Firms turn to online platform for faster, efficient after-sales service
Mr Chris McKinney, customer service manager at Burn, explains how the Echo Mobile platform has boosted the sales of Jikokoa. PHOTO | SARAH OOKO.
Most companies offer warranty services to customers who buy their products — ranging from household appliances to electronic equipment.
When customers have problems with products and need to make use of warranty services, they are usually required to present the purchase receipts and signed warranty forms to specific outlets, mostly in the shop where the product was bought.
This approach often ends up locking out genuine customers who have either misplaced or destroyed their warranty forms and receipts.
“If you can’t prove you have a warranty, then you end up being charged for the required services as there’s no difference between you and any other customer,” says Mary Njoki, who went through the experience after misplacing the warranty of her electric kettle.
Worse still, individuals who purchase products from the streets — sold by hawkers or in temporary retail shops— may have the warranty form but nowhere to take the product when it malfunctions since the seller will be long gone.
To address this challenge, the Echo Mobile company developed an online and phone based platform that allows companies to engage effectively with their customers, ensuring that they are able to enjoy after-sale services offered to them such as product warranties.
The Echo Mobile platform supports SMS, USSD, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Android applications and web based channels.
“Through the platform, we help companies to find easier ways to pass information to customers on services that they are offering and how they can fully enjoy and benefit from them,” Ms Zoe Cohen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Echo Mobile told the Business Daily.
A number of institutions have adopted the platform to effectively engage their customers in different ways.
Burn, a firm that manufactures clean energy cookstoves known as Jikokoa in Kenya is using it to offer warranty.
While other organisations such as the World Bank are using the platform to collect information on the impact of improved sanitation in rural communities they work in.
A solar lantern company D.Light uses it for marketing while NGOs such as the Nature Conservancy use the platform to facilitate two way communication with pastoralists they work with in rural northern Kenya.
The Ministry of Education also uses the platform to monitor the distribution of Free Primary Education FPE material sent to public schools. Through the platform, involving all headteachers, they verify if the materials were actually received.
“People use our product everyday for cooking and sometimes their jikos may break down or have issues that prevent them from functioning well. So we give our customers a one year warranty that allows us to address any arising matter at no cost,” said Mr Chris McKinney, customer service manager at Burn.
Before the company began selling the jikokoa, he notes that Burn had done comprehensive market research and was therefore aware of frustrations buyers go through when they have service warranties that they cannot use and no one to respond to their queries whenever the purchased product malfunctions.
“So we wanted to do things differently by embracing the Echo Mobile platform.”
As soon as Burn customers purchase the jikokoa, they are requested to activate their one year service warranty by sending the unique code number of the product via a text message (SMS) to 22876. This becomes their first interaction with the Echo Mobile platform.
The system then prompts them to provide their name and location, after which they are successfully registered on the platform.
Thereafter, anytime customers have issues with their cookstoves, all they need to do is SMS ‘HELP’ to the number.
“They then explain the nature of the problem and we advise on how to fix it either though SMS or audio calls. If the jikokoa needs repair, we let them know about where to take it so it can be fixed on the spot by our technicians to avoid any inconveniences.”
