Marten, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Marten Schmidt. I spent 22 years at Stork, one of the largest independent service providers in the oil, gas, and chemical industries. During that time, I held various leadership roles in service and large projects, across Europe. I have a technical background, and service has always been a common thread throughout my career.

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What do you like about working in service?

What I like in the field of After Sales is the combination of customer relationship, technologies, and daily dynamics. No two days are the same, and that variety is exactly what I enjoy. You never quite know what your day will look like when you start in the morning. Ultimately, it is all about satisfied customers.

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You have been with Bollegraaf After Sales for four years. What has changed?

The biggest change is in the way we think. We are moving from reactive to proactive.
In the past, the focus was mainly on fixing issues. But with the growth of installations and increasing volumes in the waste industry, availability has become much more critical. That requires a different approach: thinking ahead, planning maintenance, minimizing downtime and making sure the expected quality is reached.
In the oil and gas industry, where I come from, this has been standard practice for years. You sometimes spend two years preparing for a two-week shutdown, involving hundreds of people in a small area. Everything must be right the first time. That is the mindset we are increasingly bringing to our customers: less firefighting, more planning and prevention.

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How do you change that mindset within your team?

It starts with awareness. By making customer feedback visible, you create a sense of urgency. Then you develop a clear, shared vision together, something everyone believes in. But in the end, it is all about execution. You need to adapt processes, set up the right systems, and ensure the right competencies are in place and continue to be developed. Ongoing investment in your team is key.
What stood out to me from the beginning is the strong service mindset within the team. It is really part of who they are. The next step is asking: what does the customer truly need? No customer wants to deal with daily firefighting; they want us to help prevent those situations. It is all about a happy customer. Over the years I also learned that service and maintenance will always be a “dissatisfier”. Customers would rather not need it. But when they do, it simply must be done right.
“I’ve never had champagne after fixing a breakdown,” Marten says with a smile. “But if the customer is satisfied, then so are we.”

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How do you incorporate customer feedback into product development?

We actively listen to our customers, both through direct conversations and structured feedback such as NPS surveys. Our field service engineers also play an important role in this. They are the eyes and ears of the company and know our products the best. We also register all the findings in our system so we can do analyses on failures. That combined is the input we give to our developers to close the improvement loop.

What trends do you see in the market?

Scale and complexity are increasing. Installations are becoming larger and more technical, with more software and automation. At the same time, expectations are rising. It is not only about repairing but also supporting the customer to continuously maximise uptime and throughput at controlled quality.
Customers want to focus on their core business and are looking for a partner who can take full responsibility for maintenance. That requires strong partnerships and a well-organized service network.
Technology also plays a major role. Remote service enables us to respond faster and work more efficiently; a win-win for both us and the customer.

Can you share a recent challenge?

After a fire at a customer site in Belgium, part of the installation was destroyed. Within two weeks, we had it back up and running.
I am proud of that. It is only possible when you truly feel the urgency and understand the impact on the customer. In service, there is no nine-to-five mentality. You have to be there when it matters.

What are the key challenges for the coming years?

Technical talent remains a major challenge. We need to continue investing in training and development. At the same time, smarter use of data is becoming increasingly important. We are already taking the first steps toward predictive maintenance, using data to better predict and plan.
Speed and availability will also remain critical, think of smart spare parts strategies and fast delivery.
Finally, the input of installations is changing, for example due to different waste streams. This creates a growing need for consulting services, where technologies like AI will play an increasingly important role.

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Why do customers choose Bollegraaf?

Because ultimately, it is about uptime and reliability. We combine in-depth knowledge of our installations with a proactive maintenance strategy and fast response when needed. We think along with our customers, prevent issues where possible, and resolve them quickly when they occur.
We offer the complete package: from prevention to rapid resolution. That is what makes us a partner that truly adds value.

What does After Sales mean to you?

After Sales is where it really begins for the customer. It’s about long-term collaboration, customer focus, and continuously delivering value.