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Faces of Interface Featuring Kasilyn Halawith

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Kasilyn (Kasi) Halawith is Interface’s repair service manager, which handles our product calibration and repair services. In our feature of Faces of Interface, we learned that Kasi is a jack of all trades and has excelled across a variety of industries before finding a home at Interface. To begin, Kasi is a rare Arizona native who grew up in Moon Valley, a small town in North Phoenix. She was raised here and continues to raise her two daughters in the Valley.

Kasi’s career can be summed up by saying there really isn’t anything she can’t do. Throughout her life she has held positions in the automotive industry, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and more. The one thing that has remained consistent is that she has always excelled in customer facing roles because she understands how to work with people to get them exactly what they need.

Some of Kasi’s professional experience includes 11 years at Midway Chevrolet, where she worked as the body shop coordinator. Seven years at Sapphire Catering, where she was head server and led efforts to cater to MLB Spring Training attendees. This job was actually nearly a year-round gig because of how much time professional baseball players spend in sunny Arizona in the offseason. Additionally, Kasi also spent time as the office manager at Roadrunner Pharmacy.

These experiences taught Kasi the value of patience in customer relationships, as well as the need to always keep communication open to ensure customer needs are always met. It also taught her to be proactive whenever possible to create the best environment possible for customers. She is a strong advocate in creating positive customer experiences.

About three years ago, Kasi was ready to take on the next challenge in her career and learned about Interface through a friend. Interface needed someone to assist our Repair Service Manager at the time and Kasi was the perfect fit for the role.

Kasi quickly moved into the manager role and has excelled at serving Interface repair customers. Her role today involves responding to dozens of important customer emails every morning, processing new orders, return material authorizations, and preparing quotes for customers. She is also in constant communication with customers nationally and our global network to help answer questions and keep customers updated on orders.

She really enjoys the role because she gets to work with a very diverse group of individuals and projects. She’s also very close with her team and the greater Interface staff mentioning that it is a great environment to work. Her team consists of 12 people, a mix of technicians and administrators who facilitate all repair service requests.

When Kasi isn’t being a rockstar repair service manager, her time is devoted to her family. As mentioned, Kasi has two daughters, one of which is at GCU pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Studies. Her other daughter is 18 years old and special needs, Kasi is a devoted advocate of hers. One of Kasi’s favorite hobbies is helping out with her girls after school programs. This includes a lot of crafting, developing t-shirts and mugs for spirit line as president of the Booster Club. Finally, Kasi has three adorable chihuahuas.

Kasi is an integral member of our team, and we are excited to share her story. If you are interested in learning more about our incredible team members at Interface, tune into our IQ Blog every month for a new Faces of Interface ForceLeaders feature.

Interface Customer Satisfaction Survey Results for October 2020

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Two times a year, Interface conducts our formal Interface Customer Satisfaction Survey. The survey is sent to valued customers and partners to listen and learn. The results allows us to prioritize feedback on how we can continuously improve.

It is paramount to Interface that as we engineer and build the world’s leading force measurement solutions, we earn our customer’s confidence by providing high quality products and an exceptional customer experience. To sustain that focus, we have committed to engaging with and learning from all those that depend on us.

Our Fall 2020 Interface Customer Satisfaction Survey concluded in October. It consisted of four questions to gather customer insights, and one question to measure our execution by a Net Promoter® Score (NPS).

The NPS rating is drawn from responses to the question, “How likely is it that you would recommend Interface to a friend or colleague?” Fred Reichheld, the creator of NPS, developed this methodology that uses a single question to drive customer-centric focus within organizations. According to global benchmark data, using NPS data and compiled by SurveyMonkey from more than 150,000 organizations, the average score is +32.

Interface’s NPS score in the Fall 2020 Customer Satisfaction Survey is +62, qualifying us as a top performing company based on the survey responses. Though this gives us great confidence, it does mean we have room to improve. Our average score from this recent survey is 8.9, with most respondents indicating they are extremely likely to recommend Interface products and services to a friend or colleague.

We also asked, “How are we doing?” Of those that participated in the survey, 90% said excellent or better than average. We were also able to gather ideas and suggestions on areas where we can exceed expectations.

It was important for us to learn what types of value-added services are important to our customers. We asked, “What types of extended services can interface offer to improve your experience?” Expedited calibration services and technical product information ranked first and second in all responses, followed by live and real-time technical support services. As is expected with the growing use of the internet, online ordering, product availability and shipment tracking were top requests.  This customer intelligence helps Interface prioritize current and future service offerings.

Living in our new normal, we also wanted to know, “Have you changed your testing, design, or development plans for 2020-2021 due to the pandemic?” We learned that only 15% said it had changed their plans.

All feedback is important to us. Thank you to all those that shared their experience and provided valuable feedback. If you would like to share information with us about your buying experience, you can always contact us directly at 480-948-5555, or through our website at https://www.interfaceforce.com.

Engaging Interface Calibration and Repair Services Expertise

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A high-quality load cell is a critical piece of technology for the design and testing of products throughout various, highly regulated industries including medical, aerospace and defense, automotive, and industrial automation. To get the most out of a load cell, just like anything else, you need to understand how to care for and maintain it. A poorly maintained load cell can lead to inaccurate data and poor performance.

Interface Calibration and Repair Services provide a valuable function for our customers in recalibration and technical support for the thousands of products manufactured by the leader in force measurement.  When cared for properly, a load cell should to be calibrated once a year or at least every two years under regular use. There are also certain circumstances where a load cell is damaged in use and needs immediate repair. Interface can handle calibration and repair of any load cell on the market, whether we build it or not.

A key differentiator for Interface is the fact that our calibration lab is ISO 17025 and A2LA accredited. These accreditations are typically for major calibration labs, not in a manufacturer’s facilities like ours. Our deep expertise in the development of load cells allows us to provide the highest quality calibration and repair services on the market because we know the product inside and out.

Interface’s Industry Leading Calibration and Repair Process

The Interface calibration team consists of 10 individuals dedicated to an optimized calibration and repair process that gets our customer’s load cells in and out as quickly as possible. The process begins with the front-end team, who manages the customer’s request, goes through the RMA process, and troubleshoots any additional concerns with the customer.

Once we review the product in-house at our Arizona headquarters, the load cell goes through a thorough inspection process to identify any necessary repairs and to ensure the load cell is in working condition for calibration. This includes an electrical test to evaluate if the load cell is in proper condition to calibrate. It’s also important to note that if the load cell can’t be repaired, there is no charge to the customer, and we work to find a replacement unit. The customer also approves any repairs that are necessary before work begins.

The final step in the process is the actual calibration. Our calibration team has many years of experience and know load cells inside and out. We also work with the most advanced equipment, including our proprietary Gold Standard® and Platinum Standard® systems. These devices ensure that the load cells are calibrated to the most accurate capability possible before returning to the customer. More information about Interface Calibration Systems can be found in our Calibration Systems 101 blog here.

Our commitment to building quality calibration systems is evident by the customers who also use them to do calibration in-house. In fact, in nearly every major manufacturing testing lab, you will find an Interface Gold Standard Calibration System and Gold or Platinum Standard Load Cells. This is because our customers are working on some of the most advanced hardware in their respective industries and fields. Engineers and testing labs trust Interface for accuracy, performance and quality.

Interface customers not only need to ensure their measurements are as accurate as possible to avoid product failure, they also need to prove the accuracy of their testing equipment for those products to pass inspection and make it to the market. We provide both our expert calibration services in our calibration lab, or through high-quality, high-reliability systems available that we build for our customers.

Interface Calibration and Repair Services

  • 50+ Years of Calibration Experience
  • Calibration of All Manufacturers Load Cells
  • 100,000+ Calibrations Performed Annually
  • Custom Calibrations
  • IPerform Service Software for RMA, Tracking and Permanent Archive of Test Data
  • NMI Certified Gold and Platinum Standard Reference Load Cells
  • Interface Gold Standard Calibration Software Used for Data Collection and Analysis
  • Full-Service Machine Shop for Mechanical Requirements

Force Capabilities:

  • NIST/NMI Traceable Calibration
  • 2 gf – 1 Million lbf Calibration Capability
  • (9) Hydraulic & (5) Deadweight Test Stands to Support Your Calibration Requirements

Torque Capabilities:

  • 0.022 – 100K in-lbf Capacities
  • NIST Traceable to 2.2K in-lbf
  • NMI Traceable 2.2K – 100K in-lbf

Interface calibration and repair services are designed with the customer in mind. Our process is fast, reliable and will ensure premium accuracy for our customer’s most complex and high-quality data-dependent design and test projects. Our team of experts work with every customer to ensure personalized world-class service.  It starts with engagement, how can we help?

For more information on Interface calibration and repair services, please visit /calibration-repair/.

Click here to schedule a service today.

Contributor:  Chris Brandenburg, Technical Services Manager at Interface

Faces of Interface Featuring Chris Brandenburg

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Interface Technical Services Manager Chris Brandenburg has not followed the traditional path into the manufacturing and engineering world. Growing up and finishing high school in Illinois, Chris worked a job in retail for a number of years. Looking for a way out of retail, Chris engaged with a family friend who worked for manufacturer that built hydraulic lifts called, Advanced Lifts. Chris was offered a job at Advanced Lifts and spent a few years helping to build these products.

This was Chris’s first foray into the manufacturing world, and while he enjoyed the industry, he quickly realized that he had a greater passion for working with people rather than actually building the machines. This is when he began to explore a career in front-end customer service.

Advanced Lifts offered him a job in a customer support role where he would be helping people troubleshoot their hydraulic lifts. With his years of experience building the product he was able to handle the technical aspect of the job, while the customer support aspect came naturally.

After nine years with Advanced Lifts and more than enough harsh Illinois winters, Chris realized it was time for a change. In 2011, he moved to Arizona on whim and got a job at Shutterfly working in customer service. Over his seven years with Shutterfly, he quickly moved up the ranks and became a customer service supervisor managing a team of more than 30 people.

Chris valued his time at Shutterfly because it helped him learn how to work with and help people of all different backgrounds. During the company’s incredibly busy holiday season, it was Chris’s job to hire more than 150 people for various roles within the company. He says that he became adept at understanding people and figuring out where they would excel in certain customer service positions.

In 2018, Chris embarked on a new journey in an industry he had little experience in at the time, force measurement. Chris was intrigued by the opportunity to join Interface because he would have the opportunity to build a customer service department from the ground up. Prior to Chris joining, Interface employees from various departments shared the role of customer service without an official department.

Chris has since helped to build a high-functioning and compassionate team of customer service professionals dedicated solely to improving the Interface customer experience. He’s also done this while balancing a few different roles simultaneously with customer services duties. He worked for a time as an application engineer, and currently leads customer service for the calibration services department. He is often praised by his colleagues as a a go-to resource to get it done. He is valued for his teamwork and willingness to do whatever it takes.

Chris says that it has been an honor to take on such a critical role in expanding Interface’s customer service function and enjoys the responsibility in helping the company continue to grow and improve every day. However, his favorite thing about working at Interface, as other have also mentioned in this series, is working with the talented people at Interface. Not only are they a kind and hardworking team, so many individuals here have been with the company for a long time and have a wealth of knowledge to share. The ability to leverage this source of insight makes his job working through customer service challenges much easier. It has also helped him develop an expertise in an industry that just two years ago he knew little about and know is an incredible resource to help others.

When Chris isn’t tackling customer service requests, he can be found at home with his fiancé and stepdaughter watching movies or catching an NFL game. Chris is a self-described nerd who loves Marvel and Star Wars movies. His football allegiances lie in his home state of Illinois with the Bears, as well as appreciating the work of the greatest dynasty in NFL history, the New England Patriots.

Authors note: the point on the New England Patriots can be debated, but as a Pats fan myself I stand by it. And Chris did describe himself as a Patriots fan – the author did not fabricate this point!