In today’s turbulent and yet highly competitive business environment, companies can no longer rely on sales alone to meet targets, close deals and maintain business momentum long-term. Even service that’s proactive, offering a solution before an issue or disturbance occurs may not suffice. The pressure is on: Companies must get their entire customer experience right. According to some statistics, as many as 80% of customers believe that the experience a company provides is just as important as its products and services. So it’s the sales personnel and technical customer service AND everybody else in day-to-day interaction with existing and potential customers that make the crucial difference. Listening to customers’ needs, proactively sensing them based on discussions and using information innovatively, simply being friendly and efficient. That’s the combination that works, especially in these extraordinary times.
The trend is clear: Customer care involves all of us
That essentially human recipe for success needs to be conjured up and maintained. Without a culture of caring there can be no true sense of community vital for creating and cultivating relationships and developing a loyal customer base.
At ATA Gears, we are acutely aware of this trend and take the development very seriously. We believe all our people contribute decisively to customer care. Of course, some people are closer to the front line than others. Our sales and technical customer service currently consists of 10 dedicated mechanical power transmission professionals.
Headed by Mr.Tami Komssi, they relay customers’ needs and expectations to the people in ATA’s gear design and production. “I firmly believe that one of the key feelings caring promotes is courage. No matter if something has never been done before – everything is possible in the field of mechanical power transmission and in the name of customer service,” Tami Komssi declares. Ms. Kirsi Stålhammar, who has worked in ATA’s sales and service organization for over 21 years backs him up: “I think we are briskly moving from sales emphasis to an attitude and action of caring. So, surely we are maturing as an organization, too.”
To put the ATA philosophy into practice and help develop a loyal customer base, ATA has paid special attention to ensuring that the entire personnel truly comprehends the relevant terms and the related action: Customer service is any help or advice you give customers before and after they make a purchase. Customer care, on the other hand, refers to how you look after customers throughout all their interactions with your brand – from how well you listen to customers to the friendliness of the personnel and how efficiently orders are fulfilled. And that may involve addressing possible complaints, where finding the root cause is the right solution, the only sustainable path to improving reliability of deliveries.
“I believe that we can all act like grown-ups – sustainably not only attending to business targets but also caring about people’s needs and how life goes on. And that must be the best way to achieve results,” declares Mr. Pentti Hallila confidently with his 20 years’ experience of working in ATA’s sales organization. And these words were actually said before the corona outbreak. Today they are more relevant than ever.
We welcome feedback
We are always open to feedback on our overall customer care and pride ourselves on being proactive about acting on it. So join forces with us to make caring a powerful business advantage for all concerned.