We are strengthening our Competence Center

Kranenburg staff seek to deepen relations with customers

“Good is just not good enough”. As we had informed you in our Newsletter 03/2021, this motto sets the pace for our Competence Center. In the past, mainly the management was in direct personal touch with customers visiting them at their site. This will increasingly become a domain of Competence Center team members as well. Jan Hanenkamp, the project S&P Managing Director, who was previously team member at project S&P`s service team for many years, is convinced of this new approach: “Getting to know each other personally is crucial for encouraging cooperation as equals. It’s important for us managers that not only the management team and service technicians be familiar with local conditions at the customer’s premises. It’s also increasingly important for the team that deals each day with customers to be familiar with these”. With this in mind, Theresa Gertlowski and Janine Wellmanns spent time last week with our customers Wilhelm Braun Erben GmbH & Co. KG and J. M. Schmitt Rundverpackungen GmbH & Co. KG, and, also, Eckerts Wacholder Brennerei GmbH and Nölken Hygiene Products GmbH. 

Gaining an on-site impression at the customer

“Gaining an on-site impression of the situation and offering specific advice on which issues should be addressed together” – Janine Wellmanns, to take one example, pursues this goal when visiting customers. This was the case when meeting Andreas Klemp at Eckerts in Saarland to discuss offers and, also, at Nölken for acceptance of a machine. “When it comes to optimising a machine, an on-site visit certainly reveals important aspects that are simply not apparent during telephone calls”, says Janine Wellmanns. Managing Director Jan Hanenkamp points out the following advantage: “We want our colleagues to get the opportunity to take on greater responsibility. They have intensive contact with customers and, indeed, are long-term team members”. And, when it comes to “long-term team members”, Janine Wellmanns is certainly an “old hand” at project. After completing her industrial clerk apprenticeship at project group begun in 2014, she has been part of the Service team since 2017. 

Tackling technical issues more efficiently, getting to know people better

Theresa Gertlowski has been with us from as early as 2010 and also joined our service team following her apprenticeship. She was promoted to Team Leader in the Competence Center in 2021. Two weeks ago, she travelled to Ahrtal in the Northrhine Westphalia region to visit Braun and Schmitt, both family businesses. “Having previously only provided remote project support internally, it’s really exciting to meet customers live on site. It helps you to tackle technical issues more efficiently and get to know people”. For example, one customer visit by Theresa Gertlowski needed to address a layout change, which is why her colleague Holger Hoffrichter from project A&C accompanied her. She is acutely aware of the importance of personally meeting people. “Many medium-sized enterprises are family owned or imbued by a sense of family. It’s important here that – in addition to your direct contact person – you should also get to know other customer employees, or even members of the family”.