Samsung Electronics Service said on March 30 it will expand its reservation service to 169 service centres nationwide from April 1. The service lets customers choose a time to have their phones, tablets and wearable products checked without waiting.

Samsung Electronics Service has run a pilot since September at 23 major service centres nationwide, including in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Honam and Yeongnam. Under the pilot, the share of customers using reservations rose by more than 50 percent in March compared with September, when the service was introduced. The company decided to expand the service to all centres based on the rise in demand.

The service operates from Tuesday to Friday. It does not run on Monday mornings, when visitor numbers are more than 40 percent higher than on weekdays as demand accumulates over the weekend. At the 23 pilot locations, the company will accept reservations from 1 p.m. on Mondays to extend operating hours at those centres. The company said it plans to review whether to expand Monday afternoon reservations to other centres after analysing booking trends.

Customers can make reservations through the Samsung Electronics Service website and contact centre. Same-day reservations are not available, and bookings are automatically cancelled if customers arrive more than 10 minutes late. On weekends and public holidays, customers can use the reservation service separately through a weekend care centre. The company said customers can visit without waiting if they use the Tuesday to Friday reservation service for product condition checks or function confirmations that do not require immediate repairs.

Yeo Se-jung (여세중), executive director and head of the operations team at Samsung Electronics Service, said he expects the expanded reservation service to let customers use Samsung Electronics products more conveniently. He said the company will continue to provide differentiated services that customers need.