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If you call the TECSight helpline, chances are you will speak to Toby Pitt. Toby is our TECSight Support Manager and he’s all about keeping our customers moving.
Toby Pitt was born into agriculture. Growing up on a 5000 acres cattle and sheep farm near Tamworth, Toby completed a Bachelor of Business before working for Meat & Livestock Australia as a market information analyst.
While he has been involved in agriculture for as long as he can remember, moving to Wagga Wagga and working at Hutcheon & Pearce – first as a TECSight Solutions Specialist and as TECSight Support Manager since August 2021 – was his first major step into broadacre farming.
Now he loves it, using his knowledge of John Deere machinery to answer calls and support the other members of the Wagga-based call centre team.
“Our main goal at TECSight is to be a remote support tool for farmers. Our customers can always talk to someone who has access to all the John Deere resources remotely, so they're not relying on a technician coming out and telling them what's wrong, we can talk them through it over the phone.
“While I’m not on the phone as much as I used to be as a Solutions Specialist, when the call centre goes through a burst of activity – like during harvest – I'll always jump on the phones and keep talking to our customers. Now I’d say 30% of my day is on the phone with customers and the other 70% is working through strategy and making sure everything runs smoothly.”
For Toby, there are two components of the job that he loves – the speed of technology evolution and being able to support our customers.
“Coming from the livestock sphere, the biggest surprise to me is just how easy it is to record data and continue to improve your operations based on that data. The ability to monitor and track every little element is streets ahead of anything I realised was available.
“It’s pretty incredible being in an industry that is evolving so quickly. Just look at some of the new tools being developed in terms of remote monitoring and how machines communicate as we move towards automation. In order to keep up with that change, I like to think we’re on the leading edge helping carry the producers along on that ride. It’s something I think everyone in the industry should be very excited about.
“That said, the most satisfying part has to be the customer calls. Say they’ve got a full breakdown, and nothing is working on their end. Being able to talk them through that and find a solution from hundreds of kilometres away is very rewarding. I get a lot of satisfaction from those moments.
“Just as Hutcheon & Pearce is building its network with increased branches and increased customers, TECSight is building our network and connecting with those new customers. We’re seeing more and more customers coming on board, moving from ‘I don’t know if I need TECSight because we’ve always fixed our own machines’ to ‘this is a great service that will benefit our operation. That’s how we measure success, knowing that more and more people want to come on board and helping them.”
While technology like the Modular Telematics Gateway, which connects John Deere machines with Operation Center, has revolutionized remote support, Toby says building rapport with the customer is key to keeping our customers moving.
“A big part of our industry is building that trust relationship. Customers have got know you’ve got their best interests at heart, particularly for those first-time customers who aren’t really sure what a remote support team does and only have experience with power company and phone company call centres, which aren’t always super easy.
“It’s important that they know we’re not just some random voice on the end of phone. We’re in the industry with you. We live and breathe this stuff. We love it and we’re going to do as much as we can every single time you call. Nothing makes our day more than being able to say, ‘I helped 20 customers today and because of that they saved a huge amount of time and effort on their end.’
“And if ever a call gets interrupted – say a customer gets halfway through and has to go and get another tool for the job – we’ll get them back on the line with the Solutions Specialist they were originally talking to. That way, they know the problem and probably have the manuals already open, ready to solve it.”
If you have a remote support enquiry, remember you can call TECSight 7am-10pm 7 days on (02) 5924 5111.
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