ASCENDUM Machinery launched a Rapid Response Technician program with expert technicians serving different regions in N.C. and Tenn. The program aims to quickly diagnose and troubleshoot customer equipment issues with specialized service trucks, enhancing overall customer satisfaction and uptime.
CEG photo
(L-R) are Cory Penland, Jeff Wilbanks, Kody Oliver, William Walker, Blake Etterle and Brandon Thigpen.
ASCENDUM Machinery in North Carolina and Tennessee has kicked off a Rapid Response Technician program through which the company has assigned three of its master technicians — veteran professionals who have achieved the company's highest skill level — to each work in different portions of its Southeastern market with the goal of improving customer uptime.
One senior technician, Scott Cox, has been assigned to central North Carolina, while Jeremy Ford is responsible for assisting contractors in ASCENDUM'S western North Carolina/eastern Tennessee market, and Mike Brown is the master tech in the Tarheel State's eastern region.
They will be equipped with small, purpose-built service trucks geared to make quicker diagnostic evaluations on any of its customers' machines with a jobsite issue, according to Jeff Wilbanks, ASCENDUM's product support manager of central North Carolina at the company's Concord location.
These new trucks differ from conventional service vehicles in that they do not come packed with a variety of bulky repair equipment, "and every other tool that could fit into it," he said.
"Here, we want to be fast and not get tied down on a particular job site, so we are using small pickup trucks without large storage capacity because we want the master technicians to be able to show up with their laptops and diagnostic equipment to troubleshoot the problem and then move onto the next site," Wilbanks said. "After that, a trained technician can come in behind them and make the actual repairs."
The impetus for ASCENDUM instituting the service program in the two Southeast states came about after company officials learned that a large percentage of its jobsite calls were not because of major breakdowns or failures, but involved things like sensors, error codes, telematics, software, calibrations, and machine updates — all issues that service departments did not face two decades ago, said Brandon Thigpen, who works in Raleigh as product support manager for the dealership's eastern North Carolina region.
"These are the problems that do not require a big rolling shop with a crane, an air compressor and a welder to come on site," he said. "What it does require is a lighter, quicker response vehicle that is primarily geared for electrical or, what I call ‘tip of the spear' diagnostics to determine what the next course of action needs to be."
Each of ASCENDUM's four-wheel-drive, three-quarter-ton trucks in the Rapid Response program come equipped with a shell over its back that contains a drawer system with a slide-out tray. As far as tools are concerned, they have all the electric diagnostic breakout boxes and adapter harnesses needed for most minor calls and any equipment analysis.
Wilbanks explained that they enable the dealership to offer its customers a timely turnaround on quotes and appraisals for the machines and service work.
In addition, the presence of technicians and light trucks at a construction zone also helps in determining if the affected machine needs to come into the ASCENDUM shop before a large service truck is dispatched to the site, where, he said, "we could discover that it could have gone on to another, more serious field breakdown and finished that work instead."
Initiative Passes Critical Test Following Hurricane
ASCENDUM's Rapid Response service has so far been a big hit with contractors that rely on the Huntersville, N.C.-based dealership to keep their equipment operational and stay productive.
"The customers that did not know ahead of time about this service have been very excited about our providing a different approach to keeping their machines running," Wilbanks said.
The Rapid Response program got quite an evaluation beginning in late September after Hurricane Helene's deadly rampage through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. The storm inflicted staggering infrastructure damage that caused contractors scurrying to make needed repairs at countless area sites.
Cory Penland, ASCENDUM's product support manager in the western North Carolina/eastern Tennessee region, said that prior to the weakened tropical storm's arrival from Florida and Georgia, "we had no idea just what was coming. We did expect some heavy rain and wind, but not two full days of torrential rain and flooding.
"The addition of our Jeremy Ford in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee really put ASCENDUM's program to the test after that storm," he said. "Jeremy truly was a mobile force in the area for our customers who were on the front lines of recovery and rebuilding after the devastation. For instance, we were able to reach and efficiently repair machines that were down for customers working in very remote parts of Yancey County, N.C. That would not have been possible without ASCENDUM's Rapid Response program."
Program Teams Senior Technicians With New Hires
Another key benefit of the program is ASCENDUM's use of its most talented service personnel in driving the Rapid Response initiative. By doing so, the company can tap into its master technicians' expert knowledge to help bring along its newer and younger techs that are still learning their trade.
"As we are hiring the next generations of technicians that have limited experience coming out of trade schools, we can have our master technicians meet them on job sites and help teach them how to handle live problems beyond what they learned in the classroom," said Wilbanks.
Thigpen agreed that the importance of a younger tech paired with a master working in a "real-world scenario" cannot be understated.
"It is important to note that this Rapid Response technician will not be part of our normal field technician scheduling. For instance, if someone calls us to say they have a broken track or cylinder, or a wheel seal leak, a larger repair is needed. These technicians will only go out in certain scenarios where we believe they will be the most effective," he said, meaning anything that involves electronic or computer-oriented issues.
The master technicians at ASCENDUM also are assisting mechanics employed by its regular customers in the building trades to diagnose machinery issues. To do so more efficiently, the company has introduced a phone app that the dealership's senior technicians can use to make a preliminary diagnostic before arriving on site. It also allows them to access a software program to work in real time with the customer technician to analyze error codes and perform all the site diagnostics via the software.
Thigpen sees the rapid-response technician as a key piece of communication between the customer, ASCENDUM and the equipment manufacturer.
"They will be the important relay for the technical information from the equipment on the job site back to our manufacturers in order to find solutions," he added.
The old-school way of doing things had a tech in the field relating info back to the service shop, Wilbanks recalled, where the service manager or supervisor would, in turn, relay it to the manufacturers to get answers, an often-cumbersome, back-and-forth procedure.
"The new Rapid Response program we have worked out has opened up those channels so that we can speed along the process," he explained.
ASCENDUM Continues to Refine Customer Service
With the Rapid Response service program in place and operating efficiently, ASCENDUM is turning its attention to providing enhanced training for customer technicians, equipment operators, and how to properly perform machine walkarounds.
"Currently, the operator training is usually done with ASCENDUM's product support managers, and we will continue to do that, but it will also include a person more from the technical side," Thigpen said. "I think it is fantastic to also have a technician's perspective for daily checks, and key things to look for on machinery as you do walkarounds."
"And, of course, all this comes about as we explore ways to continue offering better solutions for our customers to keep doing business with us," Wilbanks added. CEG
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the business for more than 40 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he moved on to gain experience at two other publications before becoming a real estate and special features writer and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. His hobbies include collecting history books, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers and caring for his three dogs and one cat.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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