Dubai: When we buy a product, we expect that it should last a long time.
So, when it breaks down and we need to get it fixed, that is not good news.
When we cannot get it fixed, it is much more than just a maintenance issue — it becomes a case of poor consumer-retailer relations.
There is also the tricky part of brand reputation. More importantly, it shows how much of investments were made to train an effective after-sales team.
On the other hand, a strong relation between consumer and seller is a positive for the market.
Market maturity
It can be taken as yet another indication of the maturity of the market.
“It is less of a problem now that it was five years ago, and it will be less of a problem five years from now,” said Colin Beaton, managing director at Limelight Creative Services.
“This is a sign of a maturing retail market — post-purchase services were not as important as the sales itself in an emerging retail market.
“But as a market matures, people are competing harder to gain the loyalty of customers and build the brand.”
Others believe the post-sale process in the UAE, including warranty repair and other value-adds, need more attention.
It is “unfortunately quite underdeveloped in the UAE,” according to Nikola Kosutic, head of Research at Euromonitor in the Middle East.
Customers complain of a lack of maintenance and repair services after a purchase is done.
After-sales support
They face the issue either of unavailability of the needed skills or the necessary parts for repair. and post-purchase services differ from one product to another.
For example, in the case of the automotive sector, dealers promise up to a five-year warranty.
But in the case of items of personal use, the warranty might be for few months, and for electronics appliances, it can go up to two or three years.
Post-sale processes require investments in training the concerned staffers, Kosutic said.
Beaton said an increasing number of companies are investing to gain a competitive advantage in customer satisfaction, after realising that post-purchase services “has a cost”.
Companies are “realising that the cost of losing a customer is huge, and it is much easier to keep an existing customer than to try to find a brand new customer,” Beaton said.
Accordingly, businesses do invest in follow-up sales and technology to win loyalty.
“Making customers happy” after a purchase will bring them back, Beaton said.
Gaining loyalty requires a combination of factors, including time, money, people, expenses and the resources.
Companies investing to achieve high customer satisfaction are actually looking “at the [their] brand and the customer-relations as a long term asset as opposed to a simple one-time purchase,” he said.
Retail consultants add that companies could measure the cost of post-purchase services on their reputation, and they must “take into account the number of unhappy customers” and turn them into happy ones.
Eventually, the post-sale experiences is about a joint effort in marketing, branding, public relations and investments.
