Personal Service: A Thing of The Past?
Recently, my friends and I were discussing our frustration when calling to get service support, only to get a recorded message asking us to enter information. This frustration comes from the lack of personalized services that exist today and the need and want to connect with a human. This allows us to seek reassurance that we will have some one partner in solving our problem. We concluded that those companies offering personal services will find success.
On a recent trip to Asia, visiting customers to discuss business expansion plans for their extrusion facilities, I found myself immersed in discussions relating to technical and operational support questions. As we walked through extrusion and oil pressing facilities in different countries, one theme carried through-out: some support questions were clearly defined and others weren’t. For example, the clearly defined questions were related to meal coming from one extruder being darker than from the other extruder, but there also existed un-defined service needs, which in many cases, were the cause of the main point of concern. Upon further questioning of the operational team, review of operational parameters, and visual inspection of the extruded products and wear parts, we consulted our technical support team and were able to determine the root cause of the service challenge and provide guidance for correcting the problem.
As VP of Sales & Marketing, these experiences highlight the needs our customers have for personal interaction from us to provide solutions. This has increased my awareness about the need to stay connected with our customers to provide support and solutions through multiple service solution tools such as:
- Blogs discussing a wide range of frequently asked questions regarding their equipment or business
- Newsletters to give relevant service advice
- Use of technical tools:
- Free on-site technical visits – provided within one year to all customers who purchase extruders, presses, coolers, or other equipment
- Portable Ingredient analyzer – NIR unit to rapidly measure protein, fat, fiber & moisture levels
- Production Intelligent Program – to remotely monitor operational ExPress® systems across multiple sites. This allows our service team to assist you from anywhere, anytime
- Service Plus Programs – on-site visits by service technicians, retraining of operational staff, and monthly remote evaluations of operational parameters with feedback on improvements
Each visit I make to customers re-enforces the effectiveness of the above noted technical products and services in providing operators and management with solutions to their daily operational and management needs. If you are interested in learning more about how we can provide solutions to your business, send us a message.
