After 18 years at the helm of SCM Group (UK) service department, John Allenby has taken a decision to move aside to allow a new chapter to begin in SCM aftercare.
The team John Allenby built over the years accounts for over 30 engineers on the road, a team of six, office-based, to support customers remotely and to organise the time of travelling technicians, plus two administrative assistants who link daily action with IT systems to categorise, register and evaluate the jobs accomplished.
The whole process has been developed in co-operation with our Italian HQ but has a lot of John’s experience in it.
John comments: “I officially now have about 18 months left before my retirement date, and so I feel that the time is right to encourage some new blood, to continue what has already been established.
Adam Chambers, left, with John Allenby
“Adam Chambers has been assistant manager for a number of years now and this move will allow Adam to expand the service department further with some new fresh ideas. My new role will not see me disappear however, as I will be more focused on new machine installations.
“I will be following the order process all the way through, to ensure that the end user is totally satisfied with what they have purchased, which is in line with SCM Group’s policy to strive for customer total satisfaction. This role combined with H&S and Warranty analysis should be enough to keep me busy,” states John.
The new service manager, Adam Chambers, says: ”Since 2004 I have been part of the SCM family and now very proud to be heading up the service operations for the UK subsidiary. John Allenby has been, for the last 18 years, instrumental to our success and along the way we have built a fantastic team.
“Our skilled technical team are dedicated and focused on our customer base and we strive to be the best. We will continue to provide ongoing in-house training to our technical team, and to grow our apprenticeship programme. This is very important to us and proving its worth. All of our successful trainees have remained within our business and are at the top level of their skill set.
“My appointment will be to honour John’s success and continue to build the business and support our valued customer base. I believe we are in exciting times with new technologies and innovation to get stuck into, and with the strong support of my colleagues, I will strive to achieve our common goal to be the best.”
During the last few years Adam, on top of being a very well respected CNC specialist and co-ordinator, has developed IT support systems that allow clear and prompt reporting of service visits.
Customers benefit from the derived clear records of their equipment service history, and SCM grows its knowledge base using it also to cross-train and upskill all technicians in the team.
Together with the recent introduction of new high tech tools provided by SCM Italy, the business can now see itself at the forefront of service capabilities within the woodworking industry, ahead of the curve in a crowded competitive arena.
For further information regarding SCM’s new Service Smart Glasses, or its service contracts, or indeed to congratulate John and Adam, they will be happy to answer calls.
