Back to Status Quo

Samsung and LG are back at the top two spots in the Channel Satisfaction Survey; last year’s favorite AOC does not even feature in the top 5.

It is status quo for monitors in the Channel Satisfaction Survey in 2015. Samsung is back at the top of partner perception with LG following at #2. Last year’s surprise winner AOC and #2 Dell do not even feature in the top 5 favorites of the partners surveyed. The Korean giants have taken major strides this year to address marketing support and relationship management issues that plagued them back in 2014.

Samsung scores high uniformly across all parameters; its product diversity and leadership, its strong marketing support with enough point of sales materials, innovative market development programs and flexibility in conducting localized promotions is making many partners happy. Partners are also satisfied with Samsung’s flexibility in commercial terms, credit policies and its settlement of back-end incentives and schemes. And no doubt, Samsung has improved its communication with channel partners and made it more consistent and has also come up trumps with partner reward systems.

LG too has improved its overall ratings amongst partners across all areas—in fact, it only lags behind Samsung. In certain areas like turnaround time and ability to provide satisfactory repair and replacement services, LG outscores even Samsung. And LG’s technical expertise to resolve problems, availability of competent account managers and price vs performance ratio is second to none barring Samsung.

Behind the two Korean giants, BenQ has made an impression amongst partners (overall #3) particularly because of its training and certification programs, richness of online resources and an effective partner portal—domains where Samsung and LG slip up slightly. Intex and Viewsonic also feature in the top 5 on channel satisfaction index. Some partners are happy with Intex pricing, its credit policies and the flexibility in its commercial terms.