Throwing a Life Line to Customers

Thermo King’s 24-hour support system keeps fleets rolling

Since the onset of COVID-19, refrigerated fleets have proven their essential services repeatedly as they work to fill escalating demands for fresh and frozen perishables from supermarkets, distribution centers, convenience stores, pharmacies and more. Ensuring that those fleets keep rolling is a Thermo King support system that answers the emergency calls 24/7.

“Our ThermoAssistance support system has been in operation for more than 13 years and has been a proven resource to drivers throughout Europe,” said Malcolm Miles, technical services manager, Thermo King EMEA. “The system is successful because of the close partnership between our dealerships, the call center and our corporate staff. The value of this collaboration has never been more clear. Despite the unforeseen and ever-changing challenges that the coronavirus has presented over the past months, our service center did not skip a beat.”

In fact, all 4,000 customer calls for assistance that came in from January-April were not only answered, but resolved.

Understanding that the call center receives calls from drivers of various nationalities and languages, this is no easy feat. Each service representative must speak multiple languages – often speaking with the driver in one language and then speaking another while contacting the closest Thermo King service center to trouble-shoot or arrange a maintenance appointment. Now factor in the lock-down restrictions, travel bans, quarantine challenges, escalated service and contact regulations – all while trying to provide the service needed in often-critical timeframes, this could be downright impossible.

“But not for our team,” said Malcolm. “Even when the challenges were escalated to levels not imagined, we answered the customer’s call and found a way to meet their need. Our vendor partner EBTS has done a phenomenal job, and our dealer network has worked together like never before to support one another and provide the coverage needed by customers.”

With dealer input, the Thermo King EMEA team maintains a spreadsheet listing service availability, shop hours and closures so everyone has real-time visibility to what is happening in the various countries. It all has worked hand-in-hand to ensure customers are taken care of and the products arrive safely to where they are needed.

“The focus of our dealer network, and our entire service team, to keep customers moving has been phenomenal, inspiring and truly indicative of our ONE Thermo King mantra,” said Malcolm.