Lillbacka regularly arranges service trainings for service technicians working with Finn-Power crimping and cutting machines. The 2–3-day training event gathers service technicians from all over the world to Härmä, Finland several times a year.
The events’ main agenda is for the technicians to master different service operations, such as crimping head seal changes, control replacements and master die and slide surface repairs. The events also include general product training and information on important practices and service tools. When possible, Lillbacka also arranges free-time activities for the attendees, many of whom are in Finland for the first time.
Lillbacka’s main goal for the events is that the attendees walk away with better knowledge of the Finn-Power machinery as a whole as well as of servicing and operating them. Lillbacka also wants to support the technicians’ customer service and sales skills.
“Technicians are a valuable link in our service chain and often in regular contact with the end customers. It is important that they are capable of guiding the end users in operating their machines, recommending different courses of action and so forth. We want to provide the best customer support in the market and harnessing our entire network to providing that is crucial”, says Jari Kuivanto, Technical Sales Manager at Lillbacka.
Kuivanto also points out that offering service training is a part of maintaining a functioning partnership with their distributors.
“We want to provide strong technical support and service everywhere we operate, which is why we require all our distributors to provide service locally. Helping maintain their technicians’ expertise at a high level makes our distributors’ life easier and is a part of us being a responsible partner to them.”
Increased product and machine selection knowledge, more efficient communication
Over the years, Kuivanto has witnessed first-hand the many positive effects of the training events. Not only do the technicians leave Finland with increased product and machine selection knowledge, they also leave with enhanced communication skills.
“After training, attendees are able to express themselves better in troubleshooting situations. They know what kind of information they need to provide when they contact us and use the same terminology that we do. They are also more familiar with us and have more confidence in their expertise, which makes contacting us more comfortable. More effective communication leads to less misunderstandings and makes the process smoother and faster.”
Lillbacka sends the event agenda to distributors and attendees beforehand for commenting to ensure the program meets their needs, which vary according to the technicians’ level of expertise and their training background. Especially larger distributors send their service technicians for training regularly, which means that they might be interested in learning about, for example, new controls rather than service operations.
“We have received positive feedback on the events because the attendees learn about the very things that they are hoping to learn more of. All in all, we have discovered that the events are useful for us, for our distributors and for our technicians. It is a triple win situation.”
In addition to service trainings, Lillbacka will arrange the Lillbacka Academy, a highly anticipated training event for distributors, in the fall. Stay tuned!