Responsiveness to customers – driven by dedicated support teams – is allowing FLS to leverage its wide selection of innovative technologies and services in addressing customers’ pain points.

According to Bhavesh Parbhoo, Head of Service Sales for Sub-Saharan Africa at FLS, the company’s success over 140 years means that it is today a large and complex organisation that is home to leading expertise and solutions. Guided by feedback from customers, the company has streamlined the way it engages with each site or customer, explains Parbhoo.

“Our wide range of offerings means that there are many touchpoints for customers – depending on whether they are looking for capital equipment, parts, consumables or professional services,” he says. “We have now simplified the way that customers can access these offerings, while keeping our focus on designing solutions that match their needs.”

Taking a unified team approach to customer relationships allows FLS to apply its wealth of knowledge and varied skill sets to a wide range of market challenges. This has been facilitated by regular value sessions between FLS and the customer, he notes, where key performance indicators are discussed and measured. These typically focus on equipment availability, maintenance predictability and skills sharing with customer personnel.

“Where we have applied this approach, we can see significant improvements in all these KPIs,” he says. “Among the technologies that have recently seen high levels of success across these measures are our nextSTEP rotor and stator, to improve performance of forced-air flotation equipment, and our screening panels, which have demonstrated much longer life.”

Interventions like these have allowed FLS customers to improve their recoveries, and to drive down their total cost of ownership of equipment. A useful tool in this engagement process has been FLS’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, which centralises customer information to avoid data silos. This keeps all team members appraised of progress in the relationship between FLS and the customer.

Team performance is enhanced by continuous skills development through the FLS Training Academy, which is situated at the FLS Service Centre at Chloorkop, Midrand. These focused training services are also offered to customers, he points out.

“Among the challenges that many of our mining customers face – especially those in remote rural areas – is finding local skills to maintain state-of-the-art equipment,” says Parbhoo. “Now they are able to send their personnel to us, for them to be trained in our fully equipped facility on the specific equipment that the mine operates.”

After the necessary period of training, FLS is able to certify the trainee’s capability, and the mine can then absorb them into the workforce. He highlights that this is an example of where FLS can address customer challenges well beyond the specification and supply of the equipment itself. Another critical customer need is safety on site, which includes any supply partners or subcontractors working on the mine’s equipment.

“Our safety culture at FLS in embedded in the training of service and other staff, ensuring that all activity on operational sites is compliant with mine health and safety standards,” he says. “Customers must always be in control of their safety levels, and can be assured of that by mature partners like FLS.”

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