Total Team Effort - Thermo King Wins TWO Vendor of the Year Awards

While exceeding customer expectations is always the goal, defining what that exactly means falls upon the eye of the beholder. And when it comes to our Strategic Account customers, the definitions are all across the board. Naturally, this makes receiving Vendor of the Year recognition from TWO key accounts extra special … and very rewarding, for the entire corporate and dealer team that works so hard to keep these customers happy.

Idealease Outstanding Supplier of the Year

This recognition is given to suppliers who have demon-strated a willingness to work closely with both Idealease and the end users to identify creative solutions that bring value to all involved.

“Our collective Thermo King team released the Idealease Partnership Program in early 2017 to help drive business back to our dealerships and encourage the Idealease locations to engage at a local level. The program, which includes National Pricing, a National Rebate Program, SVC Silver, and a customized GMP Calculator, has helped fill service gaps and brought value in new and unique ways,” said Tom Sowers, Strategic Accounts manager.

“Simply put, the program’s success is due to the focus and commitment of our dealers and district teams."

By using the material and tools developed, the team was able to successfully engage the local Idealease locations to spark new conversations, giving dealers the opportunity to demonstrate the value they can offer. And there have been many wins – in both unit sales and parts and service, in locations that did not get an opportunity previously.

During the awards ceremony, Idealease President and CEO Dan Murphy specifically mentioned one of the wins and the collective work done with their customer, Schwan’s Consumer Brands (SCB), business Thermo King lost in 2015 due to customer dissatisfaction with equipment and service support. “Working closely with Illinois Auto Central and Bob Stearns, general manager, we made necessary changes to begin winning back the business,” explained Tom. “This included a hard, honest look at what we did wrong versus customer expectations and gaining a better understanding of the customer’s operations."

“In the end we developed a package that would drive maintenance and operating costs down for Schwan’s, and improve their experience. Our efforts were rewarded with the entire 2018-19 order of more than 550 pieces of equipment.”

Dot Foods Vendor of the Year

With quality of both product and service a key qualification, Dot Foods and Dot Transportation Inc. select their Vendor of the Year recipients based on evaluations from their local sites and perfor-mance of the dealer and equipment manufacturer team as a whole.

“The qualifications are specific and our success is truly dependent on a complete team effort in order to achieve the high ratings within the various metrics monitored by Dot Transportation,” explained Fernando Edelstein, Strategic Account manager.

“Our team is extremely focused on delivering new equip-ment on time, driving Dot’s maintenance and operating costs down, and minimizing downtime. Communication is the biggest driver to our success.”

The Thermo King Strategic Account team includes Fernando and Bruce Jungquist, Strategic Accounts Service manager, and Capital City Thermo King, which performs all of the installations for DOT Transportation. “We work very closely with John Deitrick, general manager, and the entire leadership team at Capital City Thermo King, to ensure that Dot Transportation’s fleet and maintenance group has everything they need, when they need it,” said Fernando.

Some of the criteria needed to be met to earn Vendor of the Year include:

• Ownership of vendor supplied product quality issues
• Strong warranty/policy coverage
• Excellent support at both the corporate & dealer level
• Strong knowledge of customer operations to provide solutions and make improvements
• Timely delivery of new equipment
• Quick response and follow-up
• Strong corporate / dealer support and involvement
• Frequent/timely parts delivery