Inefficient after-sale service performance at Samsung System Air Conditioner Dvepartment

Abstract

The intensely competing market called for the shift from primary product offer to more customized solution package.5,6 After-sale service played an equally important role in the value chain of the company45 to enhance customer value,46 which eventually benefited the organization in higher competitive advantage,14 long-term customer relationships, and sales effectiveness.6 The objective of the research was to identify the central problem happening at the Samsung system air conditioner department, to explore the causes and effects of the issue on the performance of the company, and to provide the direction for a solution. In this study, the research method comprised of literature review and interviews with different informants (the head of the department, the manager and the technical engineer in the service team, and two customers). The findings from the interviews suggested that the company encountered inefficient after-sale service performance, which affected the competitiveness of the end-to-end service solution to attract a higher number of large projects, and eventually on the sales effectiveness of the department. Based on the main cause, the alternatives for the shortage of human resource number included internalizing, outsourcing, and partnering options. An action plan for the 14-month project of improving the efficiency of after-sale performance of all three regions was developed, which would cost about 71,000 USD. By doubling the number of internal engineers and dealer service centers, the expected result of the project was to reduce the average time responding to service requests by 50%. From financial perspective, the outcome of the project would expect to increase sales and profit for end-to-end service solution by 390,000 USD and 319,000 USD respectively