Xiaomi opens its 500th service center in India; aims to be the ‘benchmark of service’

In my editorial last year, I wrote about how Xiaomi is a huge hit in India, but not everyone was happy. The major customer grievance revolved around after-sales support. Xiaomi had launched several bestselling devices, yet poor after-sales support experience, non-availability of spare parts, and long wait times for getting devices serviced was hurting customer experience and brand reputation.

A Xiaomi spokesperson told me at that time that the company was transitioning the most critical parts of its after-sales operations in-house, aiming for a significant improvement in the service, and had initiated a dedicated spare parts warehouse in Bangalore.

Six months later, things already look better. For Xiaomi, it’s imperative that they do. India is an extremely important market in Xiaomi’s globalization strategy and their largest market outside of mainland China. In October last year, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun shared that the company aims to capture the largest market share in the country within 3-5 years.

Last month, Xiaomi opened their first offline retail store – Mi Home – in India and starting with Bengaluru, the company is now looking at opening Mi Homes in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and plans to open 100 Mi Homes in next two years.

Today, Xiaomi opened its 500th service center in India on Friday. Spread across 350 cities, including Tier 3 and 4 towns, these service centers validate the company’s efforts towards better after-sales experience as it grows in brand equity as well as market-share in the country. According to a recent report from IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau), Xiaomi India offers ‘best in class’ service delivery and is currently rated amongst the top five smartphones in India in terms of service delivery.

500 is another milestone for us in our India journey which is a proof point of our dedication towards after sales experience. Today, we have a strong service infrastructure and we want to be known as the benchmark for service delivery in India. While sales is an important element for most brand after sales is an extremely crucial element for us at Xiaomi and we will continue to work harder to make Xiaomi an even more consumer-centric company for our Mi Fans. In fact, we are kicking this week off as a Service Quality week in India today where we will celebrate our service experience for our Mi Fans across India.

– Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi & Managing Director, Xiaomi India

According to the company, the service centers now manage an impressive 95 percent rate of repairing smartphones within a day and an 86 percent rate of repair for repairs within four hours.

The service centers are of course only a part of the service infrastructure of the company. Xiaomi has also set up two call centers which handle around 16,000 calls per day and there are three repair factories where 100 engineers repair around 500 PCBA units a day.

The man in charge of Xiaomi India knows that while sales is important, after sales service is an extremely crucial element. And Manu Jain has greater ambitions. “We want to be known as the benchmark for service,” he tweeted earlier today.