Luke Sheppard of Sheppard & Company and Advisor on the HIVE Quick Response Advisory Board sits down to talk to Dave Bailey, President of Southern States Material Handling and Toyotalift, to discuss how the HIVE technology has helped their corporation with a better customer experience and less frustration and runaround for their technicians.
As a President of a large corporation like Southern States Material Handling, you have many different suppliers or vendors for your technology solutions, why choose HIVE Quick Response?
As we look at our landscape and what we want to accomplish for customers and as we choose our vendors, we really look back to our vision, mission and purpose. Our purpose is to give our customers a competitive advantage and improving their safety, productivity and profitability. What we noticed what HIVE does for us is, they really help that link from the customer experience for getting something repaired and back into operation. Because most of the equipment the customer has, they don’t want that equipment, but they have to have it to get their job done. Whether it’s a forklift or an ice machine. So, what really interrupts their business and slows things down is when they can’t get someone to come out and fix it. Or when they do and it just takes a long time to figure out what’s wrong, or they have to make multiple trips back in order to fix it. So what we liked about the HIVE solution and the reason why we chose it is because it closes that gap. From the operator, first line supervisor of the asset, anyone can really quickly give us all the details we would need to know what is happening including pictures of what happened, whether it’s damaged or something broke, we’re able to source parts before showing up. That really improves the customers experience because what might have taken 2 trips or even a second day, turns into minutes of downtime on their asset that’s making money for their business. That was the key element that really meshes with our purpose as a company.
What has been you and your team’s experience thus far with HIVE Quick Response?
Our team has been satisfied because they're able to know what’s wrong before they even show up, and there is no confusion about the asset. Because sometimes a customer will just call and say “My forklift is broke” and our technician gets there and there are 30 forklifts and 3 of them are broken. So then we have to figure out what is happening and that times time when it’s not doing it’s job, so now we are able to know exactly which forklift, exactly where it’s at in their 5,000 square foot warehouse, exactly what’s wrong with it and probably have a part we think that will correct the problem. So are folks are happy they have less run around and of course the best is the customer experience. When you show up with a part and fix it right away, now you’re a superhero and you’ve separated yourself from an average vendor to one that has foresight to know what to do before they show up. And that I think is the incredible feature.
So less runaround, better customer experience and probably a lot less frustration it sounds like for your team as well but having this information via HIVE Quick Response.
Right. Because none of our technicians like to show up to a customer and go “hey, this belt is broken, I need to go back and get a new belt for you. I’ll see you in an hour and a half.” Right? I mean, nobody wants to have that conversation because they know their customer doesn’t need their forklift just sitting there holding the floor from floating away. They gotta get something done with it. And even though they are the messenger, nobody wants to carry the bad news, you want to have a positive message, just as a human.
What applications have you seen within your business to apply the HIVE Quick Response solution?
Anything we support which includes conveyer, automation, dock doors and levelers, almost anything that is working in a customers business that we support, we would use the HIVE application for that. And we have even recommended to some customers for equipment we don’t even want to mess with - air conditioners and condensers or machinery - because the customer has expressed to us that several times “I wish other vendors were just as responsive as you are”. Oh really? Let us connect you with HIVE so you can get a similar experience on your trash compactor that you get with your forklift or automation support.
In 10 words, how has your experience with HIVE Quick Response been thus far?
We’re looking forward to expanding that relationship and covering more of our assets within that relationship. Because we haven’t fully exposed all of our customers, so I am really excited about expanding that relationship.
Thank you to Luke Sheppard and Dave Bailey for this insight on how our HIVE technology is proving to be a game changer for Southern States Material Handling and Toyotalift. We are looking forward to expanding this relationship and helping other corporations drastically improve their service request process.