Early in 2020, as it became apparent that businesses would have to respond to the pandemic situation by altering their workflows in order to keep functioning, Mestek Machinery was determined to continue operating and responding to customers’ needs while taking precautions as recommended by government agencies.
With a backlog of work when the pandemic response hit the marketplace and weekly travel schedules that had already been set up with multiple employees to be onsite for service and installation, Mestek Machinery and its staff had to be forward-thinking and creative in order to fulfill customer expectations when travel restrictions threatened the entire service calendar. In an innovative move forward, Mestek Machinery took several steps to provide online and virtual assistance to its customers.
Although all field service calls were suspended due to travel restrictions, the Mestek Machinery service technicians remained available by phone or email to assist customers with their needs. Many of these Mestek Machinery service technicians are long term employees who were able to work from home. Customers who had already received equipment were patient and understanding, since many of them were in the same situation with rules and regulations limiting their ability to be on-site.
Not missing a beat, Mestek Machinery gathered the staff which were directly responsible for lasers, plasmas, water jets, spiral and coil processing for the four departments. These teams responded rapidly and went to work to develop a virtual installation customer experience. With a well-established program of working with customers remotely with self-diagnostic programs already in place, the process and technology was easily able to be transferred to the next level in order to deliver virtual installations.
“Mestek Machinery clients are responsible for the healthcare business when it comes to building hospitals and stadiums. Many of these customers were directly responsible for turning stadiums into emergency relief centers for possible Covid-19 patients. Quite frankly, I am amazed and proud of how our teams provided this service to our customers who had quite an investment sitting on their shop floors and needed these highly productive pieces up and running. Productivity gains are important when a client makes a capital expenditure and we at Mestek Machinery realize that and appreciate the fact that they chose Mestek Machinery as their partner,” Senior Vice-president of Sales Mike Bailey explains, “to date we have installed multiple pieces of equipment with the customer’s help virtually.”
