At Your Service: The Real Story Behind Warranty Management

Skandhan,
a
silk-weaver from Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu was
traumatized to see a blemish in the brand new computer he brought for
his daughter who is an engineering graduate. However, she was not
much disturbed as she had read the instructional manual of the
product almost twice soon after purchasing the computer. Such is the
awareness of warranty these days where even a small chip demands a
warranty. There is a general myth amidst every one that warranty
management is only serving the repaired ones. Actually, it is not
true. Pioneers in IT industry affirm that warranty can also include
user training, up gradation, support on technical facets, reverse
logistics, re-export, scrapping, e-waste management. Any warranty is
decided at the time of the product's sale. The warranty period
could be for one year or it could be for multiple years which changes
from product to product as well as firm to firm and even from country
to country.

TRADITIONAL MODE OF
WARRANTY:

“In
the past, the numbers of suppliers were limited and the technical
cognizance to repair and return was kept with the Original Equipments
Manufacturers (OEM). Now, with too many vendors and large markets and
sizeable volumes, there are specialized players who undertake various
aspects of warranty management in the value chain,” said NR
Panicker, CMD, href="http://www.dqweek.com/Emerson-Network-appoints-Accel-Frontline--">Accel
Frontline, Chennai. “As there are numerous
foreign vendors hawking their products to Indian consumers and India
being a very large and complex terrain, providing warranty services
across the country, satisfactorily is a logistic nightmare. Since
many OEMs are not equipped to provide such services, they engage
third-party providers to do warranty fulfillment on their behalf.
Accel Frontline Services, a group company of Accel, is one of the
leaders in providing warranty fulfillment services in India,” added
Panicker. Earlier, in India, the gentleman agreement between a buyer
and seller was only through word of mouth. Now, the new system of
warranty evolved. When few products fail to keep up the promise, the
need for warranty arises. As a result, there are many international
warranty management players who have started looking at India for
such activities which, in turn, has evolved as an outsourced activity
like the BPO industry.

THE WARRANTY CHALLENGE:

“A
warranty has to be a perfect balance between customer goodwill and
cost structure. For eg, take laptop. A decade before, it was found
only with the professionals. Now, even a school student has the
accessibility to use it,” said Sivaprakash Sivaraj, GM, filed
service delivery, href="http://www.dqweek.com/Lenovo%27s-all-new-edition-of-high-performance-PCs-in-India">
Lenovo India. Sivaraj added, “One of the
challenge is Customer induced damaged (CID) cases are on the rise due
to average user age group has come down.” Lenovo offers both
'onsite' and 'carry-in warranty management services to the
customers across the country. During the warranty, Lenovo offers
telephonic and remote take over services to fix the problems over the
phone (FOP). “In the event of unsuccessful FOP, onsite or carry-in
case id is created and dispatched to the field to address customers'
problem,” added Sivaraj. Thus, the biggest challenge for any
warranty service team is to satisfy the end-user. One may be
well-educated but may not be aware of warranty terms or even may
expect warranty against the deal. Satisfying them would be the
biggest challenge. Besides competitive price and quality of product,
now user is more emphasizing on post-sales service which involves
technical support and warranty service.

VARIES PRODUCT
WARRANTY:

Among
the hardware devices, if one product demands more warranty, it is the
data storage products. For instance, take a pen drive. Its mobility
and accessibility may easily make it a victim of a virus- ttack and
spoil the entire working system. “India is a growing and
competitive market where customers have very high expectation.
Although warranty management is backed by global warranty policy, the
adjustment on service model still refers to actual condition in
India,” said LC Chan, customer service manager, Kingston (APAC).
She added, “India is one of countries which has higher service
coverage, as its geography is concerned. And for those cities/towns
which do not have a service location, currently the replacements are
sent by courier to the customers.” Speaking about Kingston's
approach, Chan said, “Flexibility and adaptability will be the main
approach. We need to be flexible enough to the changes of the
diversity market and user needs. We also need to be adaptable to the
possible adjustment needed in the pace of market's trend. In India,
which is the second-most populous country, we chose to appoint one of
the best service brands-Digicare Smartlink Network System, who has
the stronger coverage area across the country covering every major
city andwhich is expandable in developing markets in near future, as
well.”

WARRANTY FOR SECURITY:

Besides,
one
should not forget that the security space in the IT industry too
demands an attention on par with the hardware sectors. S Srinivasan,
senior VP, K7 Computing, encounters the biggest challenge giving an
updated warranty services. “The major difference between hardware
and a security support is the product's lifecycle after sales. A
hardware product may not change after the purchase. But an anti- irus
product can. We have to ensure our customers that they would not fall
prey to any of the unwanted programs,” added Srinivasan. “Customers
are now becoming more cautious and aware of issues relating to
security. They are not ready to compromise under any circumstances
when it comes to protecting their digital assets. In such a case, a
warranty management team in any security sector should always be
ready to respond proactively to the needs of the customers,” added
Srinivasan. “We have started training our customers the do's and
don'ts related to security of their gadgets and as of now, we have
never received any problem from our customers related to warranty, in
security products,” said Srinivasan.

BEYOND BOUNDARIES:

Sivaraj
accepts
that it is a great challenge to satisfy the customers who are
widespread across boundaries. The buying behavior of an Indian
customer may not be the same as an American. However, there lies the
real challenge when we satisfy the end customers with various
attitudes towards warranty. Since warranty management is a universal
issue, there are some differences among the companies worldwide to
frame policies. As far as the difference between companies based in
India and out outside is concerned, JN Mylaraiah of TE Connectivity
said, “There is not much difference, however, in some countries,
the warranty goes to customer through the distributor which is
issued/authorized by the manufacturer, whereas in India, in 100% of
the cases the warranty goes to customer through the system
integrator, which is issued/ authorized by the manufacturer.”

NEED FLEXIBLE GOVT
POLICIES:

The
government policies play a key role when it comes to any seller-buyer
relationship. “The government has to liberalize the import export
policies so as to allow replacement units to be imported with out
paying duties. There should also be provisions for exporting
defectives back,” said Panicker. “Government has to recognize
this as a deemed export activity and this has to be treated like
software outsourcing industry,” he further added. LC Chan said,
“Governments have passed stringent regulations to protect consumers
against product or service that does not meet basic requirement.
Thus, these help overall warranty process, and problem may quickly be
addressed.” She also added that certain warranty policies are less
supportive, such as taxation occurred along the transportation of RMA
material which has no commercial value. However, many of the
respondents have accepted that the existing policies related to
warranty concerns are encouraging and supportive.

DIFFERENTIATE FACTOR

Warranty,
nowadays, has become a privilege for differentiating a local product
against an international brand. Apart from that, warranty is
nowadays, one big marketing activity. Products with warranty are
preferred more by customers. A service relating to warranty
management has seen a drastic change in the current trends. One such
activity is undertaking the customer's computer through remote
access. Through this, instead of visiting customer's home/office,
the warranty support team will address, analyze and rectify the
problem sitting in their office more effectively. With respect to
support system companies have seen a great transformation where at
region/location all have a dedicated technical/customer team to work
closely with partners/ customers. The other important things which
have seen transformation are the customer interest in understanding
the complete systems for the warranty and its importance in
installation and adding to the existing a new trend- web-based
warranty management. Apart from that, a customer need not get scared
of some silly boo-boo in their gadget. A telephonic support, mail
support or a chat support team will be waiting to address the issues.
In the forthcoming days, companies are making fair use of the social
networking tools and technologies. Many firms foresee the warranty
system to become completely online. Web-based management including
the necessary site details, product purchase details, and test
reports documents uploading, each authorized integrator can view the
status of each customer wise and tomorrow even if there are any
issues, the same can reported or tracked online. Another new trend
which is evolving in the warranty sector is educating the customers.
A well-informed consumer will also ensure that nothing goes wrongin
the future. Mylaraiah said that education is the key strategy and one
of the best practices evolving around. “We provide training to the
installers on all the warranty aspects/requirement regularly and also
before the installation starts at the customer site. Apart from that,
regular updates on latest products and technology is sent to all the
partners, so that they are aware of the new products installation. We
also have regular update sessions on technology/products which also
includes the update of warranty systems in place,” concluded
Mylaraiah.

CONCLUSION

Whatsoever,
all
the manufacturers are keen that their customers, after
satisfactory service, should knock the door only for a new product
and not for a purchased one.