A marketing technique to establish customer loyalty

Kafi Kurnia, Contributor, Jakarta

Many salespeople think that they have concluded a sale when the buyers pay and get what they purchase. That is not quite true at least to one Japanese executive I met recently.

This person said that a sale was not complete until the buyer enjoyed the product he or she had purchased and was satisfied with it.

It is this philosophy that has made the guarantee given to a product and the provision of after-sales service inseparable parts of the marketing chain.

An after-sales service system also has more difficult infrastructure than, for example, the infrastructure of the sales of marketing division.

A director of an automotive company told me that the sales and marketing division was easier to predict because of their benchmarks, such as the season, the trends and the market share.

An after-sales service program, however, has many more variables. On the one hand, they must provide complete equipment, including a workshop, a group of mechanics and spare parts.

On the other hand, they greatly hope that there will be the least possibility of the need for repairs. A smaller need for repairs means that their products are durable and of good quality. So, an after-sales service program may be likened to a hospital. Both face a dilemma.

In the automotive industry, you can sometimes find a variety of odd incidents when it comes to after-sales service. Sometimes the driving style and quality of Indonesian drivers does not get enough thought from engineers and designers in the pre-production phase. It is often the case that a car needs a repair because of the poor quality of the driver, especially if a vehicle has sophisticated and automatic computerized equipment tampered with by unqualified people. As a result, vehicle owners often blame the car company. If something goes wrong with their cars, car owners usually are impatient, especially if the spare parts must first be imported. It is often the case that it is a driver's poor driving pattern that makes a car break down earlier than it should.

In automotive marketing, for example, although an after-sales service program may seem trivial to most people here, it may lead to irreversibly adverse consequences. It is often the case that an after-sales service program and the price that the car can later be sold for are two determining factors, aside from the original purchase price, which are taken into account before a buyer decides to buy a car.

Given this situation, many automotive companies feel the need to apply special management in taking care of their after-sales service matters. This special management has as its goal as the management of reputation. In the management of reputation, we try not only establish a good reputation but also to adopt a special strategy for a recovery or a "win-back". This means that if a consumer happens to be disappointed and angry, there must be a special program to win back the consumer and prevent him to move to another product or company.

Once, my friend's Mercedes broke down in Los Angeles. When it was taken to the workshop, as part of the service, he got a loan of another Mercedes. In this way, my friend's activities would not be disrupted just because his car was being repaired. This is an example of an excellent after-sales service. Several automotive companies in Jakarta also give house-call services.

They do not just pamper their customers but, according to a friend of mine, who is an after-sales service manager in one of these companies, they also try to create an impression that if a car breaks down, the owner will not feel as if it were a very tragic and painful event. These companies will ensure that this customer will consider it as a usual maintenance service, which is easy and practical. That is why the repair is conducted at the home of the car owner.

Another friend of mind had the hard-drive of his IBM laptop crash. For an experienced executive, "a hard-drive crash" is the most annoying disaster, especially if the hard drive contains all his data. I took my friend to an IBM service center. There he was offered a spare "hard drive", which he could borrow to ensure that he could continue working despite his hard-drive crash.

Although an after-sales service has its own problems, it is often the case that an after-sales service program serves as the last bridge connecting us with our consumers.

An executive of an electronics company once told me that if a buyer purchased a laptop from their company, they hoped that this buyer would send them his profile voluntarily and online.

In return he will enjoy an after-sales service such as a free upgrade of software online. He said that, statistically, over 60 percent of the buyers registering themselves would be loyal buyers and buy the latest laptop two years later.

This technique is a creative means to establishing customer loyalty. So, an after-sales service program is actually intended not only to maintain our reputation but, when it is well- designed, it will also be turned into a customer loyalty program. The writer is the director of Interband marketing consulting company.