Who answers when the machine stops: inside Cutlite Penta Customer Care
It is the first question anyone buying a laser machine asks: and if it stops, who answers? At Cutlite Penta the answer has six names, and it coordinates around fifty technicians across half the world.
Federica Lombardelli has been with the company for eleven years, since Service was a single department of fifteen people. Simona Luciano is head of Customer Care. Together they explain how you get from a switchboard that sorted everything to a department where every customer, in any country, has a single dedicated contact.
From one switchboard to two departments
Federica, how did you start?
“I started eleven years ago in administration, as an intern. After a while I was gradually moved to the Service department. My main job was preparing the technicians' service reports and, later, handling the pre-invoicing of those same jobs.”
“At the beginning there were really very few of us. Back then Service was one single department of about fifteen people, with a switchboard that let us handle any request: from orders to technical support calls.”
How did that structure evolve?
“Over the years the company grew, and that created the need to separate the Support department, which is pure technical support on site and remote, from Customer Care, which is what we do today”, Simona explains.
“By Support we mean the operators who contact our technicians when they run into operating difficulties with the machines. Anything that is not solved by remote support then comes to us. We handle quotes and orders for spare parts, cost estimates for technical service and installations of new systems, which have now become a section of their own run by Massimo Testi and Alice Saletti. We are a large basin that takes in very varied requests and routes them to the right departments.”
2018, fiber laser, and the end of everyone doing everything
“The need to grow became pressing from 2018, along with the arrival of fiber lasers in the company”, answers Federica. “After me the other people who make up the department today were added gradually: Simona, Esperide, Martina, Alice, Irina, along with a good number of technicians specialised by task.”
“As long as we were small, everyone did everything.”
“With growth and the rising number of machines, markets and customers, the need to specialise came out, so we could give the customer a single dedicated contact to build a relationship with and feel reassured by”, adds Simona. That is the point where the department stopped being a switchboard and became a structure.
One dedicated contact per country
The areas are not an internal organisational detail: they are the reason a customer in Turkey or in Brazil always speaks to the same person. Today the department is divided like this:
- Simona Luciano, head of Customer Care, covers America, which is our leading market.
- Federica Lombardelli covers the UK, Brazil and the Scandinavian countries, where growth is strong.
- Martina Novelli covers Australia, Germany and Austria.
- Esperide Guerrieri covers the United Arab Emirates and France, where Cutlite Penta France is based.
- Irina covers Turkey and Eastern Europe. The subsidiaries in Spain, Germany and Poland are handled the same way.
“We also have machines in Australia, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia and India. Many of those customers get back in touch once a year, for scheduled maintenance.” There are around fifty technicians dedicated to service, plus the ones handling critical issues remotely. Every one of the group sites goes through here.
Six people, fifty technicians, an industry of men
“Counting Alice, who handles installations, there are six of us, and all women”, Federica smiles. “Across the whole company the female presence has grown a lot over these years. It is not easy to establish yourself in a mostly male industry like metalworking: in a service department of around fifty men, there are nine women. But there is real synergy among all of us, and that difference is not a limit.”
How hard is it to understand a machine you have never operated?
“It is not easy, because these are complex systems. It takes experience and, where we fall short, the humility to rely on people who know more: that is why working with our colleagues in the technical department is essential. At the same time, curiosity and the wish to dig deeper let us build a solid technical grounding, which helps us understand what customers are asking”, answers Federica.
“My own path was completely different”, says Simona. “I had experience in customer management, but I knew nothing at all about the metalworking world. At the beginning, dealing with colleagues with years of experience and answering the phone in technical situations was daunting. Then over time you understand that everyone has something to teach you, and that the key is listening in order to learn.”
From paper to digital
“It is a completely different job from what it was”, notes Simona. “Over the years we also had to set up a department dedicated to pre-invoicing. Today, compared with ten years ago, most of our work has gone digital, but until recently Barbara and Sabina had to handle an enormous workload still tied to paper.”
What happens when a machine stops
Our systems often run 24 hours a day, on the most demanding thicknesses and power levels. In those conditions, what makes the difference is not promising that nothing will ever stop: it is having someone who answers, who understands what you are talking about, and who turns up.
“That is where our work comes in: acting with efficiency, competence and speed, to guarantee continuity and support for customers”, notes Federica. “We are probably the office that deals with the others the most”, adds Simona. “We work with the sales department, administration, purchasing, the warehouse, logistics, the technical department. Many requests fall outside our direct scope and have to be passed on, but the interface with the customer stays us.”
“I can raise a problem, but we solve that problem together.”
“Today we are approaching the market with ambition: we want to be ahead”, Simona confirms. “First 50 kW, then 60 kW: solutions designed to measure for a market that keeps moving. We are entering a segment that until recently belonged exclusively to plasma machines.” And the more the machines move into new work, the more this department's job counts.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Support and Customer Care at Cutlite Penta?
Support is technical service proper, on site and remote: it answers operators having difficulties with the machine. Customer Care handles everything else, that is quotes and orders for spare parts, cost estimates for service, installations of new systems, and routing requests to the right departments.
Who is my contact if I have a Cutlite Penta machine abroad?
Each Customer Care specialist covers a defined geographical area, taking in Italian regions and foreign countries, so the customer always has the same contact. The areas cover America, the UK, Brazil, the Scandinavian countries, Australia, Germany, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, France, Turkey and Eastern Europe, as well as the subsidiaries in Spain, Germany and Poland.
How many people work in Cutlite Penta service?
Customer Care is made up of six people. There are around fifty technicians dedicated to service, plus those handling critical issues remotely. Across the whole service department there are nine women.
How do I request a spare part or a service call?
The request reaches Customer Care, which prepares the quote for spare parts or the cost estimate for the technical call. For machines abroad the reference is the person covering that country; scheduled maintenance is managed on an annual plan.
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