“I have always wanted to progress with HOBART, I have enjoyed working for the company and I have enjoyed the structure to the positions they offer.”
Andi Coles began his HOBART Service journey 17 years ago as an Entry Level Service Technician. Since then his career has gone from strength to strength, rising through the ranks to Senior Tech, Team Leader and this year, Operations Manager for the South.
Through each step of his HOBART Service career, Andi has always been keen to be involved in company progression and innovation: “HOBART is ever evolving. The HOBART I started working for is worlds away from where we are now. Technology is moving us forward all the time.
“As an engineer, I enjoyed achieving the drivers: OTC, First Time Fix and I felt like I had the influence to push these. As a team leader, I got involved in some big projects such as the van stock project which helped my progression into the OM role.”
Andi worked with the Operations Team to help create a van stock system for HOBART Service Technicians. Van stock is monitored and replenished daily, enabling our Technicians to achieve an excellent customer service by achieving a First Time Fix on over 80% of call outs.
“From a field operations point of view, it is important to us to give a First Time Fix. We would go into the customers kitchen and ask, ‘What do you want from us’ and the customer would always say, ‘I just want my machine working.’
“We created the van stock so the Techs could go in and fix our machines the first time. It has been brilliant, particularly in the relationships we have built with the customers.”
Andi felt confident he was ready to be Operations Manager and could bring his expertise to the role, “I felt like I was a strong candidate to take over the Operations Manager role and be a part of pushing the business where it needs to go. Part of applying for this role was the task, the challenge: can I do it? I got some good encouragement from colleagues and I knew I would be able to do it and do it really well.”
Andi knew his experience put him in a great position for the job: “Fresh coming off the tools, I know right now what the current processes are for the role. It is about putting my knowledge from the field into my new role, changing or adjusting the processes to serve us best and using this to motivate the Team Leaders.”
Andi’s new role looks after the south of the country, “I look after the operations in the south of the UK. I manage 4 team leaders who all have their teams of Service Technicians. It is my responsibility to push the revenue and the function of the team.”
Andi is proud to work for HOBART and to be part of a successful market-leading company, “HOBART is unique in that it offers a full range of both cooking and warewash equipment whereas others don’t. This means we can offer that flexibility of going into a kitchen time and time again and fixing all the different pieces of kit. And this forges great relationships with our customers, they trust us to get the job done.
“As far as working for HOBART – I’ve been here 17 years! It’s a great company, I have never through about going anywhere else. I have always wanted to progress with HOBART, I have enjoyed working for the company and the structure to the positions they offer.”
Operations Director, Christian Hampshire is delighted to have Andi on board, “Andi has a natural talent for management, and throughout his development, he was suitable for the progression at HOBART Service for the Operations Management role. He is going to be successful! Organically growing through a business can be difficult, but he has the right team around him, and he has hit the ground running.”
WHERE TO NEXT?
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