Our Blog Has Grown Up and Moved!

This is our last post using Blogger, our gratitude to Google for making it available all this time.

Our blog has moved into our own domain, you can find it at www.ToyotaEquipment.com/blog We sincerely hope to see you there!

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Does What Others Say Really Matter?

As part of my work, I meet with every production side employee at least three times per year to discuss just about everything that is related to their department, their department’s activities and performance, as well as metrics they may be developing through their own efforts. These are opportunities to both inform, and be informed. Often from these meetings actions and change are initiated, actions and change that might not happen if we hadn’t taken the time to have a dialog. We see it as a vital part of involving everyone in improving customer service, and improving the financial performance of the company.

Recently the biggest changes to these meetings involved the service staff and our technician performance chart. The chart is a summary of each tech’s performance across three critical areas, tool ownership, technical training activity and level, and finally their individual performance measurements. These measurements have been a standard for generating communication or conversations for many years. The recent changes involved an adjustment to the weight ASE and Toyota technical training were given, there was shift of important to Toyota’s own training while a lessoning to the weight given to the ASE segment. Additionally a new performance point was added that tags a technician as a “level A” technician based on a panel vote, the panel being made up of fellow technicians, service dispatch, a representative from our Customer Service Representatives and our technical trainer. Being labeled a “Level A” technician is an honor given only to those techs that are deemed capable of repairing just about anything that is put in front of them. Internally here it is very prestigious and isn’t awarded without there being true merit seen by all parties involved in the balloting.

But that balloting was limited to input from the service staff. What about feedback and grading from the other side of the counter, parts? Tomorrow I’ll touch on how we dug for additional talking points by involving parts input for our technician meetings.

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Our 2011 B2BTOTY Award

Earlier this month we were pleased to hear that Toyota-Lift of Minnesota’s Twitter account had been awarded the B2BTOTY (B2B Twitterer of the Year) award in the category "Natl/Intl B2B Manufacturer". A panel of judges that you can see listed here, and Twitter users voted us into the honor of top listing, amongst some very distinguished peers.

In its fourth year, the B2B Twitterer of the Year (B2BOTY) Award recognizes B2B organizations for outstanding contributions in practicing, promoting, and/or enhancing business via the micro-blogging sensation Twitter.

Their stated mission is to recognize B2B organizations for outstanding contributions in practicing, promoting, and/or enhancing business via the micro-blogging sensation Twitter.

It is the intention of Toyota Lift of Minnesota through Twitter and other social media outlets to represent our staff, our company and finally our original equipment manufacturers in a professional manner by initiating, promoting and participating in dialogs and the sharing of information surrounding all aspects of our business interest.

We are very proud that our social media efforts were deemed worthy of this year’s award, and thank everyone who played a part in that.

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More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

The Impossible Will Take a Little While

Well after all, we are a company comprised of people, and or course people will make mistakes. We were fortunate enough Friday that a customer of ours took the time to point out a mistake we were involved in.

Our customer's email read:

I am curious. We had one of your techs here today to service our two Toyota trucks. He was working outside. I observed when he drove one of the trucks into our shop when he completed his work, he was not wearing his seat belt. Are not your techs to wear seat belts also? Don’t mean to get him in trouble. I look at it as our people are a direct reflection of our company and industry. 

We are supposed to be the professionals of our industry and to show proper operation. If we don’t do it correctly, others that observe will think they do not need to, if our people don’t have to follow the rules. Just an observance.

What will define us will be how this opportunity is used. We will speak directly to the tech, and then we will use it as tangible evidence that indeed we are looked towards to provide an example. Because we are people there will be times where mistakes happen, it's our responsibility to deal with them, and if possible learn from them.

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More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

It is More than Just Showing Up

Helping a forklift dealership and its employees go beyond being standard requires efforts that in themselves are certainly not standard. It involves actions that are more than simply equipping people with phones, vans, desks, lighting and tools, it means working with them to look even deeper into processes, procedures and actions. Even more it is shedding light on how one activity affects another and what that might mean to customer service and the dealership’s health.

When a customer phones any company for forklift service or for help in a parts request they expect that their request will be handled professionally by professional people, and for the most part they get that. Certainly all companies in business wouldn’t be there if they didn’t for the most part fulfill what was requested of them by their customer base. But here is where subtle differences in approach can start to mean something when it comes to the total cost of repair or parts purchase.

Does the employee understand how to work well with their support staff if they have to be called upon? Does the employee fully understand the tools and meters they’ve been equipped with in order to minimize the time required filling the customer’s need? Are they mindful of the information they have to be watchful for while on site or on the phone? Most importantly do they carry with them into the work a confidence in their ability and understanding of the responsibility before them? Are they motivated to maintain a level of excellence supported by their coworkers and company?

Our mission statement puts it this way:

Our mission is to improve the customer’s productivity and bottom line through better products, services, and customer service personnel. 

The only way to accomplish this is to encourage people to be their best, support that effort by treating them as professionals and surround them with others working to do the same. It involves at TLM constant and consistent rewards for professional work, and continual review on where excellence has been reached, and where improvements might still be needed.

Servicing the customer isn’t done by just showing up for work; quality service isn’t accomplished just because someone unlocked the door that morning. It’s done by ongoing engagement of the company’s employees in all aspects of true “quality” service regardless of how mundane the action or activity might seem.

The manufacturers of the equipment we represent Aichi, Toyota, Taylor-Dunn, Sellick and others put their best into what they produce, we owe them and our customers the same effort.

Castles built on sand aren't around long.

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More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

Mom and Your Carbon Footprint

I think to a large degree most of us can agree on aspects of the “Green” revolution that make sense, maybe we can think of it terms of things our Moms told us. You remember, turn off the lights when you leave the room, in the winter keep the heat on as low and wear layers, in the summer open more windows and wear light clothing. Certainly all of it makes sense and it helps our ecology while in the long run saves on money right? Mom didn’t have a political agenda, nor was she engaged with any large corporation trying to subjugate us. Rather she was only interested in what was sensible.

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This is getting to be a long winded approach at showing you an app recently released by Toyota Material Handling North America. The app is available for your phone [probably meant more for salesman] but also available to you on the web through this link.

The app gives you a chance to compare Toyota’s fuel efficiencies to some of the most popular competitive trucks out there in the workplace. Too often lift trucks are sold as a commodity, the initial price seen as the ultimate measure of value. The insidious truth of course is that your purchase price is only a small percentage of your total cost of ownership. Using this app you gain some valuable insights into one often over looked expense, one that involves not only your carbon footprint, but something closer to your heart budget, your fuel expense.

Toyota wrote this press release regarding the app.

Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. (TMHU) recently announced its 8-Series I.C. cushion 5,000 pound capacity lift trucks ranked highest in performance, fuel efficiency and productivity compared to similarly equipped competitor models in third party testing by USAC Properties, Inc.

Toyota’s 8-Series lift truck dramatically outperformed its competition, which consisted of equivalently equipped 5,000 pound capacity internal combustion models from Caterpillar, Nissan and Yale. Toyota outpaced the competition by as much as 28 percent in performance; 22 percent in fuel efficiency; and nine percent in productivity, measuring Liquid Propane Gas (LPG) run time per tank, fuel consumption and cycles per day.

“The objective data clearly shows Toyota is helping customers save money, up to $6,200 in fuel costs savings per year, which is vital in today’s business climate,” said Jeff Rufener, president for TMHU. “Toyota’s lift trucks offer proven fuel efficiency benefits without sacrificing productivity or performance.”

Toyota’s lift truck had the highest performance, fuel efficiency and productivity when measuring run time per LPG tank, fuel consumption and cycles per day. Detailed results are available on www.toyotaforklift.com. Making Customers More Efficient

TMHU’s first mobile app, Toyota Forklift Fuel Efficiency Calculator, is available on the iPad, Droid phones and tablets and in the near future, the iPhone. The app, along with an online calculator found at http://www.toyotaforklift.com/calculator, provide forklift users a way to quickly gauge how much they can save in fuel costs, and how much run time and work cycles they can gain.

About USAC Properties, Inc.
USAC Properties, Inc. is the performance testing and endorsement arm for the United States Auto Club. USAC Properties is an independent testing organization specializing in the design and implementation of tests for products relating to the automotive industry. USAC Properties provides full-service automotive testing projects, seal of approval, product certificates and licensing.

Give the app a try, again you can go directly to it following this link.

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More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

Industrial Strength YouTube

It isn't as slow perhaps as I might make it out to be, but slowly and surely industries that we participate in are embracing different aspects of social media.

Recently Taylor-Dunn announced that they too have launched a YouTube channel. Since 1949, Taylor-Dunn has pursued a singular goal: to build tough, rugged, dependable vehicles to help customers move personnel, equipment, and materials. For nearly sixty years, their standard and custom vehicles - burden carriers, personnel carriers, stockchasers, electric carts, tow tractors & more - have been the leading solution for customers in a broad range of industrial, commercial, and ground-support markets.

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Now we all can get a greater sense of that visually through their own YouTube channel. Click on this link and you can see the half dozen videos they have published to date. Included are great videos of their stock-chaser and burden carriers, as well as some of their more unique builds.

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We spend a lot of time here talking about other product lines, we are equally as involved with and proud about our representing Taylor-Dunn in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. They are the top of the line, and always a low cost, tough addition to any number of businesses interested in increased productivity and efficiencies. Ask us about how to "speed things up" at your facility. Remember. You can't afford to walk, and it's overrated, click this link to see why.

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More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

Wringing Simplicity Out of Complex

It’s about simplicity in connections and information. It is about being there for the customer in the manner that it is called upon. It is dynamic yet predictable; it is complex in its approach to being clear. It is our new website.

Our first goal was to make it very easy for first time or repeat visitors to communicate with us. With fast contact forms to the left of the page, and along the top menu no one will have to hunt for an email address or contact form. Additionally if you would like to connect specifically with your areas territory manager or customer service representative our “Find a Sales Rep” box ask only for your zip code so that we can point you immediately to the parties you are interested in. One last an important point is the “Let’s Talk Live” button at the bottom of each page. Can’t find what you’re after, or have a question you’d like answered immediately, click on this button and you’ll find someone waiting to chat live with you through our Workface API.

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You can find links to our original equipment suppliers, and detailed information about the equipment we sell, including brochures and specification sheets in PDF format.

When you want to contact a rep, sales or service and you’ve typed in your businesses’ zip code your take to a page illustrating just who to speak to along with their phone information and a quick email link. There is no time to waste, and we wouldn’t ask you to fumble around trying to see who to talk to.

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Then "it's about the equipment” isn’t it? Navigate to our equipment pages either new or pre-owned and you can easily navigate through the different types from warehouse electrics to our rugged outdoor construction lifts by simply picking the icon that represents your choice. You’ll be presented a scrolling list of available equipment, and can even use additional filters to narrow your search.

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When you find the unit that matches your need, simply click on the link to request a quote, and someone here will insure that you’re contacted immediately with the information.

Further, you can always find out a little more about us. Through our about link you can read about our history and through the “Our Team” link even see some of the people you speak with here at TLM.

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What’s more if you have a few moments you can click on “Connect with us” link under about and you can take a peek at some of our live on-line activity, YouTube videos, our Facebook postings and our blog and Twitter posts are all presented to you in one concise page. It’s a new world, and while social media is only slowly being incorporated into our industry it is in fact coming. It’s a portal to greater understanding and a wealth of information you might not otherwise be exposed to. Take that quick peek, you might find it interesting, we’re betting you do.

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And it is after all a website, you’ll find access to all areas of the dealership through our navigation bar. From sales through links to our blog, pick a link and we’ll do our best to give you the information and insight you are seeking.

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Finally we asking for your input, is there something you don’t see that you would like to? Is there clarification needed or just simply something you would like to see done differently? Websites are no longer the static on line brochures they once were, we are adamant about presenting our customers, prospects and visitors with exactly what they look for as fast and efficiently as possible. Your input will certainly help us.

Please "Like" us on Facebook, we don't Spam up your news stream!

More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

Can Curtains Sell the Part?

I’ll admit a certain longing for some of the old days. In my early career in the parts department, aside from your memory skills, your customer service abilities were augmented by the tools you kept around yourself. Our Rolodex, spiral notebooks and old paper part manuals were filled with notes, references and informational points. It was your ability to manage this information that in many ways separated you from your peers. Managing information well meant the same thing then that it does now, when needed you could access or call on it quickly and a customer was served.

Over the last decade or so we are watching the value of those methods slowly erode; giving way to newer, probably better methods. But as individuals who have time and again called and relied heavily on those old ways, we seem to cling to them afraid to let them go should they be needed again for whatever reason. It’s about serving the customer we tell ourselves as we refuse to part with the old tried and true.

Toyota-Lift of Minnesota moved into our present location approximately sixteen years ago, it was just at the beginning of the computer revolution, and at the height of the use of paper records. The TLM parts department is still literally surrounded by the ghosts of this past, but is looking down the barrel of a significant change. In several weeks the parts department will undergo a major office overhaul. Nice desks will replace those that probably started service in the sixties, wires and cabling that supports the technological revolution that has taken place will be obscured or hidden by privacy panels of colored cloth and metal, and old shelves chock full of the past are being eyed with a degree of introspection.

Customer service is key of course, but there is something to be said about presentation. Our guys would probably tell you they could do their job out in the shop [indeed in the past we did], but parts with their office upgrade hopes to improve on how it promotes itself in the eyes of those customers and vendors that see them every day. It’s important to TLM that we recognize the professionalism with which they do their work, and put them in an environment that reflects that.

We’ll do some before and after photos after the upgrade.

Please "Like" us on Facebook, we don't Spam up your news stream!

More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.

Do It, Or Step Aside

Kaizen or constant improvement, it is something Toyota and likely a great many other manufacturers are keen on. No one can rest on their laurels too long, or they simply risk being surpassed by the advancements and accomplishments of others. Whether you’re talking about a corporation, a company or an individual the best of them are those that work towards bettering themselves constantly.

In business we must surround ourselves with people that work to better themselves or we risk being held back ourselves. Whether you’re in manufacturing, distribution or like us a service industry the impact we have on our business and the businesses of those we serve is based in large part on the individual efforts of the people involved.

At Toyota-Lift of Minnesota everyone is keenly aware of their impact in the organization, metrics are kept and reviewed. Both accomplishments and challenges are discussed openly in order to maximize what works, and focus on what’s needed in areas where improvement could be realized. Certainly the time spent doing this isn’t tangibly productive and therefore subject to being questioned, but the intangible benefit has been seen for years.

"When performance is measured, performance improves, and when performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates" - Thomas S. Monson

It is our duty to our employees, owners and ultimately of course our customers that we understand areas we must excel in then work to maintain a level of performance in those areas that warrants the pride each of us wants to hold in the job we do every day.

Please "Like" us on Facebook, we don't Spam up your news stream!

More, you can follow us on Twitter too! Have a technical questions, call me at 763-315-9288 we would welcome hearing from you.

We encourage you to review our suggested follow list for twitter at this link http://bit.ly/caC4PS A good jumping off point for our material handling peers.