We've all been there - called a support number for a product or service and got to the point where you know for a fact your blood pressure is at a boiling point because not only did the person not answer your question with anything but what was on their 'script' in front of them, but made YOU jump through all their hoops before giving you that scripted, and completely useless response. To say this is 'infuriating' is a giant understatement, and makes you lose faith in all humanity because it seems no one can think for themselves or get the slightest bit creative on what might help you in your time of need.
Thankfully, some people, and companies actually get what the word 'support' means and take the right steps to enable their people to understand what their products can 'do'. Those same, very carefully chosen people that are placed in support roles hold a strong desire to help their customers and are willing to be relentless in how they discover ways to help solve problems. Those rare people are the one's that aren't afraid to put ideas into action and are even exceptionally polite about it through the process. Imagine that - Faith in humanity saved in a single, easy, helpful, dare I even say enjoyable phone call.
Recently, we had a customer reach out to one of our support people to help them find a way to set something up that was certainly in our IIoT wheelhouse, but not something we had ever tried before. But, this wasn't just any support line they called; it was Emerson's Zedi IIoT platform support line he called, and this wasn't just any customer either; this customer has their own end customers. Which translates to one seemingly small ounce of extra effort can quickly make a big impact on lots of their end customers.
Our long-standing customer that made the call that day was Ron Sandoe, from Allegheny Petroleum Products. They manufacture industrial, automotive and fleet lubricants, as well as distribute and supply lubricant additives to their end customers. They're one of the largest fuel additive manufacturers in all of North America. Allegheny also provides fluid management for their manufacturing customers and offer contract services for blending and packaging customers.
Ron has been very successful in utilizing our IIoT platform to it's fullest for his end customers to know exactly what levels their tanks are at from anywhere, anytime. They have shared their success of getting tank statistics that are easily accessible for their authorized end users that have created efficiencies in remote tank monitoring at manufacturing facilities, improved alarm response times with notifications set to specific thresholds and have gained quicker decision making abilities with clear and accurate tank data for inventories, and usage volumes.
When Ron made that call to our support person he had hoped for a conversation about exploring options and possibilities of either using the hardware he already had at site, or learning about what hardware he would need to add to make it deliver a different type of data with outside-the-box analytics and alarms to be able to control the temperatures in remotely located tanks; meaning not just get alarms at set points, but positively impact the pump speed, based on the temperature of the liquids in the tank. Because as Ron put it "When no one’s looking, a little extra heat allows liquids to pump faster, but not without risk."
Armed with several layers of Zedi IIoT platform knowledge and a huge willingness to help, Jive Biscocho answered Ron's call that day and made a giant impact by helping Ron get the answers he needed, and quickly dug deep to find the best possible way to complete the task. Jive has worked with Emerson for over three years and has been a 'rock-star' in helping our customers all over the world. Jive is extremely technical and holds a degree in Industrial System Engineering. So, this isn't his first rodeo with discovering the best possible solutions to technical challenges. He's also probably one of the most polite people you could ever talk to, yet he's relentless to search for solutions that will help others.
Using their current hardware already at site, Ron quickly got all the information on how to set it up and deliver the right data to the right people that is helping Allegheny reduce the risk of the human element of nature - humans can't have our eyes on everything all the time; so leaning in on technology to help avoid potential safety concerns for liquids to potentially be pumped too quickly because of high temperatures was a big win, not only for Allegheny, but all of their customers as well.
Our people take great pride in providing exceptional service and support to our customers, and it's always one of our highest priorities. Where many companies add a cost to even call their support people, we don't; we have live, humans ready to answer your call 24/7 - yes, even holidays. The best part is that when you call you don't get scripted answers, or get put through all the hoops that make you want to loose your mind. Instead you get a knowledgeable, friendly and polite person on the call that is more than ready to help you.
