Acer invests in enhanced service infrastructure

Multinational PC brand, Acer, has invested $2 million to create a service infrastructure in SA in line with international standards.

"As a leading vendor of notebooks in SA, Acer realised the importance attached to customer service. With the computer market in this country entering a maturity phase, a large percentage of equipment sales are for replacement purposes," says David Drummond, MD of Acer.

"In this context, customers are faced with a choice of products becoming increasingly similar at more and more equivalent pricing each year. Customer retention is a mandatory strategy for success in this environment. Brand becomes a key differentiator and product quality and after-sales service remains a fundamental element of the brand."

Keen to promote its brand in the South African market, Acer has made three strategic investments in customer service:

Customer Care Centre - Acer has created its own hotline and customer care centre for speedy diagnosis of customer care issues. Working closely with Microsoft and tightly linked with Acer Global Care Centres, the hotline technicians are A+, N+, and MCSE certified. A wide variety of solutions are available to callers including: software support, hardware compatibility support, fault diagnosis and service despatch.

Acer Labs - With the increasing sophistication and complexity of notebook computer repairs in mind, Acer has created its own engineering laboratory staffed by skilled technicians. The centre is tightly linked with Acer Labs World Wide and has full access to all the latest technical, diagnostic and engineering information required to ensure the highest quality of repair. All technicians are A+ and N+ certified and trained by Acer`s European Labs.

Spare Parts Logistics Centre - Given its geographic position and transit times experienced for importation of spares from Europe, Acer has invested in a spare parts and logistics centre for SA. This ensures excellent availability of spares to both Acer Labs and to service providers across Africa.

With Acer owning its Customer Service activity, the bulk of repair activity is carried out under its complete control using a "Fetch - Repair and Return" service that is available right across SA.

Service providers are allowed to service desktop and server units on-site under the strict monitoring of the customer care centre.

"With service forming such an important element of our brand reputation, we took the decision that we would insource and invest in this activity. Today we service on average 50 notebooks per day with an average turnaround time in the labs of five hours.

"However, for customers the most important time is not the average one but the maximum one. Co-location of Acer Labs with our own wholly owned Spare Parts Logistics Hub means that today we have no single repair held back awaiting spares. Acer chose to make these investments based on the desire to improve our brand reputation in SA. Market research one year ago indicated that service was a major concern for South African customers and that Acer needed to do better. Today we have a strong consistently implemented service programme and I am delighted to be receiving customer letters expressing satisfaction with the services offered," concludes Drummond.