effective strategies to earn customer loyalty is to provide excellent customer service. From professionally answering all customer queries to handling complaints, your company must always have well-trained staff ready to face those responsibilities. But remarkable customer service doesn’t end after a customer makes a purchase.
After-sales service has become an integral part of most businesses today, especially big ones. Although these services don’t generate revenue, they’re just as imperative as sales, as it increases a company’s goodwill in the market and among their customers, both of which are essential in earning customer loyalty and bringing back lost customers. After-sales service shows that you value your customer’s experience and feedback while and after they use your products.
There are at least seven types of after-sales service, the top three being pre-installation services, user training, and warranty services. In this article, we’re going to walk through those top types of after-sales service, and determine whether they’re the strategy your business needs.
Pre-installation Service
When you buy appliances such as air conditioners or washer and driers, your purchase is normally inclusive of a pre-installation service, in which a staff from the appliance’s company delivers and installs the appliance in your home or office. The staff would also demonstrate how to use the product, introducing you to its different functions so you’d immediately be accustomed to its complicated settings without having to refer on the user manual.
Because pre-installation services are automatically included in a purchase deal, it is free of charge. In return, customers feel satisfied and well-served, while the company enjoys the benefit of positive feedback.
User Training
B2B businesses benefit significantly from user training. It is basically an in-depth product demonstration that your company provides for your client, who may be a medical facility, manufacturing plant, bakery, or other types of businesses from various industries. The end-user, which is your client, is trained for some time by your personnel, so that both parties will be ensured that the product is being used correctly, preventing malfunctions that could be attributed to lack of user-friendliness or insufficient demonstration.
User training is also an opportunity for you to spend more time with your clients and find out their exact needs. This potentially enables you to tailor your products in a way that would eliminate inefficiencies and other issues in your client’s processes, thereby making their day-to-day operations more streamlined.
Warranty Services
Every time you buy a new phone, you surely always encounter the word “warranty,” in which a company promises to repair or replace your unit if it’s defective. It is possibly the most common after-sales service offered by nearly every company for almost every product they sell.
Warranty is typically effective for a whole year, but other companies offer them for up to 5 years, depending on their products. While it’s a highly reliable service, however, it costs companies a huge amount money, specifically process costs, people costs, and product costs. These high costs are incurred from inefficient warranty processes that are often managed manually.
Fortunately, companies can reduce warranty costs by 55% – 60% through a highly efficient warranty management system that can be acquired from esteemed logistics solutions providers. Such a system ensures that you’d come up with long-term solutions instead of short-term fixes, and that you can tailor your warranty processes in a way that guarantees higher ROI.
With these top three types of after-sales service discussed, you can devise a more concrete plan on how to continually serve your customers after they’ve completed their transactions with you. With a strategic after-sales service, you can expect your customers’ trust and everlasting patronage.
