Mike Heafield, Sales Director, joined TXM Plant in 2019 with 25 years of experience in rail and infrastructure, including senior sales, business development, and commercial roles.

With an ‘outside-in’ approach, Mike’s long-term strategy is to improve the customer experience at every stage, driving a greater understanding of the customer journey, creating positive customer experiences at every touchpoint. Below, Mike discusses his thoughts on the customer journey and how TXM is changing to enhance and deliver this experience.

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The role of Sales Director is primarily tasked with growing revenue; however, this has a number of dimensions including, customer satisfaction, consistency of trading, lead identification, and conversion. The customer journey is really interesting, with several touchpoints throughout the business, whether through Sales, Business Development, or the website, through to the Operational team who plan and develop customer projects.

To deliver a great customer experience, you must start by exploring what experiences fit customer needs and drive differentiation, this is acknowledged through feedback. The customer survey we completed in 2019 returned valuable insight into where we needed to improve to ensure our processes and procedures are easy for our customers. We have made significant progress and I’m optimistic this will become increasingly apparent. Our values, vision, mission, and internal communications reflect our customers’ needs. How we position the customer in our field of vision is truly important.

Operationally, there has been a big impact from COVID-19 in the works we deliver, ensuring work is planned and undertaken safely. The new normal is yet to be defined however, we are finding ways to maintain our safety and reliability standards to continuously improve the customer journey. This is exhibited through modifications to our fleet to comply with social distancing guidelines and support to our people.

We face a cultural challenge; we must remove the constraints to our people ensuring they can provide a great service. Whether that is fatigue management or productivity challenges. The way people are measured internally drives how they behave. For me, a customer-centric business has measures in place that incentivises people to deliver for the customer and that for me is part of the journey. You can’t have a growth mindset without having a customer mindset.  Like many businesses, COVID-19 has placed barriers between us and the customer that we haven’t faced previously. As everyone knows, face-to-face communications are the best way to build rapport with customers. We are breaking down these barriers. One of the things we are looking at with the Sales team is working with an external company, which identifies the skill gap in selling virtually and equips the team with these skills. By investing in our people, we are building their resilience to continue to communicate and drive that customer journey.

We have a responsibility to improve our customer journey to accommodate the changing needs of those we serve. Our Regional Account Managers bring a consultative, collaborative manner to their approach with less pressure to buy and more ‘How can I help?’. The team are great at what they do, paving the way for TXM to continue to be strong players in the industry with a clear identity.

Through proven results with previous customers, we aim to minimise risk to the customer in relation to what they want to deliver and their outcomes. We are a small yet vital part of the supply chain. We are only human and admitting when we’ve made a mistake is a sign of a mature business, always seeking ways to improve these processes. Potential risk to the customer is scrutinised, managed and developed continuously. For TXM we understand it’s not just about delivering machines and people to site but also managing the risk to the customer. By sharing these best practices and enabling change, as an industry, we can collaborate effectively, making key choices for the future.

I joined TXM Plant to make a difference and leave a legacy. My vision for TXM is for our customers to see us as market leaders in the provision of RRV equipment and value add services. Working together, we are on a journey of continuous improvement.

To contact the Sales team email Sales@TXMPlant.co.uk or call 01908 443000.