Field service representative

There are, of course, many thousands of experienced water treatment, field service representatives around the world who are sound in both the technical and the sales sides of the job. But the best representatives are generally those people who are not only extremely technically astute, but who also excel at selling. This is not a reference to any dubious practices of high-pressure selling, but rather the ability to inspire confidence and loyalty from their customers, due to their honesty, experience, and motivational and organizational skills on-site. 

Workshops on occupational safety guidelines for cooling tower maintenance workers (and visitors such as field-service representatives). 

It is now common practice for many vendors to publish and promote their own field servicing standard, either as a stand-alone set of procedures or as part of ISO 9000 series quality standards. Since a water treatment program can so easily fail through inadequate control from the responsible field representative, such documents lay out the minimum acceptable standard for field servicing. The standards will identify the frequency of site visits and what work has to be undertaken by the field representative during each visit. 

Vendor representatives, field service startup assistance. 

Thus, if a field representative believes that the task is completed when the testing of water samples is performed and a service report is issued, or if the representative s interpretation of results is poor, problems will undoubtedly develop. Also, if he or she fails to adequately review the bigger picture rather than merely individual results, the problems will magnify and the contract will ultimately be lost. 

Even without the current outsourcing trends, it has always been difficult for service companies to find sufficient numbers of well-trained, experienced, and motivated field representatives. This is because the range of water treatment problems and potential solutions are very wide and the business involves the marketing of many different types of chemicals and equipment, coupled with consulting work and innovative trouble shooting. 

In the water treatment industry, the first line of service providers has always been the vendor s technical sales representatives, who, for the most part, are chemists, engineers, microbiologists, or similarly trained people. The field representatives typically rely on a combination of their primary disciplines and a depth of water treatment problem-solving... 

It is hoped that this book will prove valuable to safety advisers, environmental health officers, emergency services personnel, safety representatives and those engaged in the transport or disposal of wastes — in fact, to anyone involved with chemicals in the field . 

CHEMICAL MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION (CMA). Founded in 1863, this nonprofit trade association of chemical manufacture represents more than 90% of the chemical industry of the U S. and Canada. It is located at 2501 M St., N. W., Washington, DC 20037. It is particularly active in the fields of packaging, transportation, and safe handling of hazardous chemicals and wording of precautionary labels, as well as in general chemical education and all aspects of pollution control. It has instituted an emergency telephone information service called ChemTrec to provide instant information for safety precautions in accidents involving chemicals. 

All commercial companies employ buyers and sellers. These people perform functions that are vital to the lifeblood of any organization and its continued success and profitability. The water treatment service companies are no exception. Each type of organization will, of course, be structured slightly differently and job titles may therefore vary somewhat, but it is common practice for most field representatives to hold titles that do not actually mention the word sales, despite this function being a primary requirement of the job. This practice has continued for many years (perhaps since the beginnings of water treatment) and remains a rather naive facet of the industry. 

Nevertheless, in today s cooling water market, while some companies need to reinvent themselves (in order to appropriately differentiate and position their businesses), their field representatives may also need some direction. Despite modem communications and state-of-the-art support tools, some representatives may need to return to providing a more traditional and personalized technical service role. 

Nevertheless, and as discussed in the introduction to this book, water treatment is a mix of tangible and intangible products and services, so the field representative must be a person proficient in many talents, including the technical sale. 

There are often several areas for potential improvement, even in supposedly well-managed cooling water accounts, and it is not unknown for temporary problems to simply drift and eventually become permanent features of a cooling system. The problems just never seem to receive proper attention by either the customer or the service company s field representative, but they can be rapidly picked up by the competitors. 

The selection of a suitable service company depends on the type of industry and location of the buyer s plant(s). Certainly the size and scope of the proposed contract, the physical amount of resources required, and especially the quality of the local field representatives are important considerations. 

The personality, experience, honesty, and willingness of a field representative from a water treatment service company can make or break the... 

Therefore it is required of all buyers that, while they essentially retain the right to propose and enforce the rules of the water treatment contract, they have to also accept some responsibility in its smooth passage. Buyers thus cannot place responsibilities on field representatives, for areas of the operator s plant or process, over which they have no final control. It is untenable. Buyers have to manage their own plants and ensure that proper maintenance and repair work is carried out. Buyers also have to provide adequate resources to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all company workers and visitors on-site. Service company representatives, in turn, have to work within established plant rules. 

Nevertheless, in any market, there is a proper price to be paid for a quality program, and the field representative does not help his customer or his company by selling at too low a price or giving in to demands for excessive discounts merely to obtain the sale. Seldom are good quality goods and services available at a cheap price. 

This is an enhancement of the traditional role of the field representative, whereby the vendor not only provides routine site services to the buyer... 

NOTE There are, in fact, many field representatives who are employed in a customer service capacity only and have no specific budget for sales. Nevertheless, on closer investigation, it is often found they still have some indirect responsibility for customer sales by virtue of obtaining repeat-order business or... 

Today, the practical implementation of modern cooling water programs requires that field representatives are fully trained to offer and implement these new services. 

All field representatives have a multifaceted job. They are on the front line and have the primary responsibility for satisfying customers water treatment needs, in a beneficial and cost-effective manner, essentially whatever those needs may be. Helping customers succeed goes hand-in-hand with meeting their employers needs and objectives (such as achieving targets for sales, new business growth, specific product lines, innovative technical application, and service excellence). 

Although site surveys, problem assessment, treatment product identification, and program selling services are vital components of the field representative s job, it is the water systems management and the plant site technical support function that are probably considered to be the key areas, from the customer s viewpoint. And it is at the time of a plant upset or a production line malfunction, when the customer is able to confirm (or not, as the case may be) that the expertise and technical service skills made available by the vendor was worth the price paid ... 

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