ACER BANKS ON GROWTH IN SERVICE REVENUE

Acer Computer’s service director, Sophon Panchim, said that this year service is Acer’s focus as the PC market in Thailand is quite tough; vendors have been more aggressive in marketing, including in product design, pricing and promotion. Therefore, Acer considers service as the one important area that needs to be improved to ensure customer satisfaction and gain more income. 

Normally, Acer’s service income amounts to 1-2 per cent of total revenue. This year also, it aims to maintain the ratio.

“The company’s total revenue has increased every year, so my target is to maintain the proportion of revenue from services the same as in the previous year. Revenue from service will increase according to the increase in sales,” said Sophon.

However, he said the focus of Acer on service is to please customers of both Acer and non-Acer products. It has invested Bt50 million to improve its entire service infrastructure and supply chain, including the customer service system, Acer service centres, and spare-parts logistic hub. 

The new customer service system allows the company to source Acer spare parts around the world, and make it easier to plan its spare parts efficiently and ensure better quality of service. 

“The new system allows us to expand the size of spare parts to serve customers without warranty.  We usually have spare parts stocks for up to three years to serve one-year warranty customers, and spare parts up to five years to serve three-year warranty customers. The new customer service system allows us to manage our spare parts stocks more efficiently,” said Sophon.

He added that the company, this year, has also expanded its spare-parts logistic hub from 1,000 square metres to 3,000 square metres. It is scheduled to open in the last quarter of this year. The new spare-parts logistics hub will enable the Acer service system – 15 centres of Acer Customer Support and 150 Acer Authorised Service Centres nationwide – to have better flow of services.

“The new customer service system, together with the new logistics hub, will let us deliver better service to customers. They will get their PCs back on the next business day,” said Sophon.

Moreover, the spare-parts logistic hub will play a role as a multi-brand service centre. Currently, only 10 per cent of total serviced customers are non-Acer. 

“We can do a better service job. Our turnover and dead-stock will be reduced,” said Sophon.