Marlen Upgrades Software to Improve Customer Service

Marlen International Inc. sees an investment in improving customer service as a way to set it apart from its competition and add to customer loyalty.

by James Dornbrook
http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2010/09/20/story10.html?b=1284955200^3959481&ana=e_vert
Posted: 9/17/2010

The Overland Park-based meat-processing equipment manufacturer recently installed a new software system called ServiceMax, which helps it log maintenance on every piece of equipment it sells and be more proactive in providing preventive maintenance.

Jarrod McCarroll, vice president of sales and marketing for Marlen, said service becomes a value proposition when selling equipment to clients.

“It’s all about selling them on the total cost of ownership,” he said. “A couple of our customers require us to provide them with detail that we are returning 10 percent of their annual spend with us in total cost of ownership value-adds. The new system allows us to show that a courtesy call to their plant to tune their equipment allowed us to increase their production by one piece of product a minute, or a million pounds a year at 20 cents a pound.”

Marlen has a customized system that records every sale. It keeps salespeople in touch with maintenance crews and ensures that everyone knows the entire history of every point of contact with a customer.

“When a call comes in for service, a case file is opened,” McCarroll said. “Triggers are automatically sent to the salesman responsible for the account, so he is alerted that something is going on. He can read all the case history, and if he needs to do some damage control or inform the client that we are coming to take care of them, he is armed with all the necessary information and can have an intelligent conversation.”

The files also alert technicians about past problems that can assist troubleshooting or coming maintenance that can help avoid expensive downtime events. One machine can generate $25 to $180 a minute in revenue for a company, so downtime can be expensive.

Scott Scriven, president of Kansas City-based Weber Inc. and chairman of the Food Processing Suppliers Association, said that if a machine breaks down, it takes time to send out a technician, diagnose the problem, get the parts shipped and install them. So it could result in several days of downtime.

“Any downtime you can prevent or service efficiency you can provide saves a client a lot of money,” he said. “The best machinery in the world does you no good if the company you buy it from doesn’t support it properly afterward.”