The Wirtgen Group takes pride in providing a customer support offering that matches – and in some circumstances surpasses – the renowned quality of its road construction equipment.
“The right program for everyone”. That’s the Wirtgen Group’s philosophy when it comes to customer training and servicing.
For what is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of road construction equipment, customer training holds a higher ranking on the pecking order than you might think.
Despite having a network that reaches Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia, customer desires are always put first, regardless of the region or native language. And this is a consistent aspect across all its Wirtgen, Vögele, Hamm, Kleemann, Benninghoven and Ciber brands.
Chris Adams, Service Manager Australia and New Zealand – Wirtgen, says the Wirtgen Group’s devotion to training and servicing is about keeping customers up to speed with the rapidly evolving industry.
“It really comes down to the technology that we have within our equipment. We’re constantly evolving and developing new technology to keep up with the market’s demands and requirements,” he says.
“A profiler might do the same job that it did 20 years ago, but there’s now so many more options and advanced features that allow our customers to do the job safer and more economically. When we release a new model, it’s important that we’re able to offer training to let them understand how they can get the best out of each of our units.”
Wirtgen has a national product support management team with dedicated managers for different product groups and regions. It’s through these product managers that the Wirtgen Group provides application training and technical support to customers.
One of these managers is Brett Ferris, Product Support Manager – Wirtgen. As part of his role, Ferris looks after the Streumaster portfolio, the Wirtgen Group’s new binding agent spreading units.
He says that customer support and training is much more than just an added benefit. It’s now an essential key to long-term success.
“Gone are the days where we can put a machine out the front door and let the customer take care of the rest,” he says. “The technology is evolving and understanding the technology that the machines are equipped with is vital to the success of our customers’ businesses.
“Without customer support we don’t have customers. It’s a team effort and a relationship, if a customer calls for help and we can’t assist in a short time frame, that customer is losing money and faith in our brand. It’s my opinion that Wirtgen has succeeded because we offer and encourage these close customer support relationships.”
Ferris says a big part of building this relationship is tailoring the training programs to the specific needs of each customer, rather than offering generic sessions.
“All of the trainings I conduct start with me asking ‘what do you want to get out of this?’ There’s no use going to a customer and teaching them about X when they wanted to learn Y,” he says.
“This can be anywhere from a specialist onsite giving tips and tricks, to machine walk arounds, to classroom-based in-depth training with a room full of people. It’s fully catered and much more than just how to run the machine, instead it’s all the features of the machine, how to get the most from them, good and bad practices and much more.”
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Adams adds that training is also focused on the application and machine at hand, rather than painting broad strokes over one model range.
“For certain product lines, like paving and rollers, the training is more focused on the application at hand and proper usage of the equipment, rather than just the technical features,” he says.
“That’s the main focus, application consulting and really ensuring that our customers understand how to use the equipment to their biggest advantage.”
The Wirtgen Group’s flexibility and options for classroom or on-site training is designed to offer a more hands-on and directly applicable approach, depending on the customer’s equipment and work environment.
“Even if they don’t have the time, we have a training program dedicated to our customers that’s always available, and that’s our website,” Adams says.
This constant support is also available from a repairs and servicing perspective, as Ferris explains.
“We offer all the required maintenance for the entirety of the machine life. We have factory trained technicians across all our locations across the country, who all have a local network of Product Support Managers for each of our brands for support on issues that may arise,” he says.
“It’s often a misconception that servicing is just ‘change the oil and spin the filters’. It’s so much more than that, and we can offer immediate service, not just a ticket and wait system.”
Across the board
This is also reflected internally, with team members within Wirtgen always willing to learn about new machinery and processes to ensure they can deliver the best possible service to their customers.
This includes bringing in specialists from the factory in Germany, to provide advanced training on new product introductions and features while Wirtgen’s learning management system, helps to track and address any gaps in technical expertise.
“A technician can’t efficiently repair a machine if they don’t know how to drive one or what the machine is supposed to do when a function is operated,” Ferris says. “We are now adopting learning paths to include a full curriculum that a technician can follow to become qualified on particular products.
“It’ll give our technicians a better understanding of the whole machine and product, and makes repairs faster and more effective, keeping costs down for Wirtgen and in turn, our customers.”
Both customer and internal training is set to receive a big boost, with two facilities in Melbourne and Queensland respectively set to be relocated and expanded.
“That’s going to increase our complete after sales presence in Melbourne and Queensland. It’s going to be a big improvement to give us more space and training facilities in those regions,” Adams says.
“It reflects our constant investment, to be able to better support our customers and product, from an after sales perspective, repairs and maintenance, while also offering training facilities for customers in-house.
“Our customers are always looking to seek information like this, especially in a challenging environment with labour shortages. They’re looking to us to be there for them and with expansion and investment like this, we can continue to do that, on a larger scale.”
This article was originally published in the March edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
