ROTWILD Insight: Markus Herr
How did you come to ROTWILD?
I have been in the bike industry since the mid-1990s. Through a former colleague from my time at another manufacturer, who was now in the field service at ROTWILD, I got the idea to apply. But it took a while until a suitable position was actually filled.
How many colleagues do you have in the office and how are the tasks distributed there?
We are currently three people in the office. In principle, everyone can work on all tasks that arise. When we are fully staffed, we divide up the work: We answer general e-mail inquiries, take care of the online store, handle the telephone service, process orders and maintain our customers' master data. These are roughly our main areas of work.
What does your day-to-day work in the office look like?
My daily work mainly involves the entire order processing for our specialist dealers, i.e. order entry, delivery date determination and adjustment, backorder processing and invoicing. In doing so, I am in constant exchange with our production and logistics.
The Corona crisis also has an impact on your processes at ROTWILD. To what extent has your everyday working life changed as a result?
At present, intensive contact and much coordination with our specialist dealers is even more important than usual. We are responding as best we can to the individual needs of our dealers. Opening and delivery times have now changed here and our delivery dates also have to be adjusted accordingly. We can currently deliver by and large as planned.
In this way, we want to ensure that end customers can ride their ordered ROTWILD bikes as quickly as possible, despite the difficult situation.
What are the biggest challenges in your job and how do you overcome them?
Meeting the increasing demand for our ROTWILD products is a complex task. The most frequently asked question, both from end customers and dealers, is: When will I get my ordered bike or bikes?
To manage these requests, we now have very good tools with which we match the dealer orders with our seasonal planning. This allows us to give comparatively reliable delivery dates. However, these are not static. We have to constantly react to factors such as delivery problems on the part of suppliers, production bottlenecks or the current Corona situation and inform customers accordingly. This requires a lot of concentrated hard work. Since we work in an open-plan office here at ROTWILD, I am often seen in such phases with my noise-canceling headphones, with which I can isolate myself perfectly from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day business.
What qualifications should you have as an office staff member at ROTWILD?
The requirements profile has already changed somewhat during my time at ROTWILD. In my early days in the bike industry, it was almost enough to bring along enthusiasm and understanding for the product and to be able to write an e-mail. In the meantime, an enterprise resource planning system is the everyday tool without which basically hardly anything works in the processes from order entry to shipping. The entire processes have become more professional.
It is therefore an advantage to be focused, able to work under pressure, customer-oriented, multilingual, a team player, structured, meticulous, process-oriented and IT-savvy. I'll be honest: I still have a lot of room for improvement in some of these areas.
Do you have any tips for someone who would like to work in the bike industry?
I can only recommend everyone to talk to the people who have a corresponding job at a bike brand. An internship is also certainly a good idea to get to know the daily work routine. In any case, one should not be under the illusion that a job in the bike industry means spending a lot of time with colleagues on the finest bikes and brilliant trails. That tends to be the exception, but then of course all the more enjoyable. Office days are sometimes long, but I for one really appreciate working with great colleagues in a team, dealing with customers I've known for what feels like half a lifetime, and selling bikes that inspire me myself.
About your personal bike preferences: Downhill or Uphill?
I would rather put myself in a larger pigeonhole: For me, cycling is always primarily about discovering and experiencing and I like to orient myself according to the local conditions. At the moment, I mainly ride landscape- and route-heavy tours in search of beautiful corners. The best thing about cycling: I get everywhere with the bike!
Fully or Hardtail?
For mountain biking necessarily Fully. For the landscape and route-heavy tours from the front door away on asphalt and gravel I still have what completely unsuspended in the fleet.
E-Bike or conventional?
Honestly. Both.
Your favorite bike from the ROTWILD collection?
I used to have the finest enduro trails right on my doorstep and almost only rode my R.X1. Meanwhile, I have to bring to the first worthwhile trails a good hour journey behind me. Since I prefer to drive my R.E+ to be there faster, save on uphill grains and take a few more trails.
How many kilometers do you sit in the saddle per year?
About 4,000 km, depending on the hours of sunshine.
Do you have a favorite area for biking?
For trail riding I am a big fan of Finale Ligure. There also fit the landscape, infrastructure, climate and food.