LG Electronics announces customer care charter for the Mid East & Africa

The six-point regional customer charter, unveiled by Mr M.B. Shin, President, LG Electronics Middle East and Africa Operations, pledges: to whole-heartedly listen to customer suggestions; to formulate decisions and actions with the customer in mind; to provide an honest service where promises are met; to provide a timely service; to aspire to 'Customer Delight' and to provide service excellence in line with LG's 'Digital Technology' theme.

"LG's customer service strategy was launched over 10 years ago when our company laid down a management credo of value creation for customers," said Mr Shin. "This has now become a focal point of our management philosophy and research shows LG is now being perceived as leading after-sales care.

"In this region where the best of service is now a core competency of LG, we have average brand awareness of 50%, individual product market share of between 25-30% and we believe that heightened customer service will help bring more customers into the LG fold."

Currently LG Electronics has 1,520 service centres in 55 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa and earlier this year, it opened 10 new digital service centres, where customers and technicians meet face-to-face, in five MEA locations, including Dubai.

Now LG has stepped up its service offering with the launch of a network of Customer Information Centres (CIC) across 12 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. The launch of the dual-language CICs, which operate on proprietary LG software, means that one-stop service is just a single phone call away for LG customers.

"The CICs have been verified and their launch is in line with our determination to provide customers with the best possible facilities for customer care," said Mr Y.R. Roh, Managing Director, LG Electronics Middle East Company Limited (LGEME), LG's service subsidiary for the Middle East and Africa.

"Our research shows customers want easy access to product information, to details on where they can purchase, what promotions are taking place, recommended prices and product maintenance. All this is now available via one call to the CICs.

"Once a customer calls a CIC, they also receive a return call which gets them to rate the service and their satisfaction. This 'Happy Call' monitoring has resulted in tremendous customer response," said Roh.

The CICs have been opened in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa.

The launch of the CIC network means LG now provides service access for 16 hours a day, 365 days a year in the 12 countries.

"We are actively pursuing an aim of providing same-day service for our customers in the region. Currently we deliver a same-day service to an average of 80% of regional customers and we are looking to improve on that. Also, another four countries will have CICs before the end of this year. These are Qatar, Kuwait, the Ivory Coast and Algeria," said Roh.

LG says customer care service is a pillar of its ethos of respecting customers.

"Currently we organise three workshops a year in over 20 countries throughout the Middle East and Africa which are attended by around 2,000 service providers," said Roh. "These workshops are aimed at improving not just the technical know-how of our service providers, but also their customer care manners."

In addition, LG offers its market-leading international warranty on products bought in 17 Middle East and is expected to reach 15 West African countries in 2003.

"This means that the warranty moves with customers. If a product is bought in the UAE and the customer moves to Saudi Arabia, his warranty moves with him because it is guaranteed by LG," said Roh.

Now, LG is looking to launch a cyber CIC service throughout the region by the end of this year.

"We intend that the planned open-web CIC for end-users will operate in both Arabic and English, customers will have 24-hour access to LG service centres. They will be able to register a request for a technician and will receive both e-mail and SMS confirmation of the date and time of the appointment," explained Roh.

"Overall we are so confident that we can deliver on our service charter commitment that next year we will provide a 'No Delight, No Payment' service."