With heritage going back to 1914 when its founding company, Hamworthy Engineering, was one of the biggest employers in Poole, the company has always been proud of its technical knowledge.

Given the complexity of heating system installations, the technical department hotline is one of the busiest in the business. Despite positive feedback from customers for the support received, Hamworthy was also aware of the frustration that can arise from waiting times, which is why it decided to act.

More staff were hired to cover the demand. Two new engineers, Jason Crowne and Mark Hewer, have joined the technical team which is now staffed with five applications engineers.

Mr Crowne joined the company as an applications engineer last year and has been familiarising himself with Hamworthy equipment since. With 20 years of experience in the gas industry, he enjoys the daily challenges the job brings.

Mr Hewer started at Hamworthy at the end of April this year. He has a background as a heating engineer for over 30 years, working for several well-established building services organisations in the South West.

Clive Williamson, contracts manager who oversees the technical department, commented: “We closely monitor our technical help line performance. With more staff, we can offer an enhanced service. As a direct result of increasing the team size, we can already see dramatically reduced average call wait times.”

'Mark is being trained specifically in our products at the moment. Once he becomes fully versed in our equipment, we expect our service to improve even further.”

In the field, technical sales manager Barrie Welsh is now supporting the sales team, visiting plant rooms and giving expert advice on heating systems on site.

With an early start in the industry as a plumbing and heating engineer apprentice, he soon moved on to an industrial gas company which was his stepping-stone to the commercial/industrial sector.

Having worked on machinery from steam equipment, high pressure water heating to large space heating, industrial process plants, and sizeable district heating schemes, he incorporates the wealth of experience Hamworthy was looking for to support its customers on any project.

Sam Boshier, marketing manager for Hamworthy Heating, added: “We’re seeing an increased use of artificial intelligence in customer services such as bots, but for us, it is a vital support for our customers to have a person to talk to at the end of the phone. It is important to us to continue offering a personalised service.”