Getting to Know Your Customer Service Representative: Mark Schultz

Mark Schultz’s career with Besser spans three departments and nearly 25 years. The first ten years of his career were spent in the engineering department. He recalls in his early days, “We drew by hand;  by physically doing the drawing and detailing for Multi-Spade Besser-Matics, block machines, molds, mixers and skip loaders. I gained intricate knowledge of what the parts look like, how they fit together, what they do and where they are located.” The next dozen years Mark spent in the sales department creating block plant layouts. In this role he communicated with our sales representatives, engineering staff and customers to generate layouts that met producers’ current needs and, where possible, allowed for future updates. This role provided the opportunity to exercise his creativity fitting new equipment in existing facilities to maximize plan efficiency. He also had the opportunity to design plants from the ground up, giving him the ultimate freedom to design a plant that utilized the available space without the restrictions posed by columns, ceiling heights and existing equipment. Today, as a customer service representative, Mark uses his engineering knowledge, experience and creativity assisting producers with parts orders. His familiarity with the equipment aids greatly in identifying parts that customers need but don’t have part numbers available for. He easily jumps into the role of detective, researching, using all documentation possible, to identify the right parts. His biggest sense of accomplishment comes when parts are identified and on their way to a customer who is experiencing an urgent breakdown situation; Mark shares, “The sigh of relief in their voice tells me, ‘job well done.” Mark and his wife Sandy, a Besser purchasing agent, live in the woods on the banks of the Thunder Bay River. A year-round outdoor enthusiast, Mark enjoys a multitude of activities including hunting, fishing, camping, canoeing and bike riding. The couple’s 3-1/2 (a new grandbaby is due in April) very active grandchildren and three daughters are filling their lives with lots of new adventures.