Each year, KaVo’s 17 dedicated training specialists from its Campus Team provide first class service and technical training to more than 1,200 distributor partners from all over the world. This is how they ensure that service technicians can perform all maintenance and service work efficiently, safely and at the level of quality expected from KaVo.
The KaVo Campus is based in Biberach, a small town in Southern Germany which is home to KaVo’s head office and hosts part of its sprawling manufacturing facility. At KaVo, dental excellence encompasses not only premium instruments and treatment units, but also excellent service and maintenance protocols. This is the proven level of all-round quality that pays off – every single day.
The front steps of KaVo’s Training Campus, some 13,000km -16,000km from any point in Australia, is a mighty 24–30 hour journey to the state-of-the art facility. A journey recently undertaken in August 2022 by two of Henry Schein Australia’s experienced service technicians, Stephen Wilkinson and Mark McDonald.
The purpose of their journey is to take part in a two-week world first KaVo initiative. A dedicated service and equipment training program whereby Stephen and Mark would return to Australia fully certified as service trainers of KaVo Equipment. For the first time in KaVo’s 110+ year history, Stephen and Mark will conduct KaVo approved training programs outside of Germany with their Henry Schein Australia colleagues.
Michael Dreyer, lead KaVo trainer in the pilot, discussed some of the unique KaVo pilots Global ‘Train the Trainer’ program with Henry Schein Australia’s Equipment Service Team challenges this posed when the program was in a conceptual stage.
“For over 100 years, our training programs have been conducted in-house, under the direct supervision of our senior team leaders. The standards we set for ourselves are very high the team prides itself on delivering excellence to our partners, and in turn to their customers. We had to ensure this formed the basis for the ‘Train the Trainer’ program. KaVo customers would expect nothing less.
“A key element to the success of this program was the experience and expertise of our partner technicians, they would ultimately become an extension of KaVo and had to embody the KaVo philosophy of ‘Dental Excellence.”
When interviewed by Australasian Dentist magazine, Stephen was asked, “You’re a certified trainer of KaVo Equipment, what does this mean for Henry Schein and KaVo customers in Australia?”
“This program will have significant benefits for our customers. Whether you’re an existing customer, or a future KaVo customer, your Henry Schein technician is certified in KaVo Equipment. This includes certification on KaVo’s newest addition to their treatment unit portfolio, the KaVo uniQa.
“The reliability we’ve all come to know and love from KaVo, with all the right technological advancements that doctors are demanding these days. It’s clear that KaVo have made intelligent component choices based on their experiences globally, and for the KaVo uniQa, this means they’ve retained and made improvements to what was already a solid base.”
Stephen Wilkinson, Senior Service Technician, Henry Schein Australia Mark McDonald has been a technician with Henry Schein for almost 10 years and leads the service team in Western Australia. Providing continuous training and working with reliable equipment ensures Mark and his team are delivering a service in WA that Henry Schein customers have come to expect.
“For many of our customers here in WA, the nearest town is hundreds of kilometres away, and depending on flight availability, the earliest a technician can get on site for an emergency call out is one to two business days. This means quality and reliability are right at the top of the list when customers are choosing which chair to purchase for their practice. That’s why I love KaVo. Time and time again, KaVo proves to be one of the most reliable treatment units on the market.
As part of my training in Germany, I was fortunate enough to see what’s under the hood of the new KaVo uniQa. I’m happy to say it has all the reliable KaVo DNA that I work with every single day, along with some practical enhancements that our customers will love. Whether you’re purchasing a new chair in a metropolitan or regional area, the new KaVo uniQa needs to be on your short list.”
Mark McDonald, Senior Service Technician, Henry Schein Australia Thomas Schmid, Global Technical Support Manager at KaVo, was leading the team in Germany who were designing the ‘Train the Trainer’ Program. He had this to say on its implementation:
“As a global business, it’s important that we adapt to the needs of our customers in all parts of the world. By offering the Train the Trainer Program to our trusted partners at Schein Australia, we can be confident that doctors and practice owners are getting the same level of technical expertise from their local equipment technicians, as we offer here in Biberach, Germany.
Australia was the ideal region for KaVo to pilot this program. There is already a very large KaVo footprint in Australia and this comes with significant demand for technical support. The Australian team at Henry Schein were very enthusiastic about partnering with KaVo to deliver this program, and all our expectations have been exceeded which is great news for customers.”
For KaVo, the ‘Train the Trainer’ program has been a big success story for the Australian market. So successful that the team in New Zealand are adopting the same program and KaVo is quickly scaling up this project to offer similar platforms to other regions in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.
Source: Australasian Dentist, Issue 96, Pages 80-83