In August just prior to the Nor-Fishing 2010 exhibition in Trondheim, Pon Power Scandinavia was featured in an article in the Norwegian business publication Dagens Næringsliv.
A Service Concept in line with a changing Market
For many years the market has seen a constant growth. The financial crisis of 2009 abruptly ended the upward spiral, and the market changed in a way never before seen”, says Karstein Svartangen.
Karstein Svartangen is responsible for Service and Aftersales at Pon Power Scandinavia which is the authorised dealer of Cat and MaK engines on the Scandinavian market.
Karstein Svartangen
“We believe that it is important to stay ahead in the market and know the needs of our customers which in the last few years have changed towards more focus on operating costs”, Karstein Svartangen continues.
Our service concept is designed to reduce operating costs through pre-empting maintenance. Having a tight-knit relationship with our customers and thorough knowledge of their applications we are able to estimate the possible costs on the applications and be able to give recommendations about increased uptime for the customers.
Always using longterm planning of service frequency has made it possible to offer competitive prices as well as being able to be in the right place at the right time. Another important factor is the time of response in case of unforeseen incidents leaving the customer with downtime on their applications.
In the first half of 2010 we conducted a thorough customer satisfaction survey which has given us some clear indications of how our customers perceive us and it has helped us identify which areas are of special importance to our customers.
The customer satisfaction survey has given us strong indications of which areas to focus on, and we are continuously hard at work implementing a lot of these actions.
We find it very important to have a strategically well placed network of service facilities. We are always looking into opportunities of opening a new facility or strengthening our relationship with existing service partners.
The latest development has been the opening of a new service facility in Sandnes which is strengthening the service capabilities in the Stavanger area.
With the new facility in Sandnes, and a strong network of dealers along the coast Pon Power Scandinavia has firmly committed itself to a strong local presence on the Norwegian market. “We simply want to be where the customers need us.”, Karstein Svartangen finishes.
The customers have the opportunity to call Pon Power Scandinavia’s service hotline 24 hours a day. When they call the process of solving the assignment starts immediately.
The person on duty makes sure that the assignment is given to the right service engineer and arrange for the right components to be shipped from the warehouse.
“I get a phone call from the office about a new assignment”, says Frode Solend who has several years of experience as a service engineer at Pon Power Scandinavia.
“They supply me with the details and makes all the practical arrangements such as travel plans, ordering of specific components etc.” he continues.
“One of my major assignments thus far was on a ship in Brazil. A difficult assignment but also a very exiting one. After a long journey I arrived and all the components were already there. All I had to do was just to get on with it.” Frode Solend says.
“We are very focused and always do the assignments in the best possible way.”, Frode Solend finishes.
As an authorised dealer of engines and generator sets from Caterpillar and MaK, Pon Power Scandinavia has access to Caterpillar’s European warehouse with over 250.000 original components in stock.
Pon Power Scandinavia also has strategically placed warehouse facilities in the Scandinavia countries. A dedicated team is hard at work getting the right components to the right place as fast as possible.
“We are always working hard getting the components on their way to right places”, says Günther Lauterer, who is Warehouse Manager at Pon Power Scandinavis’a warehouse in Oslo, Norway. He continues, “Naturally we are also doing our utmost to make sure it is the right components being shipped.”