They make sure that each customer gets the malt they ordered from us – and much else besides: Every morning, the dedicated members of the BESTMALZ® customer service team do all they can to satisfy customers’ requests, ship container loads of malt around the globe, above all keep track of everything … and still enjoy their work.
Tuesday morning in theBESTMALZ® service center. Soon all the orders must have been entered into the system so that customers around the world get their malt delivered on time. Telephones ring, e-mails arrive and freight papers rattle out of the fax. Service team member Nicole Werger is processing an order from a trade partner in the USA that requests a fresh supply of the popular craft beer malt BEST Red X®. At the next desk, her colleague Gabriele Anlauf-Volkert is talking to a customer in South Africa, Kirsten Smith is requesting analyses from the Wallertheim malthouse, and head of team Thomas Zahradnik is explaining to a German brewer how this year’s harvest performs in the brewing process. It is a normal morning atBESTMALZ®’s headquarters in the center of Heidelberg.
The staff here receive inquiries of all kinds that they either forward to the responsible department or deal with themselves at short notice. But the team’s main job is processing orders. These come either from BESTMALZ®’s sales office or are sent directly to the service team, which then clarifies with the production plant whether the requested malt is in stock, enters the order into the inventory control system and gives the transfer order to a shipping company.
“Here is where everything comes together”, says Nicole Werger. “We have to keep track of the entire process from the initial inquiry to the final invoicing.” Thomas Zahradnik adds: “A customer’s complete specification is usually handled by one person and is individually documented. That means that we know each customer’s or dealer’s special needs exactly and can cater to them individually.”
International trade presents a particular challenge in export because specific requirements have to be met for each country. A wide variety of country specific documents must be generated or applied for. As a large number of orders at different stages are processed in parallel, it is important to stay fully on track. It is a bit like juggling. All the balls, in this case the information and documents on malt batches, have to be kept in motion, or up-to-date, and thrown in the right direction.
This requires that the service crew pulls together as a team and that its members not only have exceptional organizational and communication skills, but are also able to work under pressure and keep their nerve. If you ask what they like best about their job, they will all say “the variety, the diversity and the adrenalin.” Typical jugglers.