Business News
Best Roland technician in the world hails from Belgium
Monday 11. November 2013 - Yannig Van de Wouwer from the Belgian Roland dealer, Pantoon, was chosen as the World's Best Service Engineer. He was the best of 20 top technicians who travelled to Japan from all corners of the globe for this championship. Daniel Thätner from the German dealer Technoplot, finished in a well-deserving third place.
Roland DG Benelux, responsible for the distribution of Roland DG products in the Benelux, the DACH region and various countries in Eastern Europe, delivered excellent scores in the World Championship for Roland technicians in Japan. Its two representatives secured the first and third places. Yannig Van de Wouwer from Pantoon NV (Temse, Belgium) was crowned the Best Service Engineer in the World. Daniel Thätner from Technoplot CAD Vertriebs GmbH (Ismaning, Germany) also secured a place on the podium. “We knew that we had two very good candidates in the race and, of course, we hoped for a high-scoring performance. Yet, it is anything but obvious, because the competition was fierce. There were even technicians there with more than 25 years of experience with Roland machines. In spite of the strength of the opponents, our technicians achieved excellent results. It is truly fantastic that two of the top three spots went to people from our own region. Of the approximately 500 Roland technicians, Yannig and Daniel are in the top-3. That just proves once again that our dealers have a lot of quality on offer,” says Stijn Heylen, Customer Care Coordinator for Roland DG Benelux.
Intensive tests
The World Championship was organised in three phases. Both the practical and the theoretical knowledge of the participants was thoroughly tested. They were asked to replace a print head, to repair a defective machine and to formulate answers to 10 problem cases. The jury did not only consider the final results of these challenges. All of the participants were evaluated on their speed, precision, thoroughness, neatness and accuracy. Yannig Van de Wouwer earned the highest total score, and Daniel Thätner came in third. The jury was particularly impressed with the care with which both men performed the tests. Stijn Heylen: “In the past few years, we have paid a great deal of attention to providing solid training and support for our dealers. The fact that our technicians scored so well in this championship proves that we have given them the right guidance. This motivates us to continue on in the same manner. We are already looking forward to preparing our people for the next World Championship.”
Goal of the World Championship
Roland DG attaches great value to high-quality and customer-friendly service. Field engineers, who come into contact daily with customers, make a significant contribution to this. They know the customer’s problems and questions and contribute, to a great extent, to the overall satisfaction of the customers. Roland DG organised this World Championship as recognition of the efforts of the field technicians and the importance of their work.