COVER STORY
KEEPING THE CUSTOMER IN FOCUS
Ben Quirk, Director of Marketing & Customer Care for Nilfisk UK, discusses how the organisation places customer needs at the centre of all business activities.
From the beginning, the dream of Nilfisk founder P.A Fisker was to run a company that traded internationally – nearly 110 years later this is indeed a reality. In 2014 the Nilfisk Group had a global turnover of €918m, with sales offices in 45 countries plus a global distributor network ensuring Nilfisk products are available in more than 100 countries worldwide.
An incredible journey shaped by a century of socio-economic and environmental change plus technological advancement – in recent years our growth can be attributed to a change in strategic direction putting focus on our customers. Customer focus is an essential part of any successful business and that focus has to be integral to the culture of the business, not bolted on. Defining that culture is a key step in bringing it to life.
CUSTOMERS' PREFERRED
CHOICE Nilfisk has worked hard to become the customers’ preferred choice. The focus is no longer on purely selling a cleaning
24 | Tomorrow’s Cleaning November 2015
machine. Nilfisk provide tailored cleaning solutions to meet customers changing requirements, adding value with after sales support, extended warranties, fleet management capabilities, flexible finance options and fast delivery and response. These initiatives have increased customer satisfaction levels across all sectors of our business, as we achieve our objective of lowering the overall cost of cleaning for our customers.
We discovered that above all else contractors are striving to deliver more for their client base and they look to their supplier to help them with that. This has been a driver for change within our organisation as we have constantly sought to differentiate ourselves on all levels. Our customers however, are continuing to demand more when it comes to product range, daytime cleaning, productivity, cost of ownership and ergonomics. There is also a renewed focus on the hygienic level of cleaning machines themselves and finally, of course, sustainability is critical.
The six most common requests from customers seeking professional cleaning solutions are:
Product Range – Ongoing consolidation within the industry means that clients are often managing large fleets of equipment across multiple national sites. One machine supplier reduces complexity considerably, allowing for cost savings in terms of labour, admin and service costs. Providing a full range of floor to ceiling equipment is therefore essential and has been a key strategy for us over recent decades.
Service – Long gone are the days when customers purchased a machine and hoped for the best. Preventative maintenance and all- encompassing, fixed price service contracts have proven their worth in elongating the life of the equipment and reducing costs over the length of the contract.
Daytime Cleaning – Customers want to be able to maintain the same level of cleanliness for the entire day. Supermarkets, for example, want their
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