In more than 80 countries around the world, our customers are able to rely on an expert, reliable contact. In Europe, the market is covered primarily by dedicated sales organisations. Customers outside of Europe are looked after by commercial partners and Aebi Schmidt International, which operates worldwide. It also includes a highly specialised, five-man service team for whom no distance is too far and no challenge is too great.
One of them is Simon Bücklers. Like all the other members of the “Service Department International” team, he is an acknowledged specialist when it comes to vehicles and equipment from Aebi Schmidt. He learned his trade from the bottom up. “Thanks to my training as a precision mechanic at Aebi Schmidt at the St. Blasien site, I picked up a good basic knowledge of our machines and equipment. This basis is also required on our deployments all around the globe because, when we are called up, our dealers and customers usually have big expectations. The problem then needs to be sorted out in a short space of time in order to prevent the machines from being idle at great cost,” says Simon Bücklers. This is why, despite usually having a technical background with vehicles, every “new recruit” to the Service International Team also first undergoes training lasting at least a year in order to learn all about the products and functionalities down to the finest detail.
Everyday work under the guidance of team leader Daniel Böhler is anything but normal and requires not just technical know-how, but also a great deal of flexibility and spontaneity. “Essentially one of us can be contacted at all times, even at weekends, on public holidays and also at night – this is because if, for example, a winter maintenance vehicle has a problem at an airport on the other side of the world, this is something that cannot wait until somebody is back in the office on our side of the globe.”
But in order to conserve resources and costs, when a request is received from overseas, the service specialists first analyse the problem over the telephone or by remotely accessing a diagnostic PC on site and try to remedy the problem by this method. It is often possible to rectify supposed defects by making a few adjustments by hand. If this digital “first aid” does not yield the desired result, a colleague from the team will very shortly set off with special tools in their bag to solve the problem on site. Before this, it is usually necessary to organise the replacement parts that are required and coordinate their transfer to where they are needed. “The close working relationship that we have with our replacement parts department is of real benefit to us here,” explains Simon Bücklers. “Our colleagues are based in the office right next door, and the short distances also help us to get the appropriate replacement parts to their destination by the fastest route.”
But as well as service assignments, Simon Bücklers and his colleagues also have other vital tasks: they deliver international training to dealers so that they are then able to take on mounting of machinery or complex service assignments themselves. In addition, they are also deployed on site during the complete assembly of new vehicles, such as the Schmidt SK mountable sweeper or if necessary they perform specific alterations to vehicles.
Each deployment is as individual as the customer. In the last five years alone, Simon Bücklers has travelled to 31 different countries around the world on behalf of Aebi Schmidt International, from Iceland and Norway to South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
We want to know what it is that he particularly enjoys about his work. Simon Bücklers does not have to think about this for too long. One aspect is overcoming technical challenges and having the opportunity to help a customer with a problem or instruct them on how to operate a new machine. But it is also dealing with very different cultures and characters that makes the work so exciting. His experience is that you are greeted initially as a foreigner and then by the time you leave you are regarded as a colleague.
Simon Bücklers has no idea today where the next assignment will take him. One thing is certain though: he would like to spend his forthcoming summer vacation at home in the Black Forest because in the holidays he enjoys not having to pack his suitcase for once.