Customer behavior has changed over the years. Customers are now becoming more careful with how they spend their money and are focused on how their purchase would bring them the most value. With a growing interest in mid-tier products, apart from considering factors such as price of equipment at point of purchase, customers are increasingly concerned about the availability of aftermarket services and the reliability of their equipment for at least a substantial period beyond warranty.

Indian customers are no different. In addition, the utilization of the earthmoving equipment is higher in India due to the fast-paced environment and highly demanding projects. Customers demand a higher warranty coverage. SEM, with its strategy to improve its presence in the local market by making a difference started offering 1Y/4000H as a standard warranty for its wheel loader range. At the same time, customers are given options to choose SEM Extended Protection (SEP) at 2Y/4000H, 3Y/6000H and 2Y/6000H.

SEM dealers in India have successfully executed the strategy. As a result, out of a total of 227 machines that have been sold between 2018 and 2020 in India, 85% of the machines have been registered with SEP and 88 machines have successfully crossed the SEP coverage period till date.

“All these reinforces SEM’s brand promise to our customers – to provide affordable, available and supported products and services to our customers. SEM equipment are durable, reliable, and gives customers a peace of mind while doing their day-to-day job. With dealers’ technical expertise and spare parts availability, customers do not have to worry about machine maintenance and in the event of machine failure. This has also provided more machine sales opportunities for SEM,” said R. Sankara Narayanan, SEM Country Sales Manager - India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

“SEP is a good way for us to build good relationship with customers and for more business opportunities. With more than 100 dealer branches in India, customers can get their maintenance and repairs done on time which helps to reduce downtime greatly. We are proud to say that many customers are coming back to us for product support even after the SEP coverage period has ended,” said Anubhav Sahay, SEM Technical Representative - India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

While traditionally SEM’s business model was mostly transactional in nature, SEM identified the gap in the market and have been moving towards a relationship-based business model, selling solutions to customers’ concerns and problems. In addition, none of this would have been possible without the dedication of the SEM Product Support team, who provided great support on the SEP offering to local customers. SEM’s focus in aftermarket strategy has proven to be a worthwhile endeavor in this competitive landscape.