What does Dominik Kunow actually do?

As a dispatcher, Dominik Kunow ensures that one of the 180 service vehicles in operation throughout Germany arrives at the customer's location in the shortest possible time, thus keeping downtime to a minimum. And the service operates around the clock, 365 days a year.

I’m the link between our customers and the service technicians of the Rapid Hydraulic Service. I take customer calls, enter the order and then check our digital planning board for an available technician. I check with the technician on the phone how long it will take for him to get to the customer and how much time the assignment is likely to take, and then call the customer back. If everything is OK, I authorise the job and it appears directly on our planning board. The technicians all have tablets in their vehicles and subsequently create a service report with photos, which is automatically emailed to the customer and to the dispatcher. The technician then appears as available again on the planning board. My tasks also include handling customer queries or complaints, and entering new customers into our system.

I’m responsible for the area of Hamburg, Hannover, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. At the moment I’m in charge of 19 Rapid Hydraulic Service technicians and vehicles.

No two days are the same, and that's what I like most about my job as a dispatcher. But there are routine tasks, of course. At the start of the day I use our digital planning board to get an overview of which technicians and vehicles have already been scheduled, and who is on holiday or on a training course. Then I check the working and driving times from the previous day. If technicians have to go out on a night-time call while on standby duty, I then have to take them out of the schedule for a certain period of time. And then the first calls and emails of the day usually start coming in. In between I do typical office jobs. As a dispatcher I never get bored.

I once sent a colleague to the dentist. Not because of toothache, but for a real service call. We were contacted by a dentist whose dental chair was no longer functioning correctly, but we were able to fix the problem in no time at all by simply replacing a small compressed air hose. 

The great thing about HANSA‑FLEX is that we form a real family and support each other without any fuss. I often pass on complex requests to colleagues in our Industrial Service: for example, if more than 30 hose lines need to be replaced. In addition, when it comes to finding the optimal solution for the customer, I can draw on a large network of experts within the company.

That's a very important task. Our service technicians operate very independently, but that also means that they spend a lot of time on their own. As I said, as a dispatcher I'm an important link and can always be contacted. My colleagues also need someone to talk to from time to time. It's not just about venting some frustration after a hard day on a construction site in the pouring rain, but also about sharing their experience when they’ve been successful. I am always especially pleased when I look at the photos in the service reports and see what my colleagues have achieved. Even if we don't often see very much of each other in person, I have a friendly relationship with many of the technicians. We also talk about things outside of work or meet up on vacation by the Baltic Sea. 

I worked for a long time as a media designer for a printing company, but at some point I realised that I was treading water and that my career was not developing. At a football club I then got to know Sascha Menzel, who works in the back office of the Rapid Hydraulic Service at HANSA‑FLEX. What he said about his job sounded really exciting, so I did a trial day in the scheduling department and immediately realised that this was the right field of work for me.

The most important thing is to be well organised, to arrange tasks by priority and not to lose sight of the big picture when things get hectic. Every day is different for us, so not everything can be planned down to the last detail. It’s precisely this variety that makes my work at HANSA‑FLEX so appealing. As a dispatcher you have to enjoy dealing with people, but you also need to apply some diplomacy when all the callers want to be dealt with immediately - especially when you simply don't have enough available vehicles to start with.

It is important to me to pass on our know-how to new colleagues, because it’s only as a team that we can be successful. When the previous instructor went on parental leave, I decided it was something I would enjoy doing. I think it's great that my employer supports me in my development, and in encouraging me to take on responsibility in other areas. This has included an intensive HANSA‑FLEX course to gain my professional instructor qualification, and since 2023 I have also been a member of the Chamber of Commerce examination board for office management assistants. 

A long walk with my dog often works wonders, and then there is the time I spend with my family, where every day is also guaranteed to be full of variety.