Turbomeca Unveils Its New Website as Latest Move in Customer Relations

Nineteen ninety eight was a year most would rather forget at Turbomeca Engine Corp. in Grand Prairie, TX -except that it has become a benchmark for how things have improved since.

The multitude of problems stemmed from a runaway sales success as Eurocopter sold many more Turbomeca-engined helicopters in the United States than expected. TEC was caught in the midst of a plant reorganization, and spent the next year trying to catch up with customers' demands. "Now we have the resources, the facilities and personnel to do the job," Dennis Nichols, president of TEC, told Show News.

One of his not-so-secret weapons is Albert Ducrocq, TEC's new head of customer support whose career spans over 20 years with Turbomeca in France, as well as in the US with the parent's joint venture in airline APUs with Sundstrand.

"He brings a very great deal of experience to us, and his appointment recognizes the fact we need closer cooperation with our parent," said Nichols.

His other not-at-all-secret weapon is a new website, being unveiled here at Heli Expo, that is designed to improve relations with customers by orders of magnitude. As such, it symbolizes TEC's drive not only to listen to customers, but to act on what they say.

"We always knew what needed to be done," said Nichols, but the sheer scope of expanding in every area at once was overwhelming. Now that Nichols has his ducks in order he can concentrate not only on customer service but also on meeting their expectations for service.

"The website will be a rather significant step forward in keeping in contact with customers on technical issues," he said. It will be interactive, allow access to technical bulletins, different engine variants, and can be interrogated as to what applies where -"all those issues that usually take a lot of people and telephone time," Nichols said. A link to TEC's fleet status report will help forecast what spare parts are needed well in advance -- a problem that led to delays in the past.

An eventual goal is to tie in data on individual engines so that a customer can track progress of his own powerplant during overhaul, including anticipated return to service date.

"The website is tailored for our customer, not for the usual promotion and advertising that so many sites are built upon," Nichols said.
In another departure, Nichols is asking for customer complaints. In 1998 they were deafening; now that there are far fewer, Nichols wants to hear the details, not just the volume. "We held two customer symposiums late last year; now we want to hear if things aren't going well," he said.

A new engine test cell at Grand Prairie, larger premises and more engineers are helping TEC cope with plans to overhaul 290 engines this year. Last year it accomplished that number, but had planned for only 230.

Meanwhile it is proceeding with plans to set up regional service centers in the US; mechanics are already trained ahead of the partners gearing up with tooling. TEC is also looking to acquire companies in the United States to broaden its capabilities here in repair and in manufacturing parts for the world market.