What differences are there internationally in terms of what customers expect from your services? With this knowledge, you can market your services more successfully abroad.
Our figures refer to the dissertation "The influence of national culture on customers' attitude towards product accompanying services"Service customers from 30 different countries were asked, among other things, which benefit dimensions of services are most important to them. What benefits must your services provide in order to be attractive to customers?
The results can help you to adapt your own service more effectively to the needs of service customers on the international stage. In addition, advertising measures to acquire new customers can be better targeted internationally. The 5 defined benefit dimensions, each of which was weighted differently by the customers, are:
Increase in productivity: Concerns the quantitative output performance of the machines. How many parts can be produced in what time?
Increase in availability: High availability characterizes machines with very low downtimes.
Improvement in quality: This dimension relates to the quality of the parts produced.
Reduction of costs: The costs include the financial expenses incurred for the operation of the machine.
Increased security: How safe is it to handle/operate the machine?
What international similarities are there?
When looking at the results, the first thing that stands out is that the benefit dimensions Costs and Security weighted less in almost all the countries surveyed than the dimensions Productivity, Availability and Quality. The red line in the graph below marks the statistical normal distribution of 20%. This would be the result achieved if all dimensions were exactly equally important to the respondents.
Costs are more important in poorer countries
Only in Egypt With a value of 22%, the cost dimension was rated slightly higher than the other dimensions. It is not surprising that more affluent countries such as Germany (13.8%), Switzerland (12%), the USA (14,8%), Finland (15.8%) or also Canada (9.6%) tend to look at their money less often than customers from countries such as the Slovakia (19,3%), Taiwan (19%) or Russia (19.5%). The bottom line is that although costs are a factor, they do not play a decisive role even in poorer countries.
The safety of the machines is assessed very differently
It is not possible to identify a clear trend in the safety dimension. The result here depends on very individual cultural circumstances. For example, it is widely known how easy it is for companies in the USA to be sued for damages. This is probably why the United States is the leader in this ranking, with a relative weighting of 20.6% for the security dimension. In the new world, it can therefore be worthwhile to emphasize the potential added value for operational safety when advertising your own services.
On the other hand, in Canada (9.6%) and the Switzerland (9.1%) safety issues have a comparatively low influence on business decisions. This is probably also due to the fact that regulations and standards relating to operational safety are generally very high here.
The quality of the parts produced must be right
Hardly any country rates the quality dimension below average compared to the other dimensions. In the Switzerland (27%), in Hungary (25,4%), Canada (25.3%) and Finland (25%), the quality aspect is somewhat more important than in other countries. In many other countries, it is generally assumed that a purchased machine will also produce excellent parts, which is why this aspect does not need to be emphasized.
The issue of availability is where nations are most divided
Particularly in countries with high unit labor costs, such as the Switzerland (35,8%), Germany (28.2%) and Canada (28.4%) is a high Availability of machines is very important to convince service customers. Other countries with lower unit labor costs tend to turn a blind eye to this. Examples of this are Slovenia with 17% and Czech Republic with 17.6%. However, this dimension is not quite as significant in China either.
Productivity is an important factor
In 23 nations surveyed, the factor Productivity is rated as being of above-average importance compared to the other dimensions. Only 7 nations achieved a result below the normal distribution of 20%. Particularly striking here is again the Switzerland (16%). Eastern European countries in particular, such as Russia (24%), Czech Republic (27%) and The Slovakia (26.7%) placed a relatively high value on the high productivity of their machines.
Canada and Switzerland fall somewhat off the grid in terms of service
As with the cultural differences in the evaluation of after-sales serviceswe again noticed a certain conspicuousness between the two nations. We have already identified an aversion to various services among Swiss and Canadian respondents. Conventional maintenance orders and service contracts in particular are viewed rather skeptically.
In the results for the assessment of the benefit dimension, however, both the Switzerland with 35.8% as well as Canada with 28.2% the factor Availability are particularly important for your machines. Apparently, these two nations expect their machines to run as smoothly as a Swiss watch from the factory and do not want to worry too much about maintenance issues. The main purpose of your services should also be to ensure that the machines have as few breakdowns as possible. You may need to explain to service customers in these markets a little more clearly why a high Availability of machines and systems can generally only be guaranteed with regular maintenance by you as the OEM.
With the Acceptance of new service technologies Swiss and Canadian service customers scored very differently.
Adapting marketing measures internationally
The study shows that the evaluation of services can vary greatly from country to country. This data may help you to develop an understanding of this and, in the event of a problem, to better recognize why the shoe pinches here for a Russian customer and in a completely different place for a British customer. You can also adapt your advertising and marketing measures to strengthen your sales channels abroad.
Please bear in mind that the results presented only show a weighting of the different factors against each other for different nations and thus enable an international comparison. They say nothing about how important the factors are in absolute terms.
*Source: Dr. Simon Tonat: The influence of national culture on customers' attitude towards product accompanying services (2018)
