Frederick Taylor was a mechanical engineer interested in understanding the driving forces behind employee productivity and motivation. In 1911 he coined a famous metaphor based on the idea that if a driver maintains his vehicle, it would run forever. In other words, the most efficient and effective workforce was the well-oiled machine. This idea is at the core of what Hino strive towards, we believe that consistently delivering results comes from our well-trained employees who keep the gears turning by making sure all the parts are well tuned.
In this case, the lubrication for our well-oiled machine is our training centre, which delivers structured courses for service technicians to provide them with the skills, knowledge and most importantly, showing them how to achieve customer satisfaction. We spoke to our Technical Trainer, Brett Smith, who handles all dealership training at Hino Australia, to see how it all works.
“First, we do an analysis based on what training dealerships need,” explained Brett. “For example, for the new Hino 500 Series Wide Cab we travelled to Japan to learn about the new vehicle so that we could develop a course that was suitable for the dealers to understand the new features and how the truck works. Why Japan? Because this is where all the information originates. We then take our notes and knowledge and adapt it to the Australian market.”
The average two-day training sessions are held at the Hino training centre in Sydney and are mostly “hands on” for apprentices and technicians. These courses are based on learning about the product but there are also specific courses such as emissions, electrical, hybrid, AMT (automatic manual transmission), engines, and common rail (fuel systems).
“We program our annual courses around dealership requirements,” continued Brett. “They give us their requests and we either develop or maintain the courses in demand. It’s important to acknowledge these requests because they are our customers’ as the first point of contact and a way to understand their needs, which is part of making sure we deliver results.”
Of course, technical knowhow isn’t worth anything if you don’t know how to apply it to customer service and this is where the Hino Aftersales Academy comes in. Divided into essential, specialist and expert categories, trainee’s learn skills such as dealing with different types of customers and their requirements within the parts and service department.
“We are always looking at ways to keep advancing and improving our training schemes to make sure our dealerships are up to date with the latest technology, have the skills to deliver and provide outstanding customer service” explains Gus Belanszky, Manager of Technical & Service Support for Hino Australia.
At Hino, we are committed to investing in our people and processes to ensure our training programs are developed based on company and customer needs, which is ultimately how we deliver results and customer satisfaction.