Products
21.06.2023
Service at eye level
As the Head of Technical Customer Support, Nina Wohlfarth leads a six-person team. Their common goal? To understand customer requests, no matter how complex and technical they may be, and to find a solution together - service at eye level.
Application consulting at 9, sensor troubleshooting at 10, and a new customer talks at 11 - what sounds like three different jobs is everyday life for Nina Wohlfarth. As Head of Technical Customer Support, she manages the technical customer service at Balluff. But her job at the headquarters in Neuhausen has little to do with regular call center work. She ensures that whenever a customer calls Balluff, a technically trained expert picks up the phone. Wohlfarth, a project engineer by training, has been with Balluff since 2017. Over that time, she grew into the leadership role through dedication and experience. Today, she leads a team of six experts who advise customers on Balluff products of all types and applications. They are dedicated to assisting customers with even the most complex, technical requests.
"In order to solve our customers' problems, we have to be on a par technically. Our goal is clear: If you call us, you will always have a technically trained expert on the line."
Nina Wohlfarth, Head of Technical Customer Support EMEA
Measuring, regulating, controlling: technical topics have inspired Nina Wohlfarth since the beginning of her career.
Passion for technical topics
When Nina Wohlfarth joined Balluff in 2017, she brought two main things with her: valuable experience in strategic sales and great enthusiasm for technical topics. "Measuring, controlling, regulating – I always enjoyed technical subjects the most during my studies. Physics, maths, and materials engineering were always my highlights," tells the 31-year-old. When she decided to get more technical in her professional life, the move to Balluff was the right choice.
Starting in inside sales, she learned about Balluff customers and products from scratch - a comprehensive training that would soon pay off. After her stint in inside sales, she moved to the technical customer service in 2020. "It was a challenging but also very instructive time," Nina Wohlfarth looks back today. "Technical customer service means: I'm no longer a specialist for one sensor, one customer, or one measuring system – I now do everything. From the inductive to the optical sensor, from first talks to concrete technical advice. Every day, every call is different." One thing remains constant: her customer-centric approach.
Customer focus as a constant
"Our customers expect - rightly so - that we can help them. Sometimes they are quite surprised when they end up directly in the technical department," Nina Wohlfarth says. "Often, they ask: 'Am I already connected to the technician?' But at Balluff, there is no call center, no endless waiting loops, no standard reply via email." Instead, Nina Wohlfarth has a clear expectation of herself and her team: when someone calls Balluff with a problem or question, they are connected directly to a technically trained expert.
Together with her six-person team, she is the first point of contact, solves technical problems, and makes all kinds of customer requests possible. For her and her team, this is both challenging and motivating: "Of course, it's not always easy. But this aspiration drives us. Customers who already know us trust us a lot. We want to live up to that by constantly educating ourselves - in our role as advisors, but also as technical experts. If we can't help the customer directly, we consult with experts from other teams. The cross-departmental collaboration works great."
Success through diversity
The team at Balluff achieves a high level of technical expertise through regular training, as well as through its diversity. In technical customer service at Balluff, salespeople, mechanical engineers, engineers, and trained customer service representatives work hand in hand. What unites them is their many years of experience with Balluff products and customers - after all, a large part of the team has been with the company for more than fifteen years.
"I am really proud of what we achieve daily," emphasizes Nina Wohlfarth. "We often experience gratitude in contact with our customers. Many are surprised at how quickly and at what technical level we can provide support."
This success is also reflected in the numbers: with an availability of 90% and a guaranteed call-back time of just 28 seconds, the Balluff technical customer service is unique in the industry. "I am very proud of my team. I am even more pleased with the award 'Excellent Customer Advice,' which we recently received from FOCUS magazine and Deutschland Test. It's like in sports - we are only successful as a team."
Consultant and technical expert at the same time - in order to solve the challenges of Balluff customers in the best possible way, Nina Wohlfarth and her team are constantly educating themselves.
New role, new challenges
When Nina Wohlfarth took over the technical customer support after only two years on the team, she faced a third challenge: In addition to ensuring customer satisfaction and staying up to date on technical matters, she was now in charge of a team of six. Her new daily tasks include shift planning, employee talks, and much more.
"Of course, these are shoes I had to grow into," she explains. "As a woman in a technical industry, in a team with so many old hands, you do ask yourself from time to time: Am I in the right place? Do I have the necessary experience? Will I be taken seriously?" But internally, she experienced great approval and support from the first day on. As a previous team member, she was already familiar with the daily challenges and tasks of her colleagues. Nina Wohlfarth puts it aptly: "Close to colleagues, close to customers. That sums it up well. Even now, despite my leadership role, I am still on the phone a lot. To lead my team well, I must understand our customers. Their challenges are our challenges."
Regarding contact with customers, she points out: "Women in my position are unfortunately still rather rare, and that is a shame. But open prejudices or rude callers are the absolute exception." An exception that Nina Wohlfarth, ever the pragmatic, also sees as a challenge: "At the end of the day, our customers want solutions to their problems from us. And if I, as a woman, offer them first-class advice and good service, I also create acceptance and thus pave the way for future women in similar roles."
Nina Wohlfahrt has been playing handball since she was six years old. In her sporting career, too, she has repeatedly taken on leadership roles as captain.
Image: Thomas Weissenbrunner
Leading with trust and competence
Growing into leadership positions through trust and competence is nothing new for Nina Wohlfarth. Since the age of six, the enthusiastic handball player has been playing in various clubs, initially for TSV Wolfschlugen, then, in her youth, at JSG Nellingen-Wolfschlugen before later returning to her home club. She even played some games in the second division for Nellingen. Taking on leadership roles along the way is something that often comes naturally to her: "It's a recurring pattern in my life," she says. "I develop within the team, get to know the people and their tasks, and then take on responsibility as captain. I've always been very ambitious and want to get the best out of myself and my team. Similar to when I joined Balluff."
When she traveled to New York for a study-related internship in 2013, she reluctantly put her handball career on hold. Although she has since switched to badminton, tennis, and skiing personally, handball is still her passion to this day, whether as a youth trainer, or spectating her home club TSV Wolfschlugen.
Future with Balluff
When asked about her next career steps, Nina Wohlfarth says, "I'm feeling really comfortable here at the moment. I'm in a position where I know my tasks well, but I'm still learning every day. My personal goal for the coming years is to gain more leadership experience. For the team, I hope that the cohesion and collaborative work in the department and beyond will continue to work so well. At Balluff, I always feel like I'm part of a big family. It starts at the team level but is also lived beyond that, whether through good benefits, flexible work arrangements, or personal interaction." To ensure that this success also reaches the customer, Nina Wohlfarth's team works day in and day out to optimize processes and keep their knowledge up to date. When asked about current projects, Nina Wohlfarth responds with a smile: "I could tell you about our shortened call-back time or our time to first reply. But honestly, you should just give us a call and see for yourself."