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How China Engineers Limited innovated its customer service experience through branding

What does it take to sell a Caterpillar machine? Sime Darby Industrial, one of the world’s largest Caterpillar dealers, knows. At the core of it, it’s customer excellence, every time.

At China Engineers Limited (CEL), the sole distributor of Cat equipment in seven provinces in China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Xinjiang, this strategy shines through. Twice awarded at Caterpillar’s ACAM Dealer Customer Excellence Awards, CEL continues to innovate the customer experience through traditional and digital means.

In 2017, CEL introduced the Service Branding Programme, an effort to package its array of after-sales services under a single brand. By packaging its service capabilities and service products into systematic packages, CEL was able to deliver a consistent image both internally and externally, giving its customers that peace of mind in getting the same quality of service, from any CEL dealership, no matter the service requirements. The programme also allowed CEL to identity improvement initiatives at branch level for parts supply, field service, response time, facility experiences, and service process flow.

The programme ensured that the differential advantages of CEL's services could be easily identified and understood by customers. CEL service representatives, inspired by the positive impact of the programme, are now delivering even better customer experiences, enhancing the company’s reputation as a market leader.

"We wanted to innovate our marketing communications, to first make customers understand us, then trust us, and finally choose and experiences our service offerings, and to feel appreciated, and secure, and enjoy the effortless services we provide." - Mr. Shiu Chi Yan, Managing Director of China Engineers Limited.

What drove the success of the programme was its customer-oriented approach. Before designing the programme, CEL representatives visited their customers and engaged with their field employees to gain comprehensive insights into their customers’ needs and wants, as well as their strengths and weakness from a customer’s perspective. By understanding clearly what the customers want, we are able to establish ourselves as a leading service provider. This was evident in the results.

CEL-CAT Service

By the end of 2017, half a year after the programme was implemented, work order satisfaction of CEL’s services increased from 59.5% to 69.4%, sales of parts and labour saw year-on-year increase of 12% and 40% respectively, and the "focus on services" and "customer-oriented" culture was strengthened, indicating the success of the project.

“The outcome of this initiative has been a wonderful motivation for us to continue driving customer excellence here at CEL."