Aligning strategic profiles with operational metrics in after-sales service

As result of the high market pressure and competition, the After Sales department is rapidly evolving into an independent business unit perceived as a strategic driver for ensuring revenues, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Though monitoring and measuring After Sales activities along the service chain has to ensure a proper balance between business and operational objectives and their assessment, in the industrial community no significant efforts have been put on the definition of a structured After Sales Performance Measurement System. Purpose of the paper is to overcome the limitations of the current models available in literature in terms of relation and consistency between business strategy, service chain configuration and Performance Measurement Systems, and on the alignment between strategic, tactical and operational levels of After Sales decision-making processes.