DTNA creates new organization to enhance customer experience

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. – Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has backed up its customer-centric approach to business with a significant investment and the creation of a new Customer Service Experience business group.

It will be headed by Paul Romanaggi, a 34-year Daimler veteran, who fills the newly-created role of chief customer experience officer.

“We are making the customer journey the focal point of everything we do,” said Stefan Kurschner, head of aftermarket within DTNA.

Romanaggi vowed every DTNA customer – even single-truck owners – will get personalized attention if and when they encounter issues.

“No customer goes unaccounted for,” he said.

The new organization has four guiding principles: faster speed and effectiveness in solving customers’ most immediate needs; bringing a holistic approach of support to customers, ensuring every resource available is applied; obtaining insights into operations for continuous improvements at DTNA; and having a proactive understanding of customers’ business needs for the future.

The group will begin by assigning a director of fleet services to work with DTNA’s top 100 fleets, with the support of 21 field reps who will “do nothing but call upon these 100 fleets,” Romanaggi explained.

Another team of 60 district service managers will be deployed to give attention to smaller fleets and even owner-operators. Contact information will be easy to find and all issues will be seen through to resolution, Romanaggi promised. Personnel will also be assigned to resolving dealers’ needs.

Some of the areas the new organization will focus on include: warranty coverage; extended coverage; and goodwill policy. It is also bringing back the “one-stop warranty” program. This involves DTNA dealers immediately covering the cost of repair covered under third-party warranty programs, and then pursuing those providers for reimbursement after the initial Daimler warranty has expired. This simplifies the claims process and expedites repairs.

These third-party warranties, explained Romanaggi, present “mass confusion” to customers and dealers, which DTNA has promised to resolve by handling the financial receivables element, “to make it simple and hassle-free for our customers and dealers.”

The new organization also plans to tap into big data generated by DTNA vehicles to provide predictive analytics and useful metrics for customers to understand and act upon.

“We’ve made huge investments in our organization, in IT systems, dedicated departments, to absolutely take full advantage of big data and the Internet-of-Things and what that means in value for our customers,” Romanagii said.

DTNA also has an upcoming Customer Experience Day, held Sept. 12, during which every DTNA employee – including those in Canada – spend an entire day celebrating customers. The morning is spent hearing from customers about their experiences, and the afternoon focused on ways the company can become more customer-centric.

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James Menzies is editor of Today's Trucking. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 20 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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