After Sales Services Is The Most Important Aspect For Asus: Dinesh Sharma

Ahead of The Times of India Gadgets Now Awards, sponsored by Servify, Asus India’s business head for mobile
Dinesh Sharma shared details about the companies after sales service in an email interview. Over the last few
years, Asus has carved a niche for itself in the Indian smartphone market. With a smartphone portfolio boasting
of products across price points, Asus focuses big on after-sales services.

Q 1. How important has been the role of after-sales-service in Asus’ growth trajectory in India?

We care for the relationship we share with our customers, which isn’t built in just 2 or 3 years, it has been built
from a long period over a decade and it is been consistent. A post-purchase experience like after sales services is
the most important aspect for Asus – across our product portfolio.

We have not left any stone unturned. We have Service Centres for the ZenFone portfolio, which covers 150+ cities
in India. We have a well-manned dedicated call center for supporting consumers with after sales service and also
troubleshooting issues, which can be sorted overcall. We also have courier pickups, repair and drop facility for
the set of consumers who may not have a service center in close vicinity.

For the convenience of our consumers, we provide invoice free service for Zenfones which have been activated
on any cellular network once. We just track the activation date to figure whether the phone is under warranty and
consumer does not need to carry any invoice or packaging material to our service center to avail in warranty
service.

We also have a partnership program with Flipkart for Flipkart’s Complete Mobile Protection plan program.
Flipkart had launched Complete Mobile Protection with Zenfone Max Pro M1. Under this program by paying a
small % of the price of a smartphone the consumer is covered for aspects such as theft, accidental damage, water
damage that are not covered under brand warranty. The consumer also gets free prick and drop service under this
program. All repairs of Asus Zenfones under complete protection plan are carried out by Asus’s service center.

For our flagship smartphones i.e. Zenfone 5Z and ROG Smartphone, we also provide a standby smartphone to the flagship consumers when their phone is submitted at the service center for repair.

Above Service Set up and solutions have played a very critical role in the growth trajectory of our sales as our
existing consumers experience well after sales service and recommend the brand.

We have certain stringent policies in terms of turnaround time and delivering time of the product back to the
consumer and it is monitored very intensely.

Q 2. How do you think technology can help brands improve after-sales-service?

There are three things. First is self-Diagnosis. The software can check for any hardware faults. Two, booking
service appointments and providing a real-time track of service to consumers. Third, troubleshooting tools. My
Asus App and Asus Service Systems provide several of these benefits.

Q 3. What are the biggest challenges that you think companies face in their endeavor to provide robust after-sales-service?

Training and motivating front-end service staff to always provide a great consumer-friendly service experience
with high integrity. This despite the fact that sometimes high-pressure situations arise while interacting with
some consumers who are in highly irate mode.―Gadgets Now