GMAT Essays (AWA)

"We are spending too much on free customer service after a sale has been made; we need to limit our warranty to two years in order to improve our profit margins. The current lifetime warranty can lead to costs decades into a product's life cycle. Also, we pay our customer service employees a premium because they must possess expert skills across the entirety of our very diverse product line, including products we no longer sell."

RESPONSE:
In this argument, the author claims that the company needs to limit the time period their warranty is offered because free customer service costs are very high. The author supports the claim with potential reasons for the cause of the rising costs. Although the argument is constructed logically, it lacks evidence and detailed insight on the conclusion the argument has made.

Firstly, the author discusses an increase in expenditure on free customer service but there was no discussion on what aspect of customer service is proving to be more costly. For example, the author cites two reasons - premium paid to employees and costs occurring decades into a product's life cycle - but does not explain which specific reason is dominant. In order to explain that the current warranty causes increased expenses, figures illustrating lifetime warranty expenses taking over the majority of customer service costs would help make the point that the warranty time period should be reduced. Furthermore, if every employee is paid a premium, then the company should investigate what percentage of customer service costs are dedicated to employee salary. So, in order to make a strong case in support of reducing the time period on the warranty, the various elements that take up customer services costs should be analyzed and presented. This will present a better picture on how the company is spending their money. This will also help strengthen the company's position to limit the warranty should the statistics and figures support the argument.

Secondly, the author's claim mainly relies on one key assumption: namely, customer service is responsible for the lack of improvement in profit margins. While the argument outlines potential reasons for rising customer service costs, other factors have not been taken into consideration. In fact, other factors are assumed to not be responsible for the declining profit margins. In order for the assumptions to be considered true, they must be proven to be true. For example, if the profit margins are not increasing, then the company should invest time in analyzing what is causing this issue. Additionally, other factors that have been ruled out - such as poor manufacturing or lackluster marketing campaigns - should be examined as a potential cause for the decline in profits. After all these assumptions are proven to be true, the author's argument will be stronger and the conclusions made from the argument can be safely recognized as well reasoned.

In conclusion, the argument does maintain a logical flow but various examples, figures and statistics could help strengthen points made in the argument. Additionally, if the author showed a strong analysis for making specific conclusions, then the argument would be considered as a well reasoned construct. With time taken to provide sufficient detail, the argument would provide an appropriate amount of insight as to why and how the author came to his/her specific conclusions. It will also show proper evaluation on the author's part to ensure that the argument presented in sound and well supported.