Scania annual report 2003

CUSTOMERS AND SERVICE
Maximum uptime requires optimal service
To many of today’s transport companies,
high vehicle availability is
a prerequisite for profitability. The
quality of the service network is
as important as the quality of their
vehicles.
Demands for faster, more reliable and
cheaper deliveries are forcing transport
companies to improve the efficiency of their
operations. By updating, customising and
constantly expanding its range of servicerelated
products, Scania is offering these
customers increasingly cost-effective
solutions.
Many customers prefer repair and maintenance
contracts, where they pay a fixed
per-kilometre price so they can focus on
their core business – transport and logistics.
Other customers want a fixed per-repair
price for both parts and labour.
With 1,500 authorised Scania workshops
around the world, more than 1,000
of them in Europe, the service market is a
key competitive factor for Scania. Its importance
to Scania’s profitability is continuously
increasing. The EU’s modified block exemption
system for the motor vehicle sector has
intensified the competition in this market.
Customers now have an even broader
range of choices when they want service or
repairs performed.
Scania is responding to this competition
with expanded availability, where speed,
quality and expertise are key concepts.
Quality
The customer pays to ensure that his vehicle
will always work. An unplanned stoppage
always represents a cost, and in the
worst case it means lost business. Through
high quality and availability in its service network,
Scania helps the customer to limit
these costs.
To make sure that all Scania customers
will receive the same high level
of service and quality wherever they are
located, Scania has expanded its Dealer
Operating Standards (DOS) internal certification
programme. This sets standards for
availability, sales and delivery, access to
parts as well as maintenance and repairs,
among other things. Environmental standards
in the sales and service organisation
have also been tightened. Compliance
with the DOS standards is monitored
regularly.
Expertise
There is a steadily growing need for training
in the service sector. The advanced
technology built into coming vehicles will
demand a high level of employee skills.
Right from the start, reference people
from Scania’s service workshops participated
in the task of developing the new R-
series. The result has been a truck with
faster and easier maintenance, enabling
customers to use their vehicles even more
efficiently.
Instructors are trained regularly at the
company’s own training centres, for example
in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden,
Brazil, Dubai and South Korea. These instructors,
in turn, train service technicians
at local centres.
During 2003 Scania Network Training
organised the fourth Top Team final, in
which service technicians from 17 countries
participated. This recurring competition
is a much-appreciated way of raising
the level of expertise in the service organisation.
Scania Assistance
Today’s customers expect maximum
vehicle availability, with a minimum of unplanned
stoppages. Scania Assistance is
there to help get the vehicle back to work
again as quickly as possible in case of
unplanned stoppages.
Aside from Europe, Scania Assistance
is found in South Korea, Israel, Morocco,
Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina
and Mexico.
The investment of recent years in the
Scania Assistance organisation have
helped lower the average time between a
service call from the driver until the vehicle
is back on the road. In four years, this time
has fallen from 10 hours and 28 minutes
to 4 hours and 26 minutes.
Personal contact with the customer
Customer financing is all about building close
relationships. Zuzana Tomackova, head of
Scania’s customer financing in the Czech
Republic and Slovakia, and Katerina Svancerova,
Credit Manager, conclude multi-year contracts
with Scania’s customers, so creating long-term
trust is important.
In the Czech Republic, and perhaps even
more so in Slovakia, business is often based on
personal contacts. It is vital that customers feel
just as important as they are, Ms Tomackova
says.
She was among those who started up the
company in 1998, when the Czech market was
large enough for its own finance company.
The first few years were devoted to building
up a customer portfolio. During 2002 a branch
office opened in neighbouring Slovakia. Today
Ms Tomackova has a team of 13 people who
handle customer financing operations in the
two countries.
As head of customer financing, Zuzana
Tomackova is often on the road, meeting her
customers.
“I enjoy talking with them and learning
about their everyday lives. This is part of building
relationships – exactly what customer financing
is about.”
Today Ms Tomackova and her team finance
about half of all Scania trucks sold in the Czech
Republic. The market has grown sharply, and
competition for customers is very tough.
“Our major advantage is that we are flexible
and fast. This is often the reason why customers
choose us for their financing. We work out of
the same building as Scania’s Czech sales company,
and that proximity is important. Here
customers can get everything in one place.”
ANNUAL REPORT 2003 22