Customer service with a cargo bike
The qualified mechatronics engineer started working for Miele in 2016. Since then, he has been travelling around the north east of Lower Saxony every day, providing support to Miele Professional customers and their machines. As a service technician, he not only carries out regular maintenance on existing machines to help ensure a long product life, but also commissions new machines, adapting them to the customer’s needs and the local conditions. Harms’ journey is often anything but ordinary. You see, not only does he have to travel around the mainland; he is also responsible for customers on the East Frisian Islands. As a result of having island-based customers, Hendrik Harms has become an avid weather watcher.
Change in the weather = change of plan
“I have to check how to get from A to B every day and sometimes even every hour. Sudden fog or storms result in ferries and flights being cancelled, regardless of any bookings you have made,” explains the service technician. Although the journey by boat has become part of the daily routine, it has lost none of its magic. “Instead of sitting in traffic in Hamburg, you will find me leaning on the ship’s rail watching the seals on the sand bank. It may sound like a scene from a film, but it really is my commute to work,” says the service technician enthusiastically. “OK, I only really see the beach in passing and am out and about in all weather, but that doesn’t take away the fun of the job.”
A cargo bike instead of a sack truck
Since autumn 2019, Hendrik Harms has been using a cargo bike as often as possible to get to his appointments on the islands. The purchase of the cargo bike has made the service technician’s work substantially easier. “Previously, I would often use a hand-pulled sack truck on the car-free islands, but with the cargo bike I now have significantly more load capacity for my equipment and I can get around more quickly.” The new service is going down well with Miele customers, including the people who run the BIO HOTEL Strandeck on the island of Langeoog. “We focus holistically on sustainability,” explains owner Maike Recktenwald. “So it is wonderful that our customer service representative uses such an environmentally friendly form of transport as well.”
This article is part of our customer magazine "Welcome & Stay". You can find a download area with our editions here.
