Aftersales Service Factors Determining the 'Would Recommend' Score in Mobile Phone Industry

Abstract

Customers' recommendations are strongly associated with sales growth and profitability. Satisfied loyal customers tend to recommend, but it doesn't happen always. Furthermore, a customer is exposed to aftersales services throughout the product lifecycle, which significantly impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. This situation is more complex for the mobile phone industry, where innovative and short-lived products are launched every year. Providing aftersales services for these innovative products worldwide is challenging while maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. But, within a short mobile product lifecycle, customers' recommendations are crucial for growth. However, the aftersales service elements influencing customer recommendations are not well studied. This study aims to identify the elements of aftersales services that affect customers' recommendations. Three hundred and two mobile phone users of different brands, identified through the snowball sampling technique, were surveyed through a structured questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses of these data found five aftersales services: service center's support/repair, warranty, online support, upgrades, and delivery are statistically significant in influencing customers' recommendations for mobile phone brands.