Daktronics Services Overview: A Conversation with Sarah Rose

Justin and Matt recently sat down with Sarah Rose, Vice President of Global Services at Daktronics, for a conversation on The Daktronics Experience podcast. They discussed services at Daktronics and how the company serves a variety of customers types around the globe. Here are some of the main points from the conversation.

Matt: Sarah, your role here at Daktronics it the Vice President Global Services, correct?

Yes, that’s correct, I am responsible for all the services we deliver here in the US as well as around the world.

Justin: Can you talk us through how we have our different services set up here at Daktronics?

We have many ways that we help support our customers with their products. Some of our customers need us to help them when something isn’t working, others may need our help or when they want to try something different that they haven’t tried before. We consider those types of services our Technical Services. This is where we either help to restore something that was working and isn’t anymore or we add something into their systems. This includes things such as our technical help desk, our repair services, our on-site and our field services operation.

We also have our Professional Services, which really help to maximize the use of our customers systems. Customers might install a product and want it to do something specific in the first year, but in the second year they may want to do something new and different. So our Professional Services teams help in these situations and help our customers to really maximize the use of their equipment. We do this through our technology, through operation and workflow, by teaching customers how things work best in their control rooms and what the best way to align activities in the control room is to make optimal use of their staff and technology.

We also help our customers by constantly releasing and launching new products. We understand what our customers desire to do with their shows and their display technology, so we help to incorporate new software and other features that they may need in order to achieve the results that they are looking for. 

Matt: I’m slightly familiar with our Professional Services side because with college sports event productions there are times when customers hire us to help run their production.

Yes, exactly. So in this case we are not only helping as needed by providing field service or our Creative Services. Many of our customers also value having someone from Daktronics in their facility running their events for them. I think you have spoken to a few of our event producers on this podcast. Event production is a great service our customers really value to provide that piece of mind. Another benefit is that these event producers are also employees of Daktronics, so they are bringing the latest trends or technology and operation and in game features to those customers. 

Justin: Focusing on the two areas that you mentioned, Technical Services and Professional Services, how does that apply globally? Do we have different offerings for customer types or regions?

When we think about our customers, we serve transportation customers, to high school customers, to gas station and retail customers. Each one of them values something different from our services. It might be that there is a strong value for certain customers around our on-site services because they really would like to have the peace of mind from that perspective. Some of our customers value our parts services where they could take care of work in the field themselves, but when they need a part, they have the parts available. And our customers value a whole gamete. If we think about a large sports facility or some of our large displays in prominent areas, they value not only making sure the system works well, but also additional services that we add. Services like our creative work or technical operations work. So really based on that customer and what their desires are, we were able to tailor our services to help meet their needs here in the US and around the world. 

Justin: When it comes to our service team, it sounds like our customers don’t have just one service contact that might be handling everything for them. They have a team of resources that comes together to serve them. Is that right?

Yes, and I think it’s an interesting concept. We talked a little bit about all the services we offer and if I think about all those people and our teams here at Daktronics from engineering to product management to project management. Many of our employees here have been here over 10 years. We are lucky to have that. And because of that we have vast knowledge and a great teamwork environment. Our individuals who may go out into the field to do training or to help do a field service call, they are never alone. If they run into something that they are uncertain about, they have to option to reach out to other people on their Daktronics team to help and support them. 

Matt: We had a customer we were talking to previously on the podcast who said the same thing. They have one main point of contact, but they always know that if that person is not available, they have another person after that who could help, and that they are always covered with somebody that is willing to help them out. Is there anything else that you want our customers to know about how we handle their needs?

As we talk about the team environment. I was reflecting on my time here at Daktronics, which is over 20 years now, and I was thinking about what team means to me. Maybe this is a story for you. Probably 10-15 years ago, Reece Kurtenbach, the president and CEO of our company, and I were out on a customer site together. We were showing our customer some things and I couldn’t quite figure out something with the control system. I turned to Reece who was sitting next to me and he helped me to troubleshoot and understand how I could deliver what that customer was wanting from the control system.

I think that goes to the team environment. It isn’t only within our services team; it is throughout the company. If the CEO is willing to sit down next to you at the control system and actually knows how to operate it, it says a lot about the passion we have for our customers and for our products.

Matt: Sarah, thanks for joining us today and sharing a little bit about the services and your history here at Daktronics.

Check out the full conversation with Sarah here.