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March 7, 2008
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Bell Customer Service Representative Jose Rodriguez (left) brings his operational and technical experience directly to customers. |
Readers of Professional Pilot magazine are demanding customers. After all, these are the people who run helicopter operations that airlift the critically injured to hospitals, transport workers to and from offshore oil rigs and rescue victims from floods. Being grounded is not an option.
They also recognize outstanding customer support, which is why, for the 14th consecutive year, they have rated Bell Helicopter’s customer support as the best in the industry.
Such recognition is truly appreciated by Bell’s Customer Support & Services team. “There’s nothing that gives us more pride than having our customers thank us by ranking us number one,” says Shane Eddy, the senior vice president for customer support and services.
For Bell, the support begins as soon as a customer takes ownership of the helicopter, and it never ends. The company still supports the Bell 47, the first commercially-certified aircraft that Bell manufactured in 1947. “Once it’s sold, we’re on it forever,” says Ross Johnson, the director of business development.
Support takes on many forms and each facet is critical to Bell customers. It requires round-the-clock technical support, the right spare part at the ready and the logistics to get it where it needs to go. The Bell customer service team calls this “supplying the parts and the smarts.”
Supplying spare parts and getting them to customers quickly and safely – sometimes to remote locations – may be its most significant function. “You’ve got tens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars tied up in equipment,” Eddy says of customers’ helicopters. “You don’t want to be grounded because of a $100 part.”
Then there’s the logistics. How do you get a 25-foot rotor blade to an operation halfway around the world? It’s not easy, but Bell knows how. “With Bell logistics experts located at facilities in Texas, Amsterdam, Calgary and Singapore, we are able to quickly and safely deliver any part, anywhere, 24 hours a day,” says Gordon Harveson, the executive director of integrated support solutions.
Bell’s product support engineers (PSEs) add the “smarts.” Located in the Bell production facilities in Forth Worth, Texas and Maribel, Quebec, they come to their roles with years of experience in the industry – either from the operations side or as pilots. They not only field questions from customers, but they work with Bell engineers and the supply chain and report back with product updates and changes, traveling to customers for regular maintenance conferences.
“Integrating the technical knowledge of the Bell product line throughout the local customer service representatives (CSRs) to the PSEs to the Customer Training Academy and into the hands of the operating customer in a 24/7 manner is our goal so we can keep more than 13,000 helicopters airborne and completing the mission that only helicopters can do,” says Jack Denham, the executive director of product support.
Bell’s CSRs are located around the world and work directly with customers on their technical and operational needs. For example, Todd Ellison, the CSR for India, worked very closely with one company that recently started an offshore oil operation.
“He had the technical and operational experience to help the customer ensure they were fully prepared for a flawless entry to service,” Eddy says. “We have senior people with that kind of savvy.”
Because Bell is now delivering helicopters to Russian customers, Bell has a CSR there who maintains relationships with their technicians.
While Bell’s customer support team is thrilled at the survey results, they understand that they are being judged by their performance each day and that every call that they receive for help is crucial. “For our customers, this is serious business,” Johnson says.
“I like to say that our customer service number one designation is the backbone to Bell’s reputation,” says Mike Blake who heads Bell’s customer solutions team. “That reputation, and the people who have earned it, make us the envy of the helicopter industry.”
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