Ryszard Chciuk and Ron talk about a European perspective Parts & Service.

It happened perhaps the first time. It was in 2001. It was three years after I joined Volvo, but before we officially did not exist as a representative of VC in Poland, because we worked through independent dealers. There were three or four, I don't remember. Lately, they were truck dealers, Volvo truck dealers. So they had... zero knowledge about construction market. But it's obvious. So then, before we started this under Volvo name, they decided to give that market to Bilia. This was a big company from Nordic countries mainly. And we had to move out within a few days. from the building of Volvo Trucks, Poland. It was the decision of that menager from Bilja. So we lost access to, we missed access to the internet. And I noticed that Bilja in Norway, they had a very nice webpage. So I asked my son to make a copy of that. I prepared Polish translations and added, of course, our addresses locally, etc.

And finally, I was almost punished because IT department in Norway, they said that it's illegal what I did here. I wanted to have customers in touch because they didn't know about the idea of giving Volvo market to Bilja. company. And they didn't punish me, but they showed me that it's under, it's kept a strong arm. Okay, it's wrong word. It was because they said they had no budget to make Polish webpage for Volvobilia then. And my private initiative was not pleasant for them. When we had Volvo two years later, or less than two years, Volvo decided to get rid of bilia in Poland and take over under its name. So they created a company, Volvo Machinium Bundowlan, means Volvo Construction Equipment in Poland. And again, our customers couldn't find us on the internet because we were no more bilia. So no, the page was closed. So no addresses, no telephones.

And we were on this stage where a new dealer, because we are completely new on that market, has to inform all. the world that we are in Poland to serve you. You can find us in that place, that and that one. And it was not also in Volvo IT department at that time. So they installed a page and they asked me and my colleague Andrzej to help them in translation. And they gave us. access codes to the content management system. So, as part of translation, we added a few pages about the dealer, which is a local thing. As I mentioned, it was also not only places, but telephone numbers and, as we say about after sales, I asked my people to give their photos. So if somebody found that Volvo construction is in Poland, then he could see the photo of the local representative. It was also for safe people and for service people. We had a channel of communication and it was the basic thing at the beginning. And later we should develop that.

with the clear goal to build just relations with customers, our current customers and the potential ones. But this is not present in any manufacturer's webpage which is offered to its dealers. This is not only Volvo, it's a problem of Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo and others. All of them, if they start under their own name, they are getting the page, which is mostly, it's in English and it's said it's international. International means nothing. People in a village or in a gravel pit in Poland looking for, Volvo wheel loader and the second-hand wheel loader, they are not interested in all this marketing, blah, blah, blah. Because this is, in fact, this is another unique wisdom you can call. I am very critical about marketing materials. We provide it to our customers. We supply them. And you can see it on all pages right now. What do you want to know about reload?

I know from my blog that people want to know how efficient is this machine, how often it fails, what the fuel consumption. Just normal questions for every owner all over the world. And what they are getting? Sometimes four pages, sometimes 24 pages. Very nice print. Very nice photos. They are extremely nice. But value information is nowhere. I mean, I mentioned my blog. I published over 100 articles and I direct them to machine users. and to service managers. And this is already eight years. Eight years, over 100 articles, and this year I looked at the Google Analytics, you perhaps use that, and it says that I had over 100,000 views. So I was interested to know which article was the most written or the people I liked it. And 15,000, so it means 15% of people reading my blog were interested in a very comprehensive material about how to use, how to burn less fuel. and to make more production. This is number one on my top 20.

I'm going to write something, but when you ask me to write in English, then I'm too busy to do that.

And interest

Yes, I noticed that.

Mats mentioned about many reports. I don't know where they are. Because there's something which is causing that problem. In my opinion, customers are not aware they should ask before they buy a new machine, they should ask the most important things. So I wrote an article about the cost of a new machine and it was a title, The Machine is Not the Highest Cost. you have to cover when you buy it because the fuel costs more than the price of that machine. It depends on the size of the machine, but I was talking about the reloader,3 cubic meters, something,20 ton reloader. So I gave that spreadsheet also. I published that in a magazine for construction, what do I say about it? They are for customers which have gravel pits, sand pits, quarries, etc. So I gave them that information a few years ago,15,000 views on my page, on my blog, and I don't see any change on any dealer page.

I suggested to my customers directly, you are going to spend 200,300,000 euros on this machine. Why don't you ask about its fuel consumption and you need, why don't you ask for them to prove that? You say there are reports. Matt says there are reports. I also believe that manufacturer has reports. They compare machines. They model with the competitive model, but they don't inform that. Partly, I understand, they keep it in secret if they are not better. But if they are better, why they don't show that to anybody all over the world? If Volvo has a most economical reloader, let's say L22, why they don't show that? CAT may show that they have the best reloader, but in another class, or they have the best in the world, excavator, class 20,30 ton, it doesn't matter which one. You don't find, you will not find any information which is valuable. You find everything except figures. They are afraid. Because of responsibility.

If the manufacturer says that machine is the most economical choice, then some customers can say it's not true. But if you are sure that your machine is the most, the best, why don't you fight with that? This is a marketing tool which is priceless. And I'm surprised. Mas said about many things, about big data and data which he collects or he has access to. Okay, I could say that 30 years ago,40 even, when I worked for my previous company for 22 years, it was one of the biggest, belong, the biggest companies in Poland. over several hundred heavy construction machines, plus everything else. So I had billions of information. How can you measure that? Tons of paper with reports. Every day, every operator had to write a report. It was signed, it was information about hours, fuel. and other things, and to performance, how many cubic meters, etc. I couldn't use that information because we had no computers in the 70s,80s. This was the reason.

But now, the smallest owner, I think, in my country, if they have three backhoe loaders, I'm sure that they have data in any computer. but they don't make use of that. Why? Because it's so impolite when I say that, okay, I'm not saying they are stupid, they are not aware. How much they lose if they don't make use of that information which they have. We moved from building relations or keeping relations with customers to utilizing their data. Now they have, it's much better because every manufacturer has telematics. So this information is even more detailed. But this is, it was a few years ago, so in my memory, it's a weaker picture. But now I remember that we decided to make a survey. We asked customers how they utilize Telematic. Volvo Telematic's name is CareTrack. And we were really depressed. They had this on their own screens because they got access to that. And they were... Mostly not using that at all.

And I have that information somewhere in my old data, but I didn't know we would talk about that. So I don't remember the percentage, but it was really depressing. Telematics on board, they paid for that. They got access. And they don't know how many hours this machine is ready. And all this stuff, including Heuer, because telematics has also information about Heuer. The problem with all these telematics systems, because I checked also Komatsu, or, no, Komatsu only, Komatsu and Volvo, when I compared that, I found that they don't have information about the production. So they know that the machine today, burnt one barrel of fuel, two barrels and again. But they don't know what this machine was doing that day. If it was digging, what conditions of digging. So the manufacturer giving customers telematics doesn't give them a valuable tool in that. Because what can you do with that?

You know that You burned a lot of money and you don't know if it was too much or maybe too few liters. Because it happens in another of my articles. I explained to my readers that if the machine has lower consumption than others, it's not necessarily good news. It happens too often that a machine is idling, idling 40% of time. So what they are paying for? If the engine is idling 40% because operator is sitting in the machine waiting for trucks and not digging or not loading because it will load. So the fuel is... is burned, but the production is zero. So what is the hourly fuel consumption then? It's infinity.

So you say it politely and I'm usually not very polite. They are lazy and stupid. And I use that language in my Polish articles on my blog because I don't care about what they think. I ask, I say customers, ask your operator why the fuel consumption is so low. So he can tell you, because it's winter, it's 15 degrees minus, And the heating is out of order because my menager side, menager or foreman, doesn't want funds or money to fix it. This happens and this is our climate in the winter. Now it's much warmer, but still, if you are sitting in wheel loader and waiting for a truck, and there are not enough trucks for that loader, for that distance, for that road, then you keep that engine idling because you don't want to freeze. And this is so simple to think, to fix, to repair your heating system in the excavator or in the load. This is only one of many reasons I explained those people. 15,000 views, and I don't see any changes in the market.

I expected somebody who could or should ask me in more detail, but customers are... This is another subject for article, maybe to your blog also. We very often use the word customer, but I had to... or I decided at the very beginning of my blogging to explain what I mean customer. Because customer for service is not a managing director, it's not a project manager. They are, partly, but there is also this woman which is sitting somewhere and taking your invoice in accountancy. The main, one of the main... most important customers for us is operator, operator of the machine. And we should treat them different way, like they expect. So if nobody treats those people, come back. We are wrong, not digital.

Yes, and I was going to do exactly opposite way because just before I quit my last company, we started to introduce the program of training for customers' mechanics. My people, my people, not others, experienced in service, they were shouting, they didn't understand what I was going to do. So this was easy. If they know that in case of failure, small failure, they will not pay a huge money for your traveling. Traveling was a big problem because we didn't have enough depot in the country. So very, very often, customers had to pay more for traveling of service van than for the parts or for the time. So I wanted to give them a chance to give them training, which is very similar to our mechanics training, but not on the same level. service training for aftersize must be on different level.

But if customer knows that in Volvo, for example, they will give me a chance to repair this machine with my own people, which were already on the side because it's necessary. And a competitor is not going to help me that way. So it's... clear that they should choose the more friendly supplier. This was my point of view. I don't know if my colleagues continue with that or not, but I wanted to have that program eight, nine years ago, I think. So we moved to operators now. This is a very important thing. in our industry, and I see that operators, at least in my country, I treat it like just normal labor. So, site manager is asking only for this official legal documents. Are you certified by an operator? We have a special office. You pass an exam like a driver, you get a license, then you can drive a wheel loader or excavator, etc. This is the only question.

And who is teaching those operators to operate their machines in the best way, the most cheapest way, and to get the highest performance? Nobody is doing that.

So who should do that? In my opinion, if we are a dealer, we should do that because customers are not stupid. If they get this, they will pay us in revenge for something. Customers don't buy machines because of the price. If so, that this is stupid business. I don't know. And we are moving different areas of the problem. But I asked many times my colleagues, salespeople, why are you fighting for the price only with your customer? And he buys your machine if he had an offer from a competitor and he could buy it for free, percent less price. And they didn't know that. They should know that the customer criteria is not only price. The stupid customer has this criteria only. It happens in the country with these governmental agencies, for example. They want to build a highway for nothing. And they hire the cheapest, cheaper company, which don't do that on time. They don't keep the quality, etc. And this is the same with operators.

If you treat operators like just low skilled, because he is low skilled, in fact, mostly low skilled worker. then he is not interested in bringing you high performance and low cost. An operator has immense possibilities, many possibilities to cause costs for his employer. An employer will never know that. This is clear. This is my 22 years. When I worked for the construction company, I learned that exactly. It didn't change till today.

You are asking me personally. Yes,

You know, I didn't introduce myself at the beginning. I avoided that somehow. I noticed that. So maybe at the end I will introduce myself. But I must say that for 22 years I worked in a construction company and I was not a good manager. I had no knowledge. I was not trained. Nobody judged my lower, low knowledge, especially management skills. So this I don't... say about that too often because some people are still alive, which were my subordinates. So they could say that, and I accept that, that I learned on their pain because I did so many mistakes with, for example, incentive systems. I produced them many, especially in that previous system, previous company, and now I wouldn't sign that and I would fire out the author of that from my own company. So what I'm proud of is that when I shifted from one word, state-owned company, no, it was already a German company.

But I shifted from one world to another one, and I had a chance to build something from scratch. This happens very often for people because they are taking an occupied position which was already occupied for many years. All people around are, most of them, want to have status quo, no changes, and a new manager makes problems. And I had no problem. So I had the chance to build something from scratch. And I started this time, I think, in a proper way. Because I started from building the core team. I call them service management team. Finally, there were seven guys, which I trust. And they trust me. And they had no experience in construction industry as users at all. Zero experience. So I was the only source of the information how customers are looking for us now involved. And I managed to teach them. So after 15 years, I have to say that I fulfilled my promise because when I was hired to Volvo, it was several interviews, several candidates.

I told them that if they don't employ me on this first one of first interviews, then they should remember what I am offering. I was offering because I will still be a user. So I will ask Volvo after sales manager what he thinks was my idea. I was prepared for that first interview. It was eight pages. I wrote my wishes, best wishes about service, about sales, about parts and all topics. And finally, I think that... We achieved a lot of that because I have only one physical proof. I wanted to have any confirmation that maybe we are not the best, but we are on the way, very close. And I don't remember, maybe one or two years before I quit, I decided and I found a budget for the survey. We made a survey with international company and we did it every month. That company was calling customers which we sold the machine the last month and then after several months and there were questions about service.

It was one third of the or half of that survey for customers. So the scale was from one, which is absolutely not acceptable, to five, which is the best. And the number four was that we are better than competition. Not necessarily the best, but better than their competition. And it was more than 4.1 or 4.2. So it meant that customers which used Volvo machines and Caterpillar and all other mace, we asked them about those machines. They said that my after-sales organization was better than my competition. So this is what I'm proud of, but I quit very soon, so I had no chance to...

This, I don't, I didn't predict that question. Because, you know, I'm already prepared that I'm writing to people. I want to help them. They're reading that and I don't get feedback. I have the possibility. They have the possibility under every article there is a place for comments. I expected a few years ago that I will start an industry discussion. Why manufacturers don't provide that? Why? What is the reason that we lose so much money, etc.? And the number of those comments was so little that I am a little depressed and I don't know how to read this Google Analytics. You use that also.

It's complex and I... I don't know if it's true that 15,000 people wrote this one post, but in fact, you are asking me about something which is more important not in the construction industry. It's most important in our life. Why we accept so bad management? Do you know that book? Yep.

So this is eight years.

Yes, End of Leadership, Barbara Kallerman. I didn't pass that whole book, but this is a symbol. The end of leadership everywhere. There are no leaders. I was no leader for 22 years because I was not trained in that. I was graduated at the university, but there was no such subject like teaching people or managing people. I learned it myself. And I think it's still the same all around us. The same politicians, the same teachers also. Because you mentioned somewhere that you are a teacher. And I think that I was a teacher, not a manager. And I liked it. I hired most of these mechanics. When we decided to, we had a chance to employ new mechanics, I decided that we were not going to take mechanics from the competitors. So we had to employ completely unexperienced people. And after a few years, One, two, three of them became our depo managers, service specialists, etc. So this was a great satisfaction, of course. And you know that perhaps.

But why there are so many bad leaders? Maybe this is...