Proton focuses on After-Sales; partners with Petronas

The J.D. Power 2016 Malaysia Customer Service Index (CSI) Study released in July showed that  overall car owners' satisfaction with services offered by the various car brands did not improve much from last year, with the two Malaysian carmakers placing below the average market score.

Out of the brands surveyed, Proton came in second-last on the list, but it was a 19-point improvement from the year before. It appears that Proton is really pulling out all the stops to climb up the ranking. In August, the national carmaker launched a mobile app, called MyProton, that features everything from making an appointment to service your Proton car to requesting for mobile assistance. The app has since received some rather good reviews and very good ratings (4.5 out of 5!) on the Google Play store.

And on Friday, Proton announced that it has partnered with Petronas to offer Proton cars a range of Petronas Syntium SE engine oil, now exclusively available at all Proton's authorised service centres. There are three options available: the fully synthetic 3000 SE (5W-30); semi-synthetic 800 SE (10W-30) and mineral-based 500 SE (15W-40), all of which Proton says could give car owners savings of up to 20% on their next service.

Abnormal driving conditions - such as driving in the city, where traffic congestion and start-stop traffic is common, or accelerating for long distances on the highway - could cause the engine to heat up, and cause damage to components. This new range of Petronas engine oils supposedly uses a CoolTech technology that prevents the engine from overheating (on a side note, here's another tip to further help with that).

Good after-sales service is extremely important, not just because word gets around, especially bad experiences, but also as a continuous revenue stream. As we have written somewhere else in this blog, after-sales service brings in a customer in repeatedly and regularly, while the sale of a vehicle may not. Proton has also conducted a recent price review to streamline prices for 600 parts, making them "more competitive" and having "better value". The national carmaker did say that it had a turnaround plan and promised a whole new brand experience for customers, and it appears to be living up to its promise so far.