Support, security, small talk

“Something isn’t working” – Kevin Wilhelm, a Bosch service technician, often hears these words when a customer calls him for help. “But no matter how complicated the problem is, I’ve never failed to find a solution.”

Although no day at work is like another, there is one challenge that he faces over and over again: that of understanding customers’ wishes. Kevin also knows that this is a vital part of his job: “keeping customers happy over the long term – that’s my mission.”

The 30-year-old technician, who enjoys work out at the gym or fiddling with his computer in his free time, trained as a systems IT expert at Bosch. For four years now, he has been working for the Bosch customer service in the greater Frankfurt area.

As a service technician specialized in security technology, he checks the building security systems of private and corporate customers, performs maintenance work, and resolves technical problems.

Since joining the Bosch customer service, Kevin has learned to respond to the special needs of each individual customer during on-site service appointments – also on a human, interpersonal level. “Some of them want to chat, while others just get out of the way and let me do my job. But I’ve developed a relationship based on trust with all of them.”

Recently, for example, an older customer explained that he was having a hard time trying to figure out how the smart key system works. Kevin listened attentively – and then passed on the customer’s needs and suggestions. They are now being taken into consideration for improving the product. “Our field work gives us a steady stream of opportunities to finetune our technology,” says Kevin. In effect, these are real-life usability tests.

Considering that Kevin serves some 150 customers in widely varying industries and fields, cultivating such close customer relationships isn’t something that can be taken for granted. Among other things, Kevin Wilhelm supports banks, train stations and industrial facilities; sometimes he works on small installations, other times he deals with huge systems spanning thousands of intrusion or fire detectors.

This diversity is one of the things that make the 30-year-old’s job so fascinating. When asked to define a typical workday or “standard customer”, he replies without hesitation that there is no such thing. Sometimes he travels from one customer to another all day, other times he spends three days in a row servicing systems at the same location. His main specialty is anti-intrusion systems. “The higher the level of security, the more interesting it gets.”

Kevin Wilhelm’s team has three members. This ensures that at least one of them is always available to attend to customers at short notice – after all, problems often crop up without warning and can cause huge problems in a customer’s everyday business unless they are resolved right away. In the morning, the first thing to do is check their smartphones to see if any customers have reported problems during the previous night. Then priorities have to be established: where should we go first? Who should take care of which job today?

While working around fixed appointments, Kevin is free to organize his day as he sees fit: “I work flexibly and independently. Bosch gives me a great deal of latitude; after all, I know my customers better than anyone else.” After having worked out a plan for the day, Kevin climbs into his company car – which he is also allowed to use outside work – and drives to the first customer.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he has naturally paid special attention to practicing proper hygiene and social distancing. His employer, he says, goes out of their way to optimally equip him and his team to comply with the safety standards. Whether facemasks, gloves or disinfectant are needed, Bosch has always responded quickly, says Kevin; ensuring the safety of staff and customers has top priority.

Meanwhile Kevin Wilhelm is technology mentor in the field of transmission devices and intrusion detection systems. In close cooperation with his manager, he can train and develop according to his wishes and goals. "Together with my manager, I can further develop myself the way I want to. That means I'm always in a good position for Bosch and my customers," he says.

Kevin leads workshops on innovation-related topics, is available to answer questions, and regularly consults and exchanges information with colleagues, such as those working in assembly. In this area in particular, he stresses, it’s important to pass on information that will help others serve customers more effectively.

“It’s about learning from one another. And every project is special in at least one respect.” In some cases he’s more knowledgeable about something than his colleagues in the Bosch customer service, other times he is the one who learns from more experienced colleagues, “especially when the systems are even older than I am.”

Generally speaking, however, it’s rare for him to get stuck while endeavoring to fix a problem. What is his biggest goal going forward? “I want to do everything perfectly – for my customers.”