Bell has responded to customer complaints by reversing an unpopular parts distribution policy that had limited sales to owners and authorized customer service facilities only.

Bell said that feedback received through Vertical’s 2018 Helicopter Manufacturers Survey influenced its decision to change its parts distribution policy.

Under a new policy that became effective July 2, the company is once again selling parts to Federal Aviation Administration-approved part 145 repair facilities and their international equivalents, giving Bell’s civil helicopter customers more options for maintaining their aircraft.

Bell’s previous restrictions on parts sales had been a significant concern for respondents in Vertical‘s 2018 Helicopter Manufacturers Survey, conducted earlier this year. For the first time in the annual survey, Bell saw its overall customer support ranking fall to second among the major helicopter original equipment manufacturers, behind Robinson Helicopter Company.

At the time, Bell told Vertical readers, “based on the survey feedback and other customer input, we are evaluating our policies to address areas of concern in parts distribution and better ways to provide customer service.”

Now, the company has moved swiftly to resolve this customer pain point, in what Javier “Jay” Ortiz — Bell’s senior vice president for The Americas, Commercial Business — described as a “first step” in a comprehensive effort to re-evaluate its customer support practices.

“We continue to take a look at our policies to make sure that what we put in place improves the level of service to our customers, while maintaining the high quality of service and support and safety that we expect from Bell,” he told Vertical.

Ortiz explained that this effort is part of a broader company reorganization that coincided with Bell’s rebranding earlier this year. What was previously a standalone Customer Support and Services unit now falls under a Commercial Business organization led by Susan Griffin, who previously served as Bell’s executive vice president of commercial programs and vice president of the Bell 525 program.

Ortiz, who most recently served as Bell’s managing director for Latin American Sales, now reports directly to Griffin, as does Patrick Moulay, who has been named senior vice president for the Commercial Business – International.

“Where there was the individual sales and marketing of aircraft, and the support element, [these] have been completely absorbed, so that now from a sales perspective, and a customer-facing perspective, we are one unit basically taking care of the aircraft from cradle to grave,” Ortiz said.

Going forward, customers can expect one primary point of contact for all of their Bell needs. Ortiz added, however, that the company is also putting systems in place to better communicate internally, so that, for example, “if a customer decides to address his issue with a customer support engineer, the person responsible for the account knows that a) the customer had an issue, and b) the customer support engineer resolved it. And if he hasn’t resolved it, he can follow up with the customer and the customer support engineer to help drive a resolution to that problem.”

Meanwhile, Ortiz said, Bell continues to gather information on other ways to improve customer support. “We’re still in the discovery phase,” he said. “There’s a recognition that because we were kind of stovepiped, we just don’t know what we don’t know and we’re going through the policies and procedures one step at the time. . .

“As we go through this process of taking a look at our policies and procedures, we continue to tweak those policies and procedures with our end customer in mind.”

Read the full article from Vertical Magazine here.