Strategic importance of after-sales measures for small and medium-sized medical technology companies in Germany: Empirical evidence

ABSTRACT

After-sales services form an important consideration for customers when buying a product, and play a major role for companies in the field of customer retention. With regard to the capital goods segment of the medical technology industry (medtech), however, the status of research on after-sales services is limited. Methods: A largely standardized questionnaire was developed, focussing on the forms and significance of various after-sales services. The questionnaire was sent to small and medium-sized medtech companies in Germany which include durable capital goods in their portfolio. During the 2016/17 assessment period, n = 327 questionnaires were returned. The data was subjected to descriptive and multivariate analyses. Results: The medtech companies regard after-sales services as being of high importance. A multivariate factor analysis underscored a content-related structure after providing active after-sales services rather than a tendency towards interactive after-sales services. Conclusions: The empirical results confirmed that the large majority of medtech companies attach a high level of importance to after-sales services, and indicate that the level of importance and the content-related structure for each service may differ. The results can possibly be generalized to cover medtech companies outside of Germany, as well as other businesses working in the field of healthcare.

KEYWORDS:

• After-sales services
• medical technology industry
• empirical survey
• Germany
• small and medium-sized companies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.