Out & about with customers

April 25, 2012

One of the best things about my job is that I get to go out visiting customers! As one of the ‘equipment experts’ it’s my responsibility to ensure customers know and understand how our equipment works and its pro’s and con’s when it comes to specific projects.  If I deliver a piece of equipment it’s also a good opportunity to give some hands-on-training with the team who will be using the kit. When you are face to face with a customer, sometimes onsite, it is incredibly difficult to over-egg the capabilities of a pump when you are standing there with said pump in action!

This week has been slightly different but the same principles apply. I went to Bristol to demonstrate the Aquaread range of water quality test equipment to a customer.  We sell the Aquaread as being well built (UK manufactured), field ready and easy to use and when you see the meters and loggers in ‘the flesh’ all the marketing speak comes to life.  This equipment does/is everything we said on our website! The customer seemed to really like this kit and I hope we will see an order soon.

Visiting my customers is also a great way to find out what projects are in the pipeline, what’s ‘hot’ and what’s not (Sediment sampling at the moment). Should I introduce our rental service or is purchase the better option. The professionalism I see when it comes to making equipment decisions is awesome: some customers really appreciate the choice and economy of renting equipment for ‘one-off’ projects, others like to invest in equipment so they can pitch for similar projects in the future knowing they have the necessary equipment in place to react quickly.  As always there are pluses and minuses for both!

Aside from putting a face to a name each visit opens up new opportunities and whether I’m there to solve a problem, train staff, set-up a monitoring system, demonstrate equipment, offer an alternative solution or technique to collect data each time it’s a privilege to see how our customers operate – bring it on is what I say!

Tom Stone