Crowcon’s training room, Abingdon, UK

If organisations are to survive and grow in a world of rapid change, they need to be more flexible, capable and knowledgeable than ever before. Their ability to do this rests upon the abilities of their workforce – hence the importance and value of training. If individuals are able to learn, develop and change, then so can the organisations they work for.

Providing training for distributors and service engineers not only helps them develop their skills and knowledge, but it is also motivational and a building block to mutual success.

As distributors and external service centres are extremely important to Crowcon, it is important that they are trained on Crowcon products and service alike.

However, while there can be enormous benefits in developing the capabilities of the workforce, training needs to be for the right people, it needs to be the right type of training and it needs to be at the right time.

Simon Boulter, Crowcon’s Training Officer runs all of the service training on-site. When asked why he thought training was so important he said,
“Training, particularly in gas detection is a very important part of selling, promoting and servicing the products. Without training it is impossible to know that what you are doing is right and that you are capable of the job in hand. Safety is not something that can be compromised. Simple things like basic product knowledge and routine maintenance are essential parts of the training we run here.”

“By giving hands on, in depth training to distributors and service engineers it gives them the confidence, capability and better understanding of the products they need to do their job.”

“When I run service training courses on-site I make sure that everyone gets a chance to be hands on and actually do the servicing themselves. They also benefit from speaking to other delegates on the course and learn about their experiences and tips on how to do things. Everyone who comes on a training course whether they have been doing their job for years or are completely new to gas detection takes something away from the course. One of the key things they discover is the resources that they have available to them. The Crowcon website (www.crowcon.com) and the Crowcon support site (www.crowconsupport.com), which offer great points of reference on lots of different things.”

Simon Boulter, Training Officer

As well as service training, Crowcon also run sales training courses for distributors. They are designed give distributors greater product knowledge, the unique selling points and competitor information.

Louise Early, Product Manager for Safety Portables says, “Training is a great way to meet our distributors and understand the problems and successes they face every day with their customers. We provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to confidently and competently sell the products and service in our range of both fixed and portable gas detectors, and they go away with greater awareness of what Crowcon has to offer them.”
“These forums are also a great place for us (the marketing department) to gain feedback. By receiving feedback from customers it allows us to include that information when looking into new product development and product improvement. Ultimately then we can give the customer what they want and need and improve our relationships and business.”

Delegates on the courses are not without their say on why they think training is important and here are just some of their responses:

“Training at Crowcon has made me feel 100% more confident in understanding the products and applications, which makes it easier to sell.”

“Now that I know the resources and the support available to me I can inform my customers better and provide them with all the literature and information the need to make decisions on gas detection.”

“With a hands-on approach and a passionate trainer I have learned so much more than I expected, and have left with an even greater positive attitude of Crowcon.”

“The training was very interesting and diverse. We had a lot of fun!”

Hands-on portable training