NORD Offers Continuous Learning Opportunities to Better Service Customers

Summary

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS is a manufacturing company with a clear focus on customer needs. The global network stretches across more than 80 countries to provide short delivery times, local customer support and rapid service. They consistently seek new opportunities for growth and ways to better support its customers. One of these ways is continuous training for its internal teams as well as its network of Authorized Distributors and sales partners.

As part of the internal sales team, NORD District Sales Managers (DSMs) receive an all-inclusive training when they join the company to enable them to have high degree of knowledge when visiting and assisting customers. Due to the continued growth of industries and NORD, they must remain current on product and industry knowledge by attending sales meetings, internal and external trainings, as well as reading sales manuals, books, or trade journals. NORD recently hosted a two-day training for its entire sales team that discussed variable frequency drives, MAXXDRIVE industrial gear units and interchanges.

NORD works with a network of approximately 500 experienced and highly knowledgeable distributors across North America to provide customers with prompt service. To help distributors deepen their knowledge and understanding of NORD products and services, NORD offers in person individualized trainings as well as hosts Open Trainings four times a year across the four assembly plants in the United States. The three-day sessions are led by NORD industry experts and cover NORD gear units, MAXXDRIVE industrial gear units, electric motors, electronic control products and an overview of the myNORD online customer portal. The trainings also feature hands on activities such as gear unit selections and building UNIVERSAL worm drives. Private trainings can be held where requested by the distributor such as their facility, an on-site location, at one of NORD’s facilities, or via online. NORD will match the training curriculum to the distributor’s needs to ensure they are able to offer quality support to customers. In 2025, NORD will begin offering online seminars that cover gearboxes, motors, specific applications and more.

NORD’s trainings on the myNORD online customer portal are presented by the eBusiness team and showcase a comprehensive overview of its online tools. Attendees can expect to complete the training knowing how to size a unit for a new application, configure products, generate quotes with account specific pricing, track existing orders, as well as navigate the Spare Parts Shop. Also covered is how to access previous order history, serial number documentation and operation and maintenance manuals. These trainings are available to customers and distributors in person at a designated facility, during Open Distributor trainings at NORD facilities, or via an interactive online course.

The internal Customer Experience (CX) team at NORD is responsible for processing purchase orders, supporting customers with related sales activity, quoting requested products and answering incoming phone calls. NORD heavily invests in the department’s training and development with a dedicated training team overseeing an 11-week program dedicated to teaching new employees what NORD does as a company, its innovative product line and all the tools needed to excel in their roles. During the program, trainees are exposed to the full scope of order types and possible scenarios, so they are prepared when it comes to real customer interactions. Employees also receive additional training as processes are improved and new products are developed to ensure they always provide the best customer service possible.

For the production team at NORD, proper training is imperative for high quality output. The production training team implements job instructions for each department to ensure correct processes are being followed. Employees begin onboarding at a mock work bench covering general product overview, gearbox basics, gearbox parts and quality training, enabling comfortability before setting foot on the production floor. They then move on to hands on training on the floor, on the job with a certified trainer overseeing their progress. Each team member also receives safety, equipment operation and forklift training to prevent injuries and limit lost time instances. Employees only operate equipment they are certified to use and are recertified every 3 years to remain up to date on current best practices.

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS continuously strives to offer the best partnership to its customers with efficient drive systems, industry-specific solutions, competent advice and worldwide service. The company's frequent training opportunities for team members helps achieve this goal by staying up to date on industry and product knowledge.

About NORD DRIVESYSTEMS

With more than 4,000 employees, NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has been developing, producing and selling drive technology for more than 50 years, and is one of the global leaders of full-service providers in the industry. In addition to standard drives, NORD delivers application-specific concepts and solutions for special requirements such as energy-saving drives or explosion-protected systems. In financial year 2017, annual sales amounted to $781 million. NORD now has subsidiaries and sales partners in 98 countries worldwide. The dense sales and service network guarantees optimal availability, enabling short delivery times and customer-oriented service. NORD produces a very diverse range of drives for torques from 88 to more than 2.2 million lb-in, provides electric motors in the power range of 0.16 to 1,341 HP, and manufactures frequency inverters with the required power electronics of up to 215 HP. Inverter solutions are available for conventional control cabinet installations as well as for decentralized, fully-integrated drive units.