UK based Nationwide Platforms, part of France's Loxam group, has reinstated customer service teams at each of its 34 depots, in order it says, to provide an end to end service for customers in each local area.
Warrington depot manager Rob Crowe
Chief executive, Paul Rankin said: “It’s important to us that we are a dependable partner in powered access; that every hire is a hire you can rely on. Our goal is to make our people and our operation more dedicated to serving customers in their local area, enabling us to tailor our specialist service to put customers first.”
The Warrington depot
“The result is an end to end service from the same friendly and familiar people, knowing that if you have a question or an issue there is someone dedicated in your local depot to find a resolution quickly. It’s reassuring to customers that when you call your local depot you are speaking to the same team of people each time, who know and understand your hire needs.”
Established in 1994, Nationwide runs a fleet of around 12,000 machines with 800 employees.
Vertikal Comment
Over the years Nationwide has tried a number of different formats with its depot network, some of which centralised all of the customer service and sales functions, using the depots purely to store, service and dispatch the machines. The argument goes that a central call centre has more people and technology on hand to answer calls or cover sickness and holidays, not to mention looking after national accounts and online bookings at the same location.
The downside is the lack of personal knowledge of an area in a centralised call centre, or the feel for the local fleet and whether a particular machine that has just come back in could be made ready the same day. This is particularly important given that much of the competition in a local area is truly local, with owners on the premises every day, or close by, and employees really knowing the region, while understanding the needs of customers in the area.
The idea is to have both of course, the ability to service big multi nationals, while also have a local service support team. Depending on how this new structure is set up it looks like a positive move. It will be interesting to watch how it pans out in the coming months.
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