Soft problems in Using Consumer Electronic Products

Abstract

Manufacturers are confronted with complaints from consumers that are not related to technical failure. Failure seems to be related to an unexpected gap between actual product use and intended use by the manufacturer, as products are becoming more complex and miniaturized. This new class of consumer complaints in the consumer electronic industry is defined as “soft problems”. In this paper, we empirically analyze what soft problems consumers have experienced using consumer electronic products, and if culture leads to differences in soft problems between Korea and the Netherlands. From collected complaints, we first created categories of soft problems, analyzed the correlation between product categories and soft problems, and then compared the differences between both groups. Most soft proble ms are very closely related to product design factors and they differ between product categories. Differences are also found between the two cultural groups. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.