In a recent webinar, Warranty in Practice – Can a company use warranty to help drive sales?, I talked about the cultural roots of “warranty,” its underlying polices, the laws affecting it, and how in modern times it has evolved from a cost-center to a sales tool. The presentation also touched on ways to use warranty to help increase sales. Here are a few more thoughts on the topic. Continue reading
Filed under Best Practices, Customer Experience, Warranty
At this very moment a good friend of mine is in a dust-up with a rental car company. After hearing (my friend’s version of) “the facts,” and harkening back fondly to my law school days, I thought his tale just might make an interesting hypothetical to launch a discussion on “customer experience,” and I’m hoping the reader(s) of this blog will chime in. Continue reading
Filed under Best Practices, Customer Experience, PR & Branding, Resolving Disputes
Can a company use warranty to help drive sales? It sure can. Just ask Hyundai Motors. It saw its market share jump from 1.1% to 4% after it extended its powertrain warranty in 1999. You might also want to put the question to Volkswagen, which saw its sales drop 30% in the three years after it shortened its powertrain warranty in 2002. Continue reading
Filed under Best Practices, Customer Experience, PR & Branding, Warranty
The same article keeps popping up every other week or so in one publication or another. Its headline either asks if extended warranties are worth the cost or screams they are not. It gives the same advice – “buy smart” – and generally reaches the same conclusion on whether you should buy a service contract – “It depends”. See here, then here, here, here, here, and here. Why is somebody always picking on extended warranties?
Here are 5 reasons why I think extended warranties make an easy target. Continue reading
Filed under Customer Experience, PR & Branding, Service Contract, Warranty
In a September 6 piece, Why you should avoid home warranties, Consumer Reports again takes a shot at service contracts. Noting a recent complaint filed by New Jersey regulators against Choice Home Warranty for allegedly making it difficult to obtain benefits, CR “recommend[s] avoiding service contracts” because those “that cover homes and cars, for example, can cost hundreds of dollars.” But what if the car or home costs many thousands of dollars? Isn’t spending a few hundred bucks on a service contract worth it to minimize risk and secure peace of mind? “No,” says CR, “it makes much more sense to buy reliable products and maintain them as the manufacturer recommends.” Now it’s clear, just buy things that won’t malfunction or fail. Continue reading
Warranties are withering, claims an Arizona State marketing professor. This, he says, bodes well for service contract industry profits, but not for consumers.
But in many product sectors warranty is expanding and recent studies show that consumers believe that service contracts deliver value. Continue reading
Filed under Customer Experience, Risk Management, Service Contract, Warranty
Commenting on An Orwellian approach to legal writing, 3 readers share insights and experiences recommending plain language. Here’s a sampling of what they have to say:
“My crime briefs ‘read like a thriller,’” says Bapoo M. Malcolm, Advocate, Bombay High Court, India.
“Practice has shown that people appreciate simplicity & clarity in comprehension compared to more technical writing (jargons & all),” observes Janice Isu, Acting Principal Legal Officer, Office of the State Solicitor, Dept. of Justice & Attorney General, Papua New Guinea.
“A company can’t hide behind fine print written in legalese. Judges rule for the average person,” declares Paul Eveleigh, a copywriter from Melbourne, Australia.
There’s more. Continue reading
Recently, we’ve been discussing the merits of binding arbitration as a means of resolving consumer disputes. (See here and here.) Lori Crandell, COO of New Home Warranty Program of Manitoba, Inc., finds that the process works well when properly tailored to the nature of the dispute. Lori writes: Continue reading
Want a better relationship with your customers? Want to spend less time and money dealing with frustrated or irate customers? Want more customers to walk out of the store with your extended warranty or service plan? There’s a sure fire way to make these things happen, plain and simple. Continue reading
Robert J. Cloburn, CAIB, of Vancouver and Gregory Smith of Dark Room Perfection shared their views on a recent post, Arbitration wins another court battle. Here, I offer a few follow up thoughts. Continue reading
Matthew Kelly
Paul Wojcicki