Thomas, what are your duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties as Vice Pres­i­dent of Customer Support & Services at Uhlmann?

Basi­cally, my role centers on one thing: our customers—and ensuring that they are happy with us. I oversee the entire global service divi­sion, which covers every­thing that happens once our machines are installed at the customer’s site: from providing spare parts, upgrades, format parts and service tech­ni­cians, right through to customer support and training.

In my book, customer service is more than just responding when things go wrong. We want to support our customers and help them succeed with our solu­tions. And that’s why we are constantly opti­mizing our services–for example, through new digital offer­ings or by employing tech­nolo­gies such as remote services and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. At the same time, our people play a pivotal role: their skills and commit­ment ulti­mately make the differ­ence. In short, our goal is to create service that trans­lates into genuine added value for our customers. We aim to provide solutions—not just format parts, service calls, or new machines.

How would you assess the role of Customer Support & Services divi­sion at Uhlmann?

For me, every inter­ac­tion with a customer is an expe­ri­ence, and every touch­point is an oppor­tu­nity we must seize to delight and inspire the customer. Because these inter­ac­tions deter­mine whether we are perceived as a reli­able, compe­tent, and collab­o­ra­tive partner. Service is partic­u­larly crit­ical, as it often consti­tutes the most frequent and personal inter­ac­tion with the customer. Espe­cially when some­thing goes wrong or a new chal­lenge arises, we are called in to assist—and we can make or break the customer’s day. That’s why I see service as some­thing that goes far beyond support or commis­sioning; it’s a key driver of customer satis­fac­tion, and it requires a company-wide commit­ment to customer centricity. Every service expe­ri­ence reshapes how our brand is perceived, day by day.

What is good customer service to you?

For me, good customer service is essen­tially about being reli­able and “wowing” customers by creating real added value. Deliv­ering on our promises—be it response times or our service commitments—is crucial. And you also need solid exper­tise and empathy when engaging with customers. But it’s also essen­tial to be proac­tive: it’s not just about resolving urgent issues, but about truly under­standing the appli­ca­tion and working with the customer to develop solu­tions. At the end of the day, it’s about building long-term part­ner­ships that benefit both parties.

Now that you’ve spent a few months at the company, what has your expe­ri­ence at Uhlmann been like so far?

My first few months at Uhlmann were very intense—but in a good way. I was given a very warm welcome right from the start, and many colleagues took the time to answer my ques­tions. I was partic­u­larly impressed by the teams’ outstanding tech­nical exper­tise and how strongly they iden­tify with the company. You can really feel that many people here are truly committed to Uhlmann—I think that’s great! And I think it’s safe to say that I’ve become an ‘Uhlmanner’ myself. This sense of belonging is impor­tant to me as it means I can repre­sent the brand and our prod­ucts cred­ibly to customers. I was also impressed by Uhlmann’s clear strategic vision, for example as regards our GO FOR 30 strategy and how strongly employees iden­tify with it.

What issues are you focusing on at present in Customer Support & Services?

A key strategic priority for me is to make our service even more customer-centric. This also means changing our mindset—breaking away from tradi­tional patterns and asking ourselves how we can enable customers to improve and thereby create added value. It’s about thinking more in terms of solu­tions, engaging with customers in new ways, and better inte­grating our existing services.

At the same time, I see consid­er­able poten­tial in areas such as inter­na­tion­al­iza­tion, stan­dard­iza­tion, and digi­tal­iza­tion. Our goal must be to deliver a consis­tent customer expe­ri­ence world­wide while being closer to the markets. So the overall objec­tive is to further opti­mize our customer service—both in terms of collab­o­ra­tion and customer centricity.

How is the service divi­sion changing as a result of digi­tal­iza­tion and new tech­nolo­gies?

Digi­tal­iza­tion and new tech­nolo­gies like AI can make us faster and more effi­cient. For example, they speed up our response to requests, make knowl­edge more acces­sible, and manage service calls more effec­tively. Because that is what our customers expect.

Never­the­less, one thing is very clear to me: people will remain an essen­tial factor in service. While AI can provide support, it cannot replace personal contact or empathy. Customer service is a collab­o­ra­tion between tech­nology and people but building a rela­tion­ship with the customer and under­standing their needs—that’s some­thing only our employees can do. So, AI doesn’t replace people, but it does replace igno­rance, and service can be more human with AI than without people. Perhaps without AI, the human touch might soon even become unaf­ford­able…

That’s why our goal is to deploy AI in a way that eases the work­load of our service special­ists and frees up time for what really counts: direct engage­ment and a collab­o­ra­tive rela­tion­ship with customers. Tech­nology handles the cold routine—so people can provide the human warmth in service.

What is impor­tant to you when working with your team, as well as when collab­o­rating with other depart­ments?

For me, the most impor­tant factor in effec­tive team­work is asking the right ques­tions rather than assigning blame. It’s not about who got some­thing wrong, but about how we fix the issue and what we can learn from it. It also requires shared goals, trans­parency, and a solid mutual under­standing. Service never happens in isolation—we work closely with multiple func­tions, from devel­op­ment and sales to produc­tion. What really matters is that everyone keeps the customer’s best inter­ests in mind. When we achieve that, every­thing else becomes much easier.

Another key point, in my view, is empowerment—clear roles, trust, and ensuring that deci­sions are made where the exper­tise lies. And in the end, we should always ask ourselves: How easy are we making things for the customer? How much effort does it take to work with us? That’s exactly what we should work on together.

And finally, a personal ques­tion: What do you do when you’re not sitting behind your desk at Uhlmann?

Family is very impor­tant to me. My wife and I are cele­brating our twen­tieth anniver­sary this year, and we work very well as a team. Our three wonderful chil­dren, aged seven, 13, and 16, keep us on our toes with their different needs and inter­ests. There’s always some­thing going on, and my family is a great source of energy for me. On week­ends, I enjoy simply playing Lego or Play­mobil with my youngest daughter, going skiing or visiting the stables with my older daughter. You’ll usually find me on the soccer pitch with my son—and if there’s still some time left, I like to exer­cise, play soccer myself, or go jogging to clear my head. In addi­tion, I volun­teer with the service asso­ci­a­tion KVD and at our local sports club.

When I find the time, I also like to unwind a bit—sometimes with a game on the PlaySta­tion. In fact, there’s a good chance I’ll play a round with my son later tonight.