The importance of effective support in civil engineering

Companies in the civil engineering industry are experiencing stagnation due to the various crises at play. Research has shown that material shortages are the main cause. The ever-rising personnel shortage also remains a challenge. To keep facing these challenges, companies must be able to count on adequate support from suppliers and partners, among other things. But they experience the same challenges. 

"Customers want to have their ordered parts so that the systems are working properly again. Because downtime can make the difference between profit and loss," says Frido Buunk, managing director at Topcon Netherlands. He acknowledges the problem but fortunately also notes that the flow is getting back on track. Looking at the scarcity of good personnel, he says, "It is enormously important for the civil engineering sector to invest more in innovation, digitalization and better knowledge sharing in the sector. The technology and the people of Topcon support the civil engineering companies in this."

Adequate support

"Innovative technologies and different processes create new challenges," says Buunk. "An adequate support department is very important here. Downtime often has major consequences for the work on the project, because you are part of a chain. Therefore, it is important that you are helped quickly and adequately by the support department." However, good support is under considerable pressure industry-wide. "Also due to shortages of people, parts and products, but this is something that is being worked on hard at Topcon." 

Approach department

The support department at Topcon consists of five people. "With a broad basic knowledge as well as each his own specialism, we can serve our customers within geopositioning, agriculture, machine control and waste reporting as well as possible." Topcon works with an accurate and reliable ticket system where the ticket is not closed until the problem is solved. Jan-Martijn Koelewijn, technical support specialist at Topcon: "Sometimes we have to ask a lot more questions to find out what the problem is over the phone. If the customer has added the sets for machine control in SiteLink 2, we can look into the system remotely, which makes it a lot easier for both parties."

Practical training and knowledge sharing

Topcon has long been pushing for other, more structural ways to help their customers and reduce pressure on the support department. In particular, by making their customers wiser. "In our support department, we get the questions directly from the end users. As a result, we are well informed about what is going on with our customers," says Koelewijn. "With training courses, white papers and other (online) communication, we respond to this." Because learning from paper or screen sometimes does not work well, Topcon also offers the so-called treadle training courses in which the system is explained to operators on location. Koelewijn: "We literally stand with them on the running board to explain, for example, how they can calibrate a bucket. Just one demonstration and they know it. It's smart that employers give the opportunity for this: employees who have received training can get by better." 

Online training during corona time also proved to work well, so Topcon continues to offer that. "During the training to a small group, we look into the system, remotely point out on the screen what the operator needs to press. The latter then masters it in no time." This applies not only to machine control. Buunk: "Even in geopositioning, for example, we can explain the possibilities of the software much more specifically and effectively in a training course and answer questions that people encounter in practice."

Solution-oriented communication

Topcon is shifting gears considerably to see how they can reach the end user and what information this person needs. "By bringing together knowledge from support, sales and logistics, we are increasingly aware of what people are up against in the field and we can ensure that the right, relevant information ends up in the right place. This way we support the customer as quickly and well as possible," Buunk says. "On MyTopcon NOW you can find information about our systems. We are working hard to make this as complete as possible and keep it up-to-date. To the QR code in the cab, which links directly to the correct system information, we are going to add an extra QR code sticker, which leads to even more relevant information in MyTopcon NOW. We are also organizing operator days and making short instructional videos that can be found on social media. The lower the threshold is to find the needed solution yourself, the more use is made of it." Koelewijn emphasizes that, of course, people can always call the Topcon support department.