Not Happy Jands!

In a survey we conducted last year, the feedback was clear…Jands Service needed to make some major changes. Our customers were not happy!

To shake things up a bit, John McRorie was brought on as General Manager Service. Having joined Jands from Xerox, John brings with him over 25 years of Customer Service Management experience. Guided by what he believes to be the 3 key elements to great Customer Service – Culture, Processes, Systems – John has completely transformed our Jands Service Department into an unrecognisable thriving team…and the results speak for themselves!

So what’s changed over in Jands Service land?

• First and foremost it underwent some restructuring.  John McRorie was hired to head the Service Department in the role of General Manager Service and presides over the Service Support Staff, while Michael Meissner takes charge of the Technician Team in the role of Technical Service Manager.  With everyday responsibilities more evenly distributed, the task of tackling the problems plaguing the service department’s ability to deliver great customer service could now be addressed!
  
  
• New Service Technicians were hired and a comprehensive training program undertaken. Now with a combined total of 58 years experience in the Jands Technician team, there’s no problem big or small that our trusty team haven’t encountered before.
  
  
• A full time Spare Parts Planner was hired to improve stock holdings, to ensure quicker response from overseas suppliers and to reduce the workload on our Service Coordinator. Additionally, the spare parts formula was completely rejigged, with stock now being checked weekly and backorders systematically reviewed. Having dramatically decreasing the time parts are not available, our Technicians can process jobs quicker, which means you get your equipment back sooner!
  
  

What new initiatives were implemented to improve service efficiency?

• A Triage Process was set up whereby jobs are assessed as soon as they arrive so they can be turned around as quickly as possible, by getting all the information required at the beginning.
  
  
• A Call Ahead Program was introduced. With a commitment turnaround of 7 days, all jobs are assessed 2 days before the ‘due date’ to ensure they will be completed on time. If this timeframe cannot be met the customer receives a call from Jands Service informing them of the reason for the delay. Hence, customers can expect to be contacted within 5 days of their item arriving at the service workshop. Maintaining a regular dialogue with our customers ensures a lot of frustration can be avoided.
  
  
• Lots of training and cross training has been undertaken to ensure contingencies are in place to handle peak workloads more efficiently. All our technicians have now been Factory Trained, with some even being sent overseas to be trained by factory technicians at our suppliers’ premises. Additionally, new test equipment has been purchased to facilitate quicker and more accurate repairs.
  
  

And the results of these efforts?!...

The surveys conducted last year, revealed Jands Service needed to improve in 3 key areas and over the last 8 months, this is exactly what’s been done:

1. Improve the time it took us to turnaround repairs and get them back to their owners.
   When the initial measurements were taken in July 2008 the average turnaround was on average a poor 25 days…almost a month! Since then we’ve seen an incredible 81% improvement in our repair turnaround time, which now averages 4 to 5 working days.
   
   
   
2. Improve our parts holdings so we have the parts available on request.
   In July 2008 there were 56 calls waiting on parts in April 2009 there were only 16, a 71% reduction in the number of parts requests we cannot supply on demand. In addition when we do need to get a part in, the time required to get it from our suppliers has reduced by 45%.
   
   
3. Faster response to returning emails and phone calls.
   The hiring of the parts planner has meant our Service Coordinator can now focus squarely on dealing effectively with phone and email queries. As mentioned above, we introduced an automatic notification of any job approaching the due date and pro actively call a customer if we can’t meet that date.
   
   

With everything in the service process measurable, these remarkable results have now been consistent for over 5 months since October. Driven by the motto “A good service department is easy to run, an average service department is hard to run, a bad service department is impossible to run”, John knows there are other things that can be done to better our level of service. But rest assured there are already a number of new initiatives currently in the pipeline to give you, our valued customers, the level of service you expect.

So why should you use the Jands Service Department when you need a bit of help? You can be confident that your equipment will be serviced / repaired by a Factory Trained Service Technician and that only Factory Approved parts will be used. That means no cheap and nasty copy transformers or cones.

To contact Jands Service call (02) 9582 0909, email service@jands.com.au or visit us online HERE.