By Shahd Alhamdan
JEDDAH — OTIS, one of the world›s largest manufacturer and maintainer of people-moving products, including elevators, escalators and moving walkways, aims to become number one service provider in the Kingdom through bringing new technologies, launching new branches, and enhancing customer satisfaction.
The company is focusing also on women empowerment and youth development through promoting women for managerial positions, hiring more Saudi fresh graduates, and providing more educational programs to the talented employees.
OTIS EMEA president Patrick Blethon said “for us now, we are talking about strategies. We moved from the period of big project to a period of big slowdown in the construction field. So, it’s a period of time were you need to reorganize the company. We will continue in working on some big projects but also concentrating on new segments and businesses, including villas and small residential. Focusing on providing high quality products to the market, for us safety and high quality is very important.”
OTIS has a 24-hour call center and is focusing on digitalization in order for us to become closer to the customers in terms of service efficiency, he added.
According to Blethon, mechanics in Saudi Arabia will be equipped with an iPhone that have all the needed information about the customer and technical details.
“Mechanics will be able to connect with experts and report about the elevator through Skype. They will also have library in YouTube on some specific parts and will be able to order the parts directly from the service center through the device. That means in terms of service, customer will reduce time of maintenance and repair period and give customers reports in less time,” Blethon noted.
This system will be implemented in the Kingdom by the end of 2018 and it has been implemented in several developed countries this year, including Germany, Spain, USA, and France.
OTIS is also planning to utilize technology for better communication between coworkers by using Yammer application, which is a similar application to WhatsApp.
The company is also launching several products to the market, including Gen2Swich. It is a new elevator that could be plugged to 220 volts. One of its features is the batteries, so the elevator can still operate if the electricity cut off.
The company is expanding in the Kingdom this year to enhance its customer service and increase the customers satisfactions. According to Maged Sobhy Nagib, Managing Director, OTIS ME, two or three branches will be launched in Saudi Arabia, noting that OTIS has seven branches and around nine service centers in the Kingdom.
OTIS spent around $1.3 billion on education since 1997. The company had provided 37,000 degrees and certificates globally and some Saudis were included.
Moreover, OTIS is also working on providing educational and training programs to the talented employees.
“There are a lot of development programs for potential and highly talented people. There is also a strong move on women leading the business. To give you an example, we will appoint a woman who will lead the service business across the country,” Blethon remarked.
Nagib explained that ‘women for growth’ thrust is another program. It concentrates on letting women work on new ideas and help in changing and improving the working condition. The program will help in the development of female employees and make them stronger in this field.
