6 minutes | magazine 02/2018
Customer service – challenges and objectives
Liebherr is well known for its good, reliable service. At the same time, the demands on customer service are rising steadily. Christoph Kleiner is the director responsible for global sales at the Mobile and Crawler Cranes Division. This means that he is also responsible for customer service.
Christoph Kleiner, Managing Director Sales of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH
Mr Kleiner, where do you see the current and future challenges in the service sector?
The hardware and software of cranes is becoming ever more complex. Furthermore, there is an enormous range of models and equipment packages for the machines on the market. Our service technicians around the world are very well trained and have an enormous amount of expertise. Even if they cannot know all the details themselves, our customer service around the world is on a very good footing. And by that I mean both in terms of support and in the availability of spare parts.
Our objective is still to satisfy our customers perfectly and to ensure that our cranes can be used for as long as possible.
What measures is the Liebherr Plant in Ehingen taking to achieve this?
We continue to train our service technicians around the world with regular courses to ensure maximum expertise at the plant and on site. For certain subject areas it makes sense to train individual specialists who then act as multipliers to pass on their expertise. We also provide training to our customers around the world. Investments in other measures such as the expansion of e-learning tools are another central topic.
At the same time, we are focused on expanding our worldwide service locations to guarantee a personal local contact to every customer if possible.
Customers regularly award top grades to Liebherr service. Is there still potential to improve?
Our objective in the future is to actively look even more closely at individual customers, identify their needs and satisfy them as well as possible. For this purpose we offer a tailored range of services, for example with attractive service packages, training courses and a 24-hour hotline. We are also continuously working on making our local field service even better.
Another topic is the establishment of standard, professional processes around the world. This involves the efficient collaboration between our branches and the specialists at the manufacturing plant.
What changes and developments have there been in the spare parts sector?
The first thing I must mention is MyLiebherr. This portal contains extensive service and additional information relating to the world of construction machines, mining, mobile and crawler cranes, handling equipment and maritime cranes including an electronic spare parts catalogue. At the same time, we are constantly reviewing our pricing structure for spare parts and services. Only if we provide realistic, market prices for spare parts and services can we serve our customers on the one hand, and on the other be successful as a company so that we can continue to be a strong partner for our customers.
Mr Kleiner, you insist on the use of the term “Customer service” within the company. What exactly do you mean by this?
The fields of customer service and spare parts sales must continue to merge and grow closer and this step is very important to me. Customer service is the generic term for everything that these departments do. The intention is to see customer service as an integral part of our services and therefore to regard and market it as a “product”. This will enable us to get closer to our customers. And in the long term, this will provide us with an advantage over our competitors.
This article was published in the UpLoad magazine 02 | 2018.
