A study on the importance of after sales services of branded laptops in Pakistan.

Abstract
The competitive environment of the laptop industry created very complicated situations for the relevant firms. This tough competition forced suppliers to have a serious attention to Services and made them to apply it as an effective marketing tool. The objective of the study is to gain understanding about the after sales service in the laptop industry and what are the important factors of after sales services. For this reason we have identified the five important variables studied and analyze their impact on customer satisfaction. .Finally finding in this study will show that, there are many advantages for after sales service, which encourages companies to provide it.

Key words: after sales service, brand, customer satisfaction, Introduction:

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial center of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million. Karachi is the most populous city in the country, one of the world's largest cities in terms of population and the 10th largest urban agglomeration. According to the World Trade Organization (2003), commercial services accounted for 19.4 percent of world exports in 2001, an increase from 18.8 percent in 2000. Exports of commercial services totaled US$1.46 billion in 2001. (Blythe and Zimmerman, 2005).

In the competitive world of consumer goods, where products are similar and margins are slim, service is one of the few differentiators over the past few years, as sales growth for new products has slowed and product margins have fallen, Service- typically with higher margins and returns on invested capital- have become an increasingly attractive way to provide a point of competitive differentiation. (Bundschuh and Dezvane, 2003).

It is clear that services are becoming a more important component of every firms business, even if the firms main business physical products. (Blythe and Zimmerman, 2005). It industry is growing all over the Pakistan and the use off it products is increasing time to time and the products are consumed rapidly. Laptop users in all over the country are so many in every industry that is being working such as chemical industry textile industry, software industry, etc. In studies of customers' expectations of service quality and their actual experiences, the following five elements are seen as the most important to a buyer (Gitomer, 1998, Heskett et al. 1990, Griffin, 1995, Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000b):

Reliability Time Assurance

Review of literature:
End-user of many types of product, ranging from computer systems to domestic appliances, requires customer support at some time assistance to help them gain maximum value from their purchase. In fact customer support entails all activities to ensure that a product is available for trouble-free use to consumers over its useful life span. (Goffin 2001).

There are two aspects of customer support, which particularly deserve management attention. First, there is the need for customer support requirements to be fully considered at the design stage using what are called design for supportability techniques- in order to develop products, which are economical and easy to support. Second, the logistic of delivering customer support through suitable channels is key. Companies, which are good at both of these aspects have differentiated themselves from their competitors and won significant market share. The last few decades have seen a growing trend toward aggressive global competition, increased marketplace demands, and accelerated technological changes. Increasingly, distribution and service support options available for a product are key determinations in consumers product purchase decision. (Loomba, 1998). Management experts and marketing channel analysts alike agree that distribution and after-sale service support functions do increasingly warrant significant attention because they make up for an integral part of the product package. (Loomba, 1998). Today competitive market caused that many company re-evaluate their strategy to be more differentiate from others. After- sales service is one of the elements, which help all firms in this matter. Many new breeds of high-tech companies are now discovering that they need to differentiate themselves from rivals in appealing to customers and that technology alone will not do it anymore. After-sales service support is being recognized as one of the competitive differentiators for most firms, which now produce in the same low-cost regions of the world. (Lele and Sheth, 1987).

Also emphasizes on after-sales service as a strong marketing tools, which help firms to be competitive in the market. (Herve Mathe, 1999).

Believes an essential part of marketing strength is service support. When customers buy a product, they expect certain levels of post purchase support to go along with it. Defining those expectations is critical to marketing success and will be even more

important when markets mature. (Paul, 1993). According to both (Paul 1993) and (Goffin 2001). After sales service considered as one of major sources for making profit for company. Paul (1993) mentioned; service is perceived as high-profit opportunity. With profit the margin of equipment sale under pressure from foreign and domestic competition mostly the firm considers seriously the after sales services for the betterment of their investment.

Problem of statement:
To determine the impact of after sales service on the customer satisfaction for branded laptops.

Research Questions:
RQ 1: What is the impact time period on customer Satisfaction? RQ 2: What is the impact reliability on customer Satisfaction? RQ 3: What is the impact assurance on customer Satisfaction?

Hypothesis:
Time period has a significant impact on Customer Satisfaction. Reliability has a significant impact on Customer Satisfaction. Assurance has a significant impact on Customer Satisfaction.

Methodology:
The researcher has analyze the relationship between reliability, awareness, and

responsiveness (independent variables) with customer satisfaction (Dependent variables). Therefore, Questionnaire method is been used for data collection with closed ended questions.

Convenient sampling is used for taking a sample size because it is an academic research where a resource has been limited. The sample size used in this research is 100.

Sampling technique:
Chi square is used for the sample testing. Chi-square is a statistical test commonly used to compare observed data with data we would expect to obtain according to a specific hypothesis.

Research tools:
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case.

Conclusion:
In this study, the purpose was to achieve insight understanding and importance of providing after sales service for branded laptops. Even though the aim of this study is not to generalize our findings, the researcher believes that it has worth to come out with some findings. The researcher thinks it would add valuable information to the sampled industry and other computer components distributors, which implemented after sales service in their company

Moreover, the sampled data has shown to management that selecting proper products will be very difficult and risky without having after sales service. By using this service management is able to find problem of existing products, eliminate extra and unnecessary future to decrease product cost and being more competitive, and have precise understanding about market needs for introducing new products, successfully.

References

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Jan 26, 2010

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9. Paul A. Herbig, Frederick Palumbo, Serving the Aftermarket in Japan and the United states, Industrial marketing management Vol 22, 339-346(1993)

10. www.google.com.pk

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