Graham Allinson discusses his new role which focuses on building greater synergies across Total Lubmarine’s global offices to ensure optimum customer satisfaction.
Four regions, one focus
The customer service model at Total Lubmarine is changing. Each country office will now report into one of four regional offices. Each region will then work with new Global Customer Services Manager, Graham Allinson, who will report directly into the Total Lubmarine General Manager.
“We’ve now got many people from different cultures, different walks of life in terms of the Americas, Asia Pacific, North and South Europe, coming together with a common goal of what we want to achieve as a company. We take it as a personal service to give to our customer what we would expect if we were the customer.”
Leaving his role as Total Lubmarine Country Manager, UK and Ireland, to take up the new position, Graham is optimistic about what the role will bring:
“Collectively having a single head of department is going to benefit all the offices, with more standardized processes, working in similar ways in-line with the group and company policies. Now having a clearer path to the head of Lubmarine shows commitment to customer service.”
A proactive approach
Graham highlights that this move isn’t about fixing an issue, but instead adding greater value to an already high-quality customer service offering:
“Customer service is becoming more proactive to customer needs, but also more reactive to new products and shorter timescales as well as ship schedule changes. With that, we need our local delivery agents to be more reactive and flexible, because customers will demand this in 2020 and beyond.”
Putting himself in the position of the customer, Graham points to his ambition to ensure that the new structure enables a more proactive approach:
“Ultimately, we want to try and take away one aspect of a customer’s problem when they are delivering to a ship. If we provide clear, concise information at the beginning, most times we don’t have to come back to a customer. This enhances the efficiency and quality of service.”
Consistency is key
In concluding the interview, Graham makes clear that his main objective in the new role is to ensure customers know that Lubmarine will do everything possible to ensure a delivery is met.
“The more times we are consistent with our commitments, the more customers we will keep, cementing our reputation as the supplier that always delivers.”
Graham states that the structure is now in place, with the process of familiarising new staff with the company practices well underway. The focus in the new-year will move to the downstream logistics processes where Lubmarine will start to work closer with its delivery agents to ensure the correct levels of service and performance are achieved.