At CES, Warranty Companies Look to ‘08

‘Value-Added,’ and ‘Green:’ are among warranty companies’ bywoods in the new year

January 2008 By Nancy Klosek

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Extended service plan companies came to the 2008 CES in “response mode,” offering freshened programs and strategies and “green” initiatives that dovetail with the environmentally conscious bent exhibited of late by the manufacturing side of the industry.

Aiming to make warranty sales an easier proposition on the self-directed sales floor, AMT Service Corp. has launched the Protect-it Card program. The turnkey pre-packaged-product program, says AMT’s president, Bruce Saulnier, is directed at smaller retailers and also at e-commerce sites. It is being presented in gift-card style on information-rich hangtags, and will be administered end to end by AMT -- from program evaluation and guidance to sales training support. “For e-commerce sale,” he added, “it’s perfect, since the salesperson can’t walk out with a brochure and a sales receipt. It just ships along with the product.”

The cards will be available in 65 “flavors” that mix and match product types (computers, CE products, appliances, etc.), terms of coverage (two, three or five years), and types of warranty (product replacement, repair, etc.). Saulnier said that he expected to have 20 vendors on board with the program by the end of January. “Simplicty sells,” he said.

Saulnier added that the company was working on certain unspecified “green” initiatives, because “it’s important for people to know that the computer I’m replacing for them won’t go into a landfill.”

At N.E.W. Customer Service Companies, the “green” solution that was unwrapped at CES is ecoNEW, a Web-site-based trade-in/recycling service that provides consumers a way to responsibly dispose of unwanted electronics. The Web site, through a series of questions, helps determine a dollar value for the gear that is being earmarked for scrapping, and supplies the consumer with a type of gift card that is good at the participating retailer. If the product is determined to have no monetary value, it is recycled. The Web site carries the I.D. of the participating retailer, “so that the retailer can be associated with the process,” said Rob DiRocco, the company’s vice president of sales. “It gives the retailer the opportunity to make meaningful relationships with consumers, beyond the sale.”

Other N.E.W. initiatives launched at the show included its Service 360 platform, an all-encompassing method of registering, tracking and managing service plans for the plan owner. Also unveiled was N.E.W.’s Customer Care Portal, allowing consumers to constantly track the status of a service or replacement request – similar to the Web tracking programs used by FedEx and UPS. Through these programs, the company can also provide customers product setup instructions, troubleshooting suggestions, service plan expiration notices and product recall information, along with multiple options as to their preferred mode of communication with the service provider.

“These programs,” DiRocco added, “help us extend value to the consumer beyond simply break/fix.”

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