Customers in India spend average of Rs 2,400 on servicing out-of-warranty smartphones: Report

A new report now states that one in every four smartphone owners in cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Noida and Ahmedabad visit a service centre within six months of purchasing a smartphone. The study, ‘Smartphone After-sales Service Study’ by Counterpoint Research, points out that customers spent an average amount of Rs 2,400 ($32) on servicing of out-of-warranty phones for a wide array of problems related to charging, software and display. [caption id=“attachment_9048481” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Image: Pixabay[/caption] The survey ‘Smartphone After-sales Service Study’ states that Oppo was the No. 1 brand in customer satisfaction for after-sales service with 93 percent of the respondents rating their experience “very good” or “excellent”, followed by vivo with 85 percent, Xiaomi at 81 percent and Samsung at 81 percent. According to senior analyst Pavel Naiya, after-sale service has become a key factor that influence the purchasing decision when it comes to a smartphone. After-sale services also play a key role in creating long-term customer loyalty, the analyst adds. According to Naiya, a number of sales service processes have been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and leading brands have taken initiatives to digitise service delivery process, reduce wait times, all the while maintaining contactless delivery. As per the analyst, two-thirds of the respondents received their smartphones within a day while about half of the respondents said that the parts required for the service were available at the service centre. If the part was purchased from outside, eight out of 10 complainants said they received the product within three days. As per the report, Opp0 was fastest in the after-sales service turnaround and had the lowest waiting time as well. It was closely followed by Samsung and Xiaomi. Xiaomi was rated highest on “explanation of the problem” as well as solution. It was slightly ahead in “knowledge and soft skills” of the customer support executives compared to other leading brands. Furthermore, Oppo and Xiaomi users reported the least number of times they have to visit a service centre with the same problem. According to research associate Arushi Chawla, the importance of smartphone has increased during the pandemic and thus it has become absolutely crucial for the after-sales service to have enough resilience during these times. While almost all service centre representatives were found to be sporting masks by survey respondents, Samsung maintained contactless submission and collection of smartphones better than others.