Drain Doctor Plumbing trains Portugal customer service representatives

(25/05/2009)

Drain Doctor Plumbing has delivered intensive training to customer service representatives (CSR) from its newly established Portugal business. Gisel de São Vicente, the CSR for Drain Doctor’s business in the Algarve in Portugal, has attended an intensive five-day training course at the company’s head office in the UK. The course covers all Drain Doctor’s business systems and provides tried and tested methods for delivering excellent customer service.

As a skilled linguist Gisel will be able to assist customers in both Portuguese and English. She said: “I enjoyed coming to the UK and attending the course. It was hard work but has provided me with all the skills to provide the best possible service to our customers in Portugal. I gained a lot of experience in customer service working in the hotel business. I spent four years working in Switzerland where I became proficient in German and Italian as well as English.

Drain Doctor director Jan Mitman said: “Gisel has the language skills to deal with just about any enquiry she might face. Drain Doctor customers in Portugal can be confident that they will get the best possible service.”

As part of her role Gisel will answer telephone enquiries from local domestic and business customers as well as expats who have homes in the region. In addition, she will follow each job from start to finish, providing a single point of contact between technician and customer.

Another integral part of Gisel’s role will be to organise the office and establish the financial systems. She has a wealth of financial experience that she gained while working at the Narcisco Organisation, an investment bank based in Lisbon.

The company-owned business in the Algarve region covers Loulé, Faro, Silves, Vilamoura, Portimão and Lagos. It is demonstrating the concept of Drain Doctor’s guaranteed 24 hours per day 365 days per year service with a fixed price ‘menu’ and no call-out or out-of-hours charges.

Drain Doctor chairman Freddie Mitman said: “We are delighted with the immediate impact which we are having following the launch of the business in Portugal. It helps to demonstrate that even in a recession there is an opportunity for a company offering excellent service in a country where standards in this industry are generally fairly low. As soon as the company-owned operation is fully established we will start franchising the system in the rest of Portugal.”

Gisel added: “We aim to carry out repairs, clear blockages and reline drains without needing to dig trenches. This type of repair was not commonly available in Portugal until Drain Doctor arrived and is just one example of how we will be having a major impact on the local drainage and plumbing market.”

Related categories:  Organisational changes