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Sales team of the year
Together Spring 2020& magazine
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Meet the Team: Italy...........................................Page 4 Sales team of the year.......................................Page 6 Getting to know.................................................Page 9 Bin it Right!.........................................................Page 11
Hello from your Senior Management Team...
Richard Whitehouse, Fran Worrall, Patrick Dignan, Nikki Thomson and Paul Stockdill
This photo was taken at the Strategic Leadership meeting in Sweden where we met with other leaders from the Handicare Group to talk about our future strategy and direction, as well as celebrating achievements from the past year.
This year, the focus is very much on improving the customer journey – for our partners and our endusers. There’s a lot of work being done to make it easy for customers to do business with us. When it comes to end-users we’re doing very well so far this year – our Feefo Platinum and Gold awards (P3) and other customer reviews (like the one you can read in this issue) are a fantastic achievement for everyone!
Other priorities include product excellence and supporting our dealers to grow their businesses – more on this in the next issue, which will focus on our annual Dealer Day when we’ll be demonstrating our latest product innovations…
You may have noticed a change in the look of the newsletter for 2020. We’ll be including more content from offices around the Group so that we can all get a better understanding of what happens in other countries. We’d welcome your views on what matters to you – what would you like to see included in future issues? Please let us know by dropping your ideas into the suggestion boxes in the offices in Leeds and Kingswinford!
Until next time,
SMT Team
Our #OneFamily Album
Every issue we’ll be sharing photos and reviews received from happy dealers and customers – if you’d like to see more follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin! Our customer service has earned the highest accolade in this year’s Trusted Service Awards run by Feefo, the global reviews and customer insights company! The awards are independent seals of excellence that reward the delivery of exceptional service, as rated by real customers.
Feefo has given Companion the Platinum Trusted Service award, presented for the first time to businesses who have achieved Gold standard for three consecutive years. The Gold award recognises those who have collected at least 50 Feefo reviews in a year, and have achieved a service rating of at least 4.5/5.
Our Turkish business partner LiftArt sent us photos of a recently completed project in the centre of Istanbul. A steep spiral staircase had to be fitted with a stairlift to match the stately interior of this beautiful building dating back to 1880. The photos speak for themselves: a beautiful Handicare solution the customer is very satisfied with!
Platinum and Gold Awards for Customer Service
Handicare (Working with Age UK) received the Gold Trusted Service Award for the second year running.
Customer & Field Service Director Patrick Dignan said:
“Our team work very hard to give customers the best experience when they choose us. We appreciate all the feedback we get as it helps us improve our service and reward the team. Everyone likes it when we get a positive review, so receiving the Platinum and Gold Awards this year from Feefo is absolutely fantastic for everyone.”
Steph Heasman, Director of Customer Success at Feefo, commented: “The Trusted Service award
has always been about recognising companies that go way beyond the norm in customer experience and generate great feedback from happy customers.”
Customer Testimonial
It is with great pleasure that I am writing this...
“It is with great pleasure that I am writing this on behalf of my Husband and myself to thank you so much for the above service you supplied to us.
When Paul came on Tuesday Peter immediately said he felt comfortable and felt he was getting the right information for him, rather than being ‘sold’ something for the sake of it. Paul was friendly and courteous when he came to see me and it was a pleasure doing business with him.
The next day we had a call from you to say that the stairlift could be fitted Friday (today). We said that was fine…
This morning I had a call from Matt telling us what time he would be with us. Everything was perfect. What you said would be done was done so a big thank you to the girls in the office as well. And last but by no means least, Matt is a very nice young man. Polite, courteous, helpful, patient and very tidy.Peter and I are so pleased to be able to write to you in this way, especially in this day and age when you hardly ever get done what they tell you is to be done, and don’t contact you when they say they will and aren’t always so pleasant. Paul and Matt could not have been nicer people to deal with, very pleasant and amiable too.
Thank you again and please pass on these remarks to the people mentioned because I don’t think many people say thank you. It’s easy to complain but it’s also easy to say Thanks.”
Sherry Bridges
Every issue we’ll be taking a virtual trip to meet one of Handicare’s teams in another part of the world…
Meet the Team: Italy
Thanks to Valentina Vincenzi, Marketing Manager, Italy for taking part in our Q&A
When were operations in Italy established?
Handicare’s activities in Italy began in 2012, when the current Country Manager Domenico Mattioli was recruited. Domenico has great experience in the sector having worked for eight years at Vimec, a leading company in the sector, as export manager.
How many people are in the team?
The Italy team currently consists of six people:
• Domenico Mattioli, Country Manager, responsible for Italy, Spain, Eastern Europe and some ROW countries; • Pietro Pisani, South Italy Manager, Pietro does an important job of customer research and takes care of the current sales network; • Simon Vickars, Spain and ROW Country Manager • Valentina Vincenzi, Marketing Manager (Italy and
Spain) • Marco Bonalanza, Technical Support Manager North
Italy and East Europe • Andrea Bonandin, Technical Support Manager
Southern Italy and Spain
Soon a new person will join our team to develop the Eastern European market!
Where are you based?
We are based in Suzzara in the Province of Mantua in Lombardy, northern Italy. Lombardy’s chief city Milan is one of the country’s largest industrial centres. Our team has grown since 2012 and for this reason, we have moved (in March!) to a bigger and more spacious office. Now we have a two-storey office: on the lower floor there are the offices (3 rooms) and bathrooms, while on the upper floor there is a showroom, a meeting room, a small warehouse and a bathroom.
Do you sell direct as well as through dealers?
We cover practically all regions with a widespread network of authorised dealers trained by the Italian team, so as not to leave areas uncovered or without assistance. It is our dealers who take care of sales, delivery, installation and service. They are therefore a fundamental part of our business.
Do you manufacture stairlifts?
The stair lifts we sell are manufactured in England and Holland and, depending on the configuration, delivery times can vary from 1 to 4 weeks.
Thanks to Richard Lambertus, Sales Manager, Asia-Pacific for this insight into a Dealer Daytype event on the other side of the world!
For the third year in a row we organised a dealer meeting in Bali from December 16-19 for our customers from Southeast Asia.
This time, in addition to Asia-Pacific, business partners from the Middle East were invited. The group was even larger than in previous years and it was again a very successful event.
On the first evening, people could network while enjoying a snack, drink and the local band. The next day there were presentations and workshops that concluded with an awards dinner. This year, nine of our partners received a unique award as a thank you for their excellent performance over the past year. The next day there was a cultural outing. We visited Yayasan Sayang Bali - a foundation for and by disabled people. We received a warm welcome, an inspiring presentation about what they do and what they stand for, followed by Balinese dance and music.
Is Bali a holiday destination on your wish list? Then this excursion is highly recommended, and you immediately support the Yayasan!
CORONAVIRUS
Simple steps to help protect the health and safety of our Associates… Prevention is better than cure.
Clean hands frequently by using soap and water or alcohol-based sanitizer.
