Keeping on the Cutting Edge
At Mid-States Utility and Keizer Co we’re always pushing ourselves to stay on the cutting edge of trailer and trailer refrigeration technology. Part of this process of continued education rests on our departments meeting with each other and meeting with our vendors. We regularly have these types of meetings to ensure our staff are not only on the same level, but also knowledgeable of the opportunities and equipment that’s always evolving.
Make the Department a Team
Given the fact that we have three distinct locations for our parts departments: Sioux City, IA; Omaha, Nebraska; and Sioux Falls, SD we don’t always get a chance to talk face-to-face. So when we have the opportunity to meet together we try to make the most of it.
For our most recent meeting we sent the members of the parts department on a team-building exercise to a local entertainment establishment called Axe to Grind, a cool specialty place that allows you to throw axes at targets. The parts members had an absolute blast tossing some axes and sharing some laughs.
Team building, and general comradery helps to build communication between the staff and keep the mood positive. Meetings can often grow long and mentally strenuous, so keeping some fun and entertainment in the mix can be incredibly beneficial in maintaining focus later on.
Bring the Team Together
Great minds think alike, but they also have different ways of thinking as well. It’s ideal to have your staff come together as an incubator for ideas. Although all the staff may be from the same department selling many of the same things, they still have different experiences with customers or vendors and thus will have different questions to ask and different ideas to put forth that the other staff members may not have thought of yet.
After having the team-building exercise, your staff should be out of their shells and comfortable with each other to a point where it opens the door to the opportunity of ideas and experience-sharing.
We had meetings all throughout the day between our parts staff as they discusses new opportunities as well as the experiences they had over the past half-year with customers and vendors. Things they liked, and things they didn’t like. Things that could be improved on and ideas on how to improve on them. The team is never here to criticize or bring down, but rather to help. It’s not a competition when you all work for the same company. You are a team.
Get Hands-On
We invited several vendors to meet and speak with our parts staff giving them the rundown on new ideas and products they can offer. They showed them hands-on examples and samples of their products that the parts team could not only look at but test out and ask questions on.
It’s also beneficial to have the vendors in front of you face-to-face so the staff could ask them questions directly. If they had a situation with a part from that vendor that a customer reported, they could bring it up there and then and see what the company was doing about that situation. Additionally, the vendor could engage them about what concerns or factors affect the sale of their parts. This gives the vendor constructive criticisms to take back to corporate thus creating a mutually beneficial meeting.
Follow-Up
Once the dust settles and the vendors have all begun their drives back home it’s necessary to have a sit down with your staff and review all that had been offered during the meetings. Revisit the ideas that had come up, and address any concerns that had yet to be addressed.
It can be beneficial to have members of other departments in-attendance for this follow-up as well since they will now gain a new perspective on things that may affect them and their department, and it also gives the staff that sat in on the meetings to relay their newly acquired knowledge. Obviously, for Mid-States Utility we have three major departments: Sales, Parts and Service that work closely together. Thus, if one department has new and interesting information about new products or services, it benefits everyone to know about them when applicable.
