Fort Worth Master Product Support Rep Philip Hearrean shares his customer-first mantra while mentoring new employees
 

Philip Hearrean’s interest in working on equipment goes back to his youth. Even before he was old enough to drive, he spent his free time tinkering on trucks and cars.

“My brothers used to do a lot of street racing, and I helped them with their cars,” shared the Master Product Support Rep at Kirby-Smith’s Fort Worth branch. “I wanted to be an aircraft mechanic and went to school for that; but then I decided I wanted to work on tractors instead. I’ve always been impressed; and actually, really amazed by the big stuff.”

After starting his career as a truck mechanic, Philip realized that dream of working on the big stuff when he landed a job at international Harvester servicing farm equipment. From there, he progressed to construction machinery. Hearrean also spent several years working in the parts department of another heavy equipment manufacturer. Then, a decade ago and after three years of an initial job offer with Kirby-Smith – he joined the team; a decision he’s glad he made.

As a Master Product Support Rep, Hearrean does a “little bit of everything,” working with customers as well as the Kirby-Smith parts and service personnel. “I call on customers, try to keep the service and parts departments busy and train the parts people,” he said. “I love the freedom of being able to make my own schedule to get out there and help customers.”

Mastering his craft

Hearrean earned the Master portion of his title over the span of nearly 10 years by completing several Komatsu courses covering topics such as customer service, parts, sales and more. Now he’s focused on sharing his accumulated knowledge and experience as he mentors newer members of the Kirby-Smith product support team, especially on how to serve customers.

When asked to reveal his customer-service philosophy, Hearrean responded, “It's all about taking care of people. I'm always personally delivering parts; sometimes customers will call me at 2:00 a.m. However, if there’s an issue, I want to take care of it as quickly as possible.

“I love Kirby-Smith; the people are great here,” he continued. “I've known many of my co-workers for decades – this industry is a small family. You stay in it long enough, you'll meet a lot of people over and over again and become friends with many of them.”

Unique pastime

Away from the job, Philip enjoys spending time with his family, which includes three young granddaughters. He is an avid Dallas Cowboys fan and makes riding his motorcycle a priority. Aside from those interests, he enjoys an unusual hobby – taking part in Civil War battle reenactments as a member of a cannon crew.

“It takes six people to man a gun, and I work the front of the cannon,” Hearrean shared. “We are historically accurate, using cannons from the Civil War era. The only difference is we don’t use cannon balls – we only have one and don’t want to chase it.”