Quickits - Kate is at the coal face of customer service

Surprisingly, Kate’s first love is not Quickits.

She sights QK as “the best job I’ve ever had”, but the glamour of the internal sales office would be given up in an instant, if she could spend all that time with Philomena - the now 22 year old equine companion she has had since childhood.

The love of horses was instilled by Granddad Horace; a pit man born in 1921, who introduced the 3 year old Kate to Pit Ponies, being brought out of the darkness as mines closed, following the Strike of ’84/’85.Feeding apples to the ponies, which were put out to pasture still needing blinkers in place, led to a lifetime dedication to all things animal – but especially horses.

Kate became a competitor in the show jumping world - encouraged and supported throughout by Horace Yates. That dedication, together with the disciplined determination needed to care for, train and competitively ride, has given Kate an edge in her job as Internal Sales Manager at Quickits.

Nearly eight years after joining the firm, Kate knows all there is to know about controlling an efficient operation, and understanding her customers needs.

“Nothing happens by its self, I know I have to do the same basic tasks day in and day out to ensure I keep my customers and my sales team happy – while always being ready to turn on the spot if needed” she told me.

“Managing expectations, so the customer knows exactly what is possible, while at the same time doing everything you can to deliver what they need, when they need it.” Kate continued: “Nine times out of ten, there is never a problem. From each of my sales team handling 60 plus calls per day, while taking 35 to 40 orders in the same working hours, right through to the warehouse and high performance delivery team, it all works extremely well.

But there is always a percentage of ‘different’ requests or ultra urgent projects. It is typical of the process industry, which covers so many production and manufacturing sectors, to always be looking for a different solution; an innovation they have come up with that needs bespoke mounts or brackets, a solid reliable product to pull it all together, or upgrade what they already have to cope with a new application – and of course the support they need with maintenance and replacements.”

This member of the QK Team is as down to earth and pragmatic as you would expect from a lass born five miles down the road from where she now works – and she does make it work.

The most popular products, especially for the company’s partners, are Valve Mounting Kits and Fabricated Brackets – but the whole range of in stock items including over 6000 gear boxes at any one time, switchboxes, chain wheels, spring return handles and locking devices are constant favorites with process engineers.

However well managed, there’s always a greater satisfaction in exceeding expectations and delivering a service customers haven’t been able to find elsewhere. “There’s a great atmosphere when you can see the company and the Group as a whole growing.” Kate is on a roll now.

“The addition of Powder Coating to the group is another easy add, something that used to be offered as an additional service which as become a no brainer for a lot of our customers now it is done on the same site that brackets and extensions are fabricated. feel I’m being spoiled at QK because all the growth and forward planning means there’s always something new to talk to customers about.”

“Right now we are supplying into the healthcare sector essential bespoke manufactured and powder coated equipment brackets for medical equipment – the whole group is proud we can contribute to the fight against coronavirus – but our regular and increasing numbers of customers in other essential sectors, such as oil and gas, water, food – and all our distributors and partners who service those same sectors, still need looking after with as much care and attention.”

Kate’s pride in her company and colleagues is obvious, it’s a passion for getting customer service right. “Of course we have great engineers, precision machinists and so on – but where would anyone be without customer service!”

Tel: 01623 515 545
Email: enquiries@quickits-online.co.uk
Web: www.quickits-online.co.uk

Published: 15th May 2020