How STILL UK has achieved an industry-leading NPS and UK growth!

Torsten Wiecker’s round-up of 2020...

Throughout the course of 2020, STILL has managed to maintain an industry leading Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is despite the unprecedented disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, national lockdowns and remote working. In this interview Torsten Wiecker rounds up the year, looks forward to 2021 and explains why it’s imperative to have the voice of the customer at the centre of everything, which ultimately leads to a positive NPS score.

What have been your highlights for 2020?

Personally, moving to the UK and experiencing a new culture and new people has been wonderful – I have been made to feel completely at home here in the UK. From a business perspective, we have faced huge challenges as a result of COVID-19. However, I am proud to say that our entire team have stayed safe during the pandemic, and as a result of their hard work; our Net Promoter Score has remained high especially when compared to our competitors (and the industry average) which is positive news for the future of STILL in the UK.

Looking to 2021, what will UK customers see from STILL?

Next year, UK customers will see a lot more of STILL. We have been working for many months on developing a newer and stronger sales and service network and appointed 11 Exclusive Distributors and we will also begin talks with our Regional Partners in the New Year. As a result, we’ll be much closer to our customers across all parts of the UK. Our sales and vehicle servicing will now be able to respond to customers faster, bolstering our already industry leading level of service.

2021 will also see new products launching out of our headquarters in Hamburg. In the UK we will also have our latest product launches available for demonstration, including the award-winning RX 60 electric counterbalance truck and the iGo neo Order Picker, the world’s first autonomous order picking truck.

Will we see more apps from STILL in 2021?

Yes, you will certainly see more applications added to our digital ecosystem - STILL neXXt. For us 2020 was all about developing the STILL neXXt platform to benefit our customers and of course our internal teams. Although I can’t share the details of what’s coming next, expect to see greater transparency with our engineers switching to STILL neXXt and bringing new diagnostic information to benefit all areas of STILL and of course our customers.

How has STILL maintained a high Net Promoter Score during Covid-19?

Communication and consistency has been the key here, everyone at STILL has a ‘people first’ mentality. To face the challenges caused by the pandemic we prepared our plans and operations internally first. By staying connected with each other through Microsoft Teams and Skype, we were able to offer our customers a top-level service with quick response times.

Due to the remote working of staff, we also decided to change our landline telephony system to Microsoft Teams. As a result, our Service Department were still able to provide high availability despite remote working and in many cases, we were able to solve the customer’s problems even quicker than before.

How is the ‘Voice of the Customer’ strategy implemented at STILL?

We have implemented a ‘Voice of the Customer’ as a strategy across STILL, going far beyond a basic ‘would you recommend STILL to your colleagues’ style satisfaction survey. At STILL we use a far more detailed set of questions that contribute to a Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) that is shared across the whole organisation. We also have a web-based complaint and feedback system that instantly notifies the responsible person to help solve a problem or see positive feedback in real-time.

The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) directly links into our Net Promoter Score (NPS), and here I believe it’s our transparency across the STILL Group which helps us achieve such a high score. By sharing data across the Group, we are able to cascade feedback to the relevant product development departments and STILL factories.

So, if you had to round-up the year, what would you say?

I would have to say it has been an incredible year for both good and bad reasons. Before reaching out to our partners, I’d like to say a special thank you to my entire team. They have made an incredible effort through these challenging times and it goes to show that “together, we are stronger.”

I’d also like to extend my gratitude to all our partners, distributors, dealers and suppliers… and everyone in our network who has supported STILL over the past year - thank you for your hard work and dedication.

For our customers and the readers of the blog, I hope you have enjoyed my articles in 2020, here’s to many more insightful topics in the new year.

Finally, thank you to our valuable customers for their continued support and collaboration. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a great Christmas time and I look forward to our renewed energy and focus in 2021.