Tracey Drechsel Says New Structure Delivers Better Service as Regional Teams Work Together to be Your One Point of Contact

QUESTION: Komatsu has made some structural changes with personnel taking on new roles, including those of regional business directors. What’s the customer benefit?

ANSWER: As always, our focus is on helping customers find solutions by utilizing our dealer network, products, technology and, most importantly, our people who care at all levels. Speed to market and technical resolution is something we really focused on improving with this new structure. We empowered our people to make more decisions in the field to improve our response times to customers and distributors.

With this new concept, all business units within a region – parts, sales, finance, warranty, etc. – are now part of the same channel, whereas before it was more individualized. We’ve created small, focused regional teams with diverse skills to address the entire life cycle of customer needs. We are packaging our solutions as “Komatsu” and are aligned to act in the best interest of the customer.

QUESTION: How are members of each regional team working together?

ANSWER: Internally, we are leveraging each other’s skill sets in more proactive ways to add value to our individual knowledge base as well as to our customer interactions. In the past, our collaboration had a tendency to be more reactive.

Now, we’re meeting and talking on a consistent basis about what’s happening within our region. Individuals and groups can bounce ideas off of each other; and we can discuss best practices in customer satisfaction as we share success stories and customer feedback.

Ultimately, it’s a great opportunity to better serve our markets and moves us toward our goal of creating one point of contact that our customer value chain can trust and rely on.

QUESTION: Last year was certainly different from many perspectives. How did events affect the construction markets and what do you see looking forward?

ANSWER: COVID-19 accelerated the acknowledgment and need for digital solutions in our industry. The pandemic provided a real-life example of the role technologies, such as online meetings and Smart Construction (the digital transformation of the job site), can play in keeping customers’ businesses and projects on track. Those customers who were hesitant or skeptical about adopting GPS systems, intelligent machines and Smart Construction, now see the value in investing in those solutions.

Many are also utilizing our fleet management site, My Komatsu, more often. It enables them to remotely track production, idle time, fuel usage and other data with a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer. It allows them to reference manuals for their fleet, find the needed parts and purchase them quickly and easily. Again, it’s actionable information they get without the need to be present at the job site. The complimentary service can save time and improve practices.

This is one of a series of articles based on interviews with key people at Komatsu discussing the company’s commitment to its customers in the construction and mining industries – and their visions for the future.

Tracey Drechsel’s career with Komatsu began right out of college. The 1998 Austin Peay State University graduate started with Komatsu Financial and held various roles in operations, sales and marketing. She spent six years as the Finance Sales Manager, working at Komatsu’s Newberry, S.C., plant before returning to the Chicago area. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree from North Central College.

“As a kid, I never thought construction equipment would be my life. I wanted to be a marine biologist and swim with dolphins,” shared Drechsel. “The gig with Flipper didn’t work out, so here I am helping people dig holes and push dirt.

“The best part of the industry, and personally, the most rewarding, is the human interaction,” she added. “I get to meet people from different backgrounds and find ways to make a difference in their lives. I have been very fortunate to wake up every day for 22 years and enjoy who I work for and who I work with; and I don’t take that for granted.”

In 2017, Drechsel was promoted to Director/Sales Marketing for the North Region of Komatsu’s construction equipment division. In late 2020, she was named Business Director, East Region, which includes states from Michigan to Maine and down to Florida.

A two-sport athlete in college, basketball and softball, she enjoys staying active today. Drechsel likes to run, workout, boat, walk her dogs and travel. She also may be the only person in Chicago who cheers for both the Cubs and White Sox and dislikes deep-dish pizza.