Good service makes all the difference

The importance of excellent service for Hako’s customers

For any company that sees itself as a solution provider it is very important to get to know the daily work routine of their customers first hand and understand the demands in their line of business. Hako has therefore put emphasis on direct customer contact from the very start, building up a close-knit sales & service network in the past 65 years that is second to none.

Around 220 service technicians work for Hako all across Germany, seventy per cent of them are field technicians. Europe-wide, more than 650 service technicians maintain close contacts with customers and keep a finger on the pulse of the market. Hako’s Academy with its six professional trainers assures that the specialists’ profound knowledge is always up to date. This high-quality service plays an important role in guaranteeing the excellent efficiency of Hako machines and Multicar utility vehicles. “At the end of the day, the customer’s aim is to earn money“, says Martin Hoy, Head of Central Customer Service, hitting the nail on the head. “So what he needs is the kind of technology that offers him best possible availability and low life-cycle costs at the same time.”

High-quality products and ease of operation are the fundamental prerequisites to achieve just that. Their reliability and ‘Made-in-Germany’ quality have made both Hako machines and Multicar utility vehicles market leaders in their industry by offering distinctive productivity benefits.

“However, it also takes a sophisticated service package to provide a perfect all-round concept”, says Martin Hoy. The three most important factors are:

1. Constant availability to ensure operational reliability.
2. Full cost control, preferably throughout a machine’s entire life cycle.
3. And all that with a minimum of financial investment.

Hako has created individual service packages to offer their customers precisely that.

Hako-Machine-Protection provides up to 36 months of security

Despite superior quality and all due diligence during manufacture, some residual risks due to exceptional circumstances cannot be excluded with absolute certainty. This is where Hako’s machine breakdown cover offers best possible security:

The breakdown cover protects the customer against potential risks for another 12 or 24 months beyond the statutory warranty. Hako also offers an extended warranty for used Hako machines.

Hako-Maintenance-Agreement takes the individual machine utilisation into account

Fixed maintenance cycles at variable maintenance costs? Hako says no to that and simply turns the tables by offering variable maintenance cycles at fixed maintenance costs.

The maintenance concept is based on the individual operating hours of the machines. At times of low utilisation, maintenance cycles can be extended. When the machines are used more often, maintenance is performed at shorter intervals to ensure reliable machine availability. Each maintenance always costs the same.

Supreme discipline: Hako-FullService

This service package covers all ongoing contingencies at a fixed monthly fee: From the Hako-Maintenance-Agreement including all wear and spare parts right up to the immediate remedying of faults or damage. Security and cost control as good as it gets. Including a nice side effect: Optimal maintenance increases the re-sale value.

Just-in-time-Service for a short response time

Is a 24-hour service fast enough? Once again, Hako’s answer is no. Hako’s standard is an agreed response time of only a few hours. More than 150 service vans are constantly on the road throughout Germany. Thanks to online route planning and online processing of all service orders, the employees at the operation centre always know the exact location and the work status of their mobile crew, which enables them to reschedule deployment plans in order to ensure that a service technician is on his way to the customer within the shortest time possible. Modern diagnosis systems are used to find quick solutions and proceed with further action. The service vans are equipped with the most important spare parts. If anything is missing, the service technician uses his electronic spare part catalogue to order missing parts for overnight delivery. “These processes enable us to achieve very high first & final fix rates, thus ensuring maximum machine availability for our customers”, reports Martin Hoy.

Financing and procurement alternatives

In addition to services ensuring machine availability, Hako offer their customers a wide range of financing and procurement alternatives from the very beginning. Leasing, rental and hire purchase options secure the customer’s liquidity. A wide selection of used Hako machines and Multicar implement carriers reduces investment costs and offers maximum security thanks to the used-machine warranty. Hako’s OptiHour option even offers products on an hourly basis, turning fixed costs into variable costs to suit the customer’s order situation ideally.

“We consider ourselves to be a partner of our customers“, summarises Martin Hoy. “When our customers gain profit from our services, so do we. It’s a win-win situation”.