After-sales service, necessary evil or a boost for business?
The years go by but the challenge stays the same… if not greater. How to provide quality after-sales service when the number of mechanical watches on wrists around the world continues to grow?
Sales of watches have continued to increase these past years, culminating at CHF 21.4 bn in 2012. As encouraging as this may be, these ticking watches are also a ticking time bomb for brands, as the number of watches potentially in need of servicing and repair increases alongside sales. This concerns more particularly watches at the high end of the market, which raises another problem: how to convince clients to pay the price of servicing which is generally proportionate to the initial value of the watch.
Yet it's a well-known fact that a satisfied customer is more inclined to show brand loyalty and to recommend the brand to others.
Information and skills
Ideally, a brand should plan that 10% of its annual production will be returned for servicing or repair after five years’ wear. Most of the large firms have tackled the question head-on over the past decade and now employ on average one-fifth of their workforce in after-sales. Also, global sales imply a global service, meaning brands must have trained watchmakers and administrative staff in their different world markets. Not everyone welcomes this expenditure as the fallout from after-sales service is impossible to measure in pure accounting terms. Yet it’s a well-known fact that a satisfied customer is more inclined to show brand loyalty and to recommend the brand to others, whereas a disgruntled customer will tell up to 25 people about what they feel was poor service. As a (positive) result, after-sales is now taking less of a back seat in relation to other services. But it does still happen, as the audience at the 17th International Watch Marketing Day – held November 7th in La Chaux-de-Fonds on exactly this theme – discovered when they were shown a photo of a dilapidated workbench pushed into a corner of the staff kitchen… the after-sales service department!
After-sales service cannot function without the right skills which can be very different one from the other, if not at opposite ends of the spectrum, and watchmakers with specific after-sales training are currently in short supply (see box). François Girardin is a consultant who previously worked for brands including Ebel and Breitling, where he was at the head of after-sales. As he explains, “customers must be given the assurance that their watch is being cared for by reliable professionals. Equally important is the quality of the information they receive, i.e. the need to explain what will be done to their watch. This point could benefit from technologies such as video to show that a watch is as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. This would also help the customer understand what they are being invoiced for.” By way of example, a routine inspection of a mechanical chronograph takes a specialised watchmaker between four and five hours. In addition to any replacement parts, labour costs are therefore what count the most.
How long will it take?
Luxury brands are generally associated with glamour, prestige and eternity. Convincing customers that after-sales service, which has both feet firmly on the ground, is an essential part of this is no easy task. Emotion is the key. Patrick Cremers, manager of the Patek Philippe store in Geneva and one of the speakers at International Watch Marketing Day, referred to the brand’s advertising campaign which emphasises a heritage passed between generations. Taking care of a watch becomes as important as making it, a responsibility entrusted to its owner. A well-informed customer will be more willing to part with the only accessory he or she wears every day, the time it takes for their favourite watch to go “under the knife” and return as shiny and new as on the day it was bought. Hence the all-important question of how long after-sales service takes.
“Well-honed logistics are another of the key conditions for good after-sales service,” adds François Girardin. “Managing inventory is an important part of this. Imagine a brand which has patented dozens of calibres over the course of its history. It needs to have the parts in stock, which can amount to tens of thousands of components.” The Watchonista website recently published the results of an online survey of 150 people in 17 countries. Seven out of ten respondents rated after-sales service as satisfactory, with an average score of 5.7 out of 10. Which still leaves considerable room for improvement! Waiting times, which can be as long as eight weeks, were judged more severely with a score of 5.3 out of 10. Could do better.
A matter of training
Never have the skills needed to provide after-sales service on a worldwide scale been in greater demand, yet not enough candidates are lining up to train as repairing watchmakers (the horloger-rhabilleur as they’re known in Switzerland). “Unfortunately, the profession has a terrible reputation,” says Marten Pieters, not without regret. He is the director of WOSTEP, the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program, based in Neuchâtel, which is stepping up its efforts to recruit students in this field. Currently, some 160 people are training in this branch in partner schools in the United States, China, Japan and Malaysia. The course lasts 3,000 hours and leads to a Federal Certificate of Capacity, which is on its way to becoming an internationally recognised standard for the profession. WOSTEP is an independent body that is funded by some 60 brands, retailers and manufacturers of movements, equipment and parts. (FG)
