Growing demand for tire industry automation in India lead Cimcorp to establish new office in Chennai in 2019. The initial employees, all highly educated people from India, trained comprehensively in Cimcorp’s technologies and software. Indian team will work at customer sites, so they need to meet the high standards of Cimcorp solutions and those of the clients’.
Every factory owner and tire producer wants the reassurance that their investment in automation will pay back as fast as possible, and operate flawlessly for many decades. Pekka Natri, Head of Operations in India, says, “The decision to open the office at Chennai, has proven to be the right one. Our Indian employees’ high educational background combined their knowledge on Cimcorp’s tire industry solution has already benefitted our customers. With local Cimcorpers’ cultural and local commercial knowledge we’ve been able to help our customers to focus on their core business even better than before.”
With different service packages, all systems will be supported throughout their lifetime. In a digital world in which data is increasingly important, the human touch in customer support continues to be important.
Nothing beats on-site help
With all modern tools, online support is efficient and works well. But there are times that nothing beats on-site help. Nobody wants unscheduled maintenance break, and with monitoring data and preventive maintenance the risks can be cut down next to nothing. “But if something happens it is nice to know, that the best help is near and can reach you fast – even with these current travel restrictions”, Natri says.
Cimcorp’s bespoke service agreements can include preventive maintenance, outsourced support, and corrective repair.
Cimcorp promotes a reliance on periodic site visits. There are instances in which the senses – sight, hearing, touch, and smell – of a technician on the ground cannot be beaten. Physical presence allows other factors on-site to be considered in reaching a diagnosis of the issue. “Quite simply, a short visit can often prevent a small issue from escalating into a large and costly one”, explains Natri.
Personalized customer service
Customer support services are always tailored to suit the client’s precise needs in order to minimize downtime and maximize profitability. They can outsource their maintenance to Cimcorp or provide it themselves in-house. “Either way, Cimcorp’s bespoke service agreements can include preventive maintenance, outsourced support, and corrective repair,” says Natri, “System support can be provided remotely – over the telephone, via e-mail or via VPN (virtual private network) connection – and, if required, on-site.”
The key to high-quality customer support is retaining staff with high levels of expertise and experience.” Pekka Natri, Head of Operations, India
Many times software-related problems can be resolved remotely. Although one person deals with the issue, there’s a team of professionals with extensive expertise to call on, to ensure a quick fix. Anytime the issue cannot be resolved remotely, Cimcorp will dispatch a technician to the site and, if necessary, organize expedited part replenishment.
Building trust with known company contact
The company emphasizes having a single point of contact for customers. It’s part of the relationship – which builds trust and expertise – to deal with the same person. “The key to high-quality customer support is retaining staff with high levels of expertise and experience. Customer support staff are familiar with the common issues that can crop up with automated systems or with the interfaces to other equipment at the customer’s plant, so they can resolve them very quickly. If they know exactly how solutions work and the system’s history, they can deal with it much more quickly and effectively,” Natri says.
Fast recovery due to 24/7 support
When people call the 24/7 help desk, they are in trouble. Something negative has happened. Solving the problem calmly and quickly to get production up and running again is vital. When the problem is solved, it is equally important to find out why it happened so that a repeat occurrence can be avoided. Natri says: ”This information is then fed into Cimcorp’s preventive maintenance programs. The company has been using condition-based maintenance for a number of years in its customer support. “ Advances in sensor technology mean that harvesting valuable information about the condition of the equipment is easier, faster, and cheaper than ever. “We log and analyze customer support activities to find recurring problems and ensure these are covered in our preventive maintenance routines”, Natri explains.
Author Anna-Mari Vuollet