The trouble with plant hire – do we deliver?

As with any service it’s not until there are problems that you understand the truth (or not) behind those promises of customer service. We’ve all flown budget airlines tempted by those not to be missed low air fares. And in the main they’re great – they do allow people the option to fly affordably, no frills – it’s good to have the option. But if like me you’ve ever had a problem then you’ll know that it’s when things go wrong that perhaps they cope less well; they simply don’t have the resources or infrastructure to handle problems well. I’ve had the experience of sitting for hours and hours in an airport with very little information about why my flight was delayed and then eventually being told it was because of a technical fault. After six hours I returned home as the delay meant I had missed the meeting I was flying out to join. Not good. I subsequently found out that the airline’s technical team was covering three airports; Gatwick, Luton and Stansted and there wasn’t anyone available at Gatwick to look at the plane. I was shocked but if you are paring costs back that much something has to give doesn’t it?

So what does all of this have to do with plant hire? Well the analogy I’m trying to draw is that from the outside all airlines pretty much look the same and the same is perhaps true of the plant hire sector. How different can the ‘customer experience’ really be?

Well in my experience of dealing with construction clients in virtually every sector for over 10 years now I would say it can be considerably different. The plant hire industry as a whole makes a lot of promises, large ranges of equipment, efficient customer service, always on time delivery, the equipment you need when and where you need it.

But has that always been your experience? If you’re reading this then probably not, and you probably only discovered this when things went wrong.

When things are working smoothly it’s easy to look great but it’s when things go wrong that we get to know the true measure of our supplier’s customer service; their ability to respond quickly and effectively to mitigate the problem whatever that is; to know we are in a safe pair of hands.

We have built our business over the years organically and ethically by genuinely working to have equipment, systems and process in place that mitigate that risk and keep it to an absolute minimum. How do we do that? It’s a combination of factors; we only hire out the latest, high quality equipment which is not likely to fail or fatigue. We ensure that equipment is meticulously cleaned and maintained by an experienced team – always. Our customers have a personal point of contact and through that relationship we make it our business to understand and have intimate knowledge of the smallest details about your site constraints, accessibility, the expertise and size of your work force, the time-frame for delivery windows.

And actually once you have all the logistics and equipment boxes ticked it’s very much about the communication, being able to speak to someone who knows you and the project. It’s this kind of tailored, personal service that puts you in a safe pair of hands and that we promise is in our DNA.