Thermo King Awards the 2018 Eastern Region Dealer of the Year Award to CSTK East (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Changing and adapting. That’s the approach CSTK East has been taking the past 18 months, and it seems to be working.
In 2018 the dealership yielded significant conquest account wins in every product category ??? rail, truck, trailer and auxiliary power units (APU), as well as service business from multiple new accounts. Win-ning in their market is no accident.
???We’ve invested in the future in many ways, adapting our offerings to meet the changing needs of custom-ers and the industry,??? said Jamie Cressman, vice president and general manager.
The investments include a renewed commitment to training ??? of not only own technicians and sales
people but also its offerings to customers and OEMs time and time again. CSTK sent nine technicians to professional school, five to master, three to Top Tech, and one to Bus Specialist training. It sent a sales professional to the Sandler training and four managers to the annual Service Manager conference.
???We did this to increase productivity, develop skills and simply be better for our customers,??? said Jamie. ???We also added staff in order to provide better service ??? from tech-nicians, to parts, to sales and support, wanted to ensure that we had the numbers, the expertise and the training to truly deliver a customer first approach.???
Being better for customers also transferred into a new way of thinking about service vehicles. Instead of running the large box trucks with a parts inventory that last two weeks, CSTK East started adding smaller van models to its service fleet.
???We rewrote the book on service vehicles to better serve our Philadelphia customer base,??? explained Jamie. ???The smaller van models allow us to be more nimble and quick in the city, offering faster service and cutting time down to get to customers. A side benefit appeared later ??? our technician can take the van home and park on the street. This has added some work-life balance and pro-vides a faster response time to the customer.???
CSTK East added two vans in 2018 and will add two more in 2019, slowly transitioning its service fleet to more of the smaller, more efficient models.
The investments have helped CSTK East up its service and increase its focus on winning customers. They’re selling more guaranteed maintenance and are excited about wins with TriPac Envidia?? and Domestic Rail.
???We’ve had great success with Envidia ??? the benefits and viability of the new electric APU features, coupled with the dealer network, are proving themselves.
???The CARB-compliant Precedent units helped us with a nice win last year from a first time C-600 RR Thermo King rail customer. Showing the value of SVC was key to this win. It was a collaborative effort with corporate.???
According to Jamie, CSTK East is poised to keep the pace and will continue to adapt to meet customer and industry needs.
???We’re refocusing on aftermarket sales and are prepar-ing to do more customer educating on the power man-agement solution line of products. We’ve done some ex-tensive training in this area, realized some wins in 2018, and are excited to drive additional growth in this area as we move through 2019.???
