Informing customers to enable an educated choice
The After-Sales Service Barometer
In six years, the After-Sales Service Barometer has become an essential information and benchmarking tool, and therefore a valuable decision-making aid for customers when making their purchases.
Designed with Harris Interactive, the “After-Sales Service Barometer” is based on several sources of data:
- a customer study, a study of the types of after-sales service interventions and a study of breakdowns;
- the FNAC DARTY customer study was conducted between July 2022 and August 2023 with 11,318 respondents regarding product life spans and maintenance actions;
- the study of 402,530 breakdowns from August 2022 to July 2023 calculates the usual indicators (sustainability score, reliability, repairability);
- the study of the 827,466 after-sales service interventions from August 2022 to July 2023 determines the types of intervention (exchange, with or without parts).
This sixth edition of the “After-Sales Service Barometer” was extended to new categories, covering a total of almost 100 available product families.
For each category, in addition to the sustainability score and brand ranking, the Barometer provides details about the availability period of spare parts and, since 2022, the average price of spare parts.
The sustainability score
The calculation of a sustainability score for each product is a unique initiative in the retail world. It allows manufacturers to improve, consumers to make better choices, and Fnac Darty to reduce the impact of its activities on the climate and environment through products that last longer.
The sustainability score is the tool used to rank brands by product category in our After-Sales Service Barometer.
It is calculated by cross-referencing breakdown rates and the availability of spare parts. Since 2022, as a way to make repairs more accessible to all, Fnac Darty has added a new criterion into the calculation: the price of spare parts.
Weighted on volumes sold, Fnac Darty’s overall score was 100 in 2019 and 118 in 2023.
Goal: to reach a score of 135 by 2025.
The Sustainable Choice
The information gleaned from the “After-Sales Service Barometer” makes it possible highlight the brands that make the most effort to produce reliable, repairable and less energy consuming devices. In 2019, Fnac Darty created a clear and objective display: the “Sustainable Choice.” The criteria used to select products and design this label, which is prominently placed on products on shelves and shopping sites, are based on the sustainability score, the energy label, and the government reparability index for eligible products.
The selection is reviewed every three months to include new products. In 2023, “Sustainable Choice” products covered more than 900 items in Fnac and Darty brands.
Labo Fnac
Informing in complete independence: the historic mission of Labo Fnac
Labo Fnac celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2023!
Labo Fnac is a one-of-a-kind concept and brings together experts to independently test the technical performance of hundreds of new electronic products every year, using a range of sophisticated measuring systems. The Labo’s scientific and objective methods are recognized by the biggest brands, which regularly come to have their prototypes evaluated.
Informed delivery
In 2021, Fnac Darty expanded the information provided to customers in the specialized retail market to include ground-breaking data: the GHG emissions linked to the delivery of one kilogram of parcels, depending on the delivery service, which it published on the Fnac and Darty websites. This information called “informed delivery” was made available to all online customers in February 2022.
Fnac Darty is fully aware that customer travel can have a significant impact on the total carbon footprint of a delivery (for parcels delivered to a collection point), therefore it has worked with Datagir, a public service supported by ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency), to provide online customers with an eco-calculator.
Darty : https://www.darty.com/achat/services/livraison-eclairee/index.html
Fnac : https://www.fnac.com/livraison-eclairee